Temporal control of Staphylococcus aureus intracellular pH by sodium and potassium.

Adaptation to environmental change during both colonization and infection is essential to the pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus. Like other bacterial pathogens that require potassium to fulfill nutritional and chemiosmotic requirements, S. aureus has been shown to utilize potassium transport to modulate virulence gene expression, antimicrobial resistance, and osmotic tolerance.

O NMR Spectroscopy Reveals CO Speciation and Dynamics in Hydroxide-based Carbon Capture Materials.

Carbon dioxide capture technologies are set to play a vital role in mitigating the current climate crisis. Solid-state O NMR spectroscopy can provide key mechanistic insights that are crucial to effective sorbent development. In this work, we present the fundamental aspects and complexities for the study of hydroxide-based CO capture systems by O NMR.

Cerebellar activity in PINK1 knockout rats during volitional gait.

Preclinical models of Parkinson's disease are imperative to gain insight into the neural circuits that contribute to gait dysfunction in advanced stages of the disease. A PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 knockout early-onset model of Parkinson's disease may be a useful rodent model to study the effects of neurotransmitter degeneration caused by a loss of PTEN-induced putative kinase 1 function on brain activity during volitional gait. The goal of this study was to measure changes in neural activity at the cerebellar vermis at 8 months of age.

Cerebellar activity in hemi-parkinsonian rats during volitional gait and freezing.

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by gait dysfunction in the advanced stages of the disease. The unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine toxin-induced model is the most studied animal model of Parkinson's disease, which reproduces gait dysfunction after >68% dopamine loss in the substantia nigra pars compacta. The extent to which the neural activity in hemi-parkinsonian rats correlates to gait dysfunction and dopaminergic cell loss is not clear.

Patient Selection for Deep Brain Stimulation for Pantothenate Kinase-Associated Neurodegeneration.

Clinical Vignette: A 23-year-old woman with pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) presented with medication-refractory generalized dystonia and an associated gait impairment.

Clinical Dilemma: Bilateral globus pallidus internus (GPi) deep brain stimulation (DBS) can be an effective treatment for dystonia. However, outcomes for PKAN DBS have been variable and there are no standardized criteria for patient selection.

Neuronal tissue collection from intra-cranial instruments used in deep brain stimulation surgery for Parkinson's disease with implications for study of alpha-synuclein.

Alpha-synuclein (αSyn) forms pathologic aggregates in Parkinson's disease (PD) and is implicated in mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration. While pathologic αSyn has been extensively studied, there is currently no method to evaluate αSyn within the brains of living patients. Patients with PD are often treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery in which surgical instruments are in direct contact with neuronal tissue; herein, we describe a method by which tissue is collected from DBS surgical instruments in PD and essential tremor (ET) patients and demonstrate that αSyn is detected.

Comparative study of metal-organic frameworks synthesized imide condensation and coordination assembly.

A series of metal-organic frameworks (1-XDI) have been synthesized by imide condensation reactions between an amine-functionalized pentanuclear zinc cluster, ZnCl(bt-NH), (bt-NH = 5-aminobenzotriazolate), and organic dianhydrides (pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA), naphthalenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (NDA), 3,3',4,4'-biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride (BPDA) and 4,4'-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphthalic anhydride (HFIPA)). The properties of the 1-XDI MOFs have been compared with analogues (2-XDI) prepared using traditional coordination assembly. The resulting materials have been characterized by ATR-IR spectroscopy, acid-digested H NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, and gas adsorption measurements.

Analysis of alpha-synuclein harvested from intracranial instruments used in deep brain stimulation surgery for Parkinson's disease.

Alpha-synuclein (αSyn) forms pathologic aggregates in Parkinson's disease (PD) and is implicated in mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration. While pathologic αSyn has been extensively studied, there is currently no method to evaluate αSyn within the brains of living patients. Patients with PD are often treated with deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery in which surgical instruments are in direct contact with neuronal tissue; herein, we describe a method by which tissue is purified from DBS surgical instruments in PD and essential tremor (ET) patients and demonstrate that αSyn is robustly detected.

Preventing Shift from Pneumocephalus During Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery: Don't Give Up the 'Fork in the Brain'.

Clinical Vignette: We present the case of a patient who developed intra-operative pneumocephalus during left globus pallidus internus deep brain stimulation (DBS) placement for Parkinson's disease (PD). Microelectrode recording (MER) revealed that we were anterior and lateral to the intended target.

Clinical Dilemma: Clinically, we suspected brain shift from pneumocephalus.

Management of essential tremor deep brain stimulation-induced side effects.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an effective surgical therapy for carefully selected patients with medication refractory essential tremor (ET). The most popular anatomical targets for ET DBS are the ventral intermedius nucleus (VIM) of the thalamus, the caudal zona incerta (cZI) and the posterior subthalamic area (PSA). Despite extensive knowledge in DBS programming for tremor suppression, it is not uncommon to experience stimulation induced side effects related to DBS therapy.

Script-based implementation of automatic grid placement for lattice stereotactic body radiation therapy.

Background And Purpose: Spatially fractionated radiation therapy (SFRT) has demonstrated promising clinical response in treating large tumors with heterogeneous dose distributions. Lattice stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is an SFRT technique that leverages inverse optimization to precisely localize regions of high and lose dose within disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate an automated heuristic approach to sphere placement in lattice SBRT treatment planning.

Efficacy of therapeutically administered gepotidacin in a rabbit model of inhalational anthrax.

is a Gram-positive Centers for Disease Control and Prevention category "A" biothreat pathogen. Without early treatment, inhalation of anthrax spores with progression to inhalational anthrax disease is associated with high fatality rates. Gepotidacin is a novel first-in-class triazaacenaphthylene antibiotic that inhibits bacterial DNA replication by a distinct mechanism of action and is being evaluated for use against biothreat and conventional pathogens.

A quality assurance framework for routine monitoring of deep learning cardiac substructure computed tomography segmentation models in radiotherapy.

Background: For autosegmentation models, the data used to train the model (e.g., public datasets and/or vendor-collected data) and the data on which the model is deployed in the clinic are typically not the same, potentially impacting the performance of these models by a process called domain shift.

trial of simulation-free hippocampal-avoidance whole brain adaptive radiotherapy.

Background And Purpose: Hippocampal-avoidance whole brain radiotherapy (HA-WBRT) can be a time-consuming process compared to conventional whole brain techniques, thus potentially limiting widespread utilization. Therefore, we evaluated the clinical feasibility, via dose-volume metrics and timing, by leveraging a computed tomography (CT)-based commercial adaptive radiotherapy (ART) platform and workflow in order to create and deliver patient-specific, simulation-free HA-WBRT.

Materials And Methods: Ten patients previously treated for central nervous system cancers with cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) imaging were included in this study.

Identification and Management of Persistent Stimulation-Induced Dyskinesia Associated with STN DBS: The See-Saw Dilemma.

Clinical Vignette: A 73-year-old woman with Parkinson's disease (PD) underwent implantation of bilateral subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulators (STN-DBS) to address bilateral upper extremity medication-refractory tremor. Post-operatively, she experienced a "see-saw effect" where small increases in stimulation resulted in improvement in one symptom (tremor) with concurrent worsening in another (dyskinesia).

Clinical Dilemma: SID is usually considered a positive predictor of DBS outcome.

Ventriculo-inferior-venacaval shunt salvage via endovascular surgery.

Introduction: Hydrocephalus treatment can be very challenging. While some hydrocephalic patients can be treated endoscopically, many will require ventricular shunting. Frequent shunt issues over a lifetime is not uncommon.

Prospective In Silico Evaluation of Cone-Beam Computed Tomography-Guided StereoTactic Adaptive Radiation Therapy (CT-STAR) for the Ablative Treatment of Ultracentral Thoracic Disease.

Purpose: We conducted a prospective, in silico study to evaluate the feasibility of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-guided stereotactic adaptive radiation therapy (CT-STAR) for the treatment of ultracentral thoracic cancers (NCT04008537). We hypothesized that CT-STAR would reduce dose to organs at risk (OARs) compared with nonadaptive stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) while maintaining adequate tumor coverage.

Methods And Materials: Patients who were already receiving radiation therapy for ultracentral thoracic malignancies underwent 5 additional daily CBCTs on the ETHOS system as part of a prospective imaging study.

Gaussian-Distributed Spread-Spectrum for Covert Communications.

Covert communication techniques play a crucial role in military and commercial applications to maintain the privacy and security of wireless transmissions from prying eyes. These techniques ensure that adversaries cannot detect or exploit the existence of such transmissions. Covert communications, also known as low probability of detection (LPD) communication, are instrumental in preventing attacks such as eavesdropping, jamming, or interference that could compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of wireless communication.

Efficacy of Intravenously Administered Gepotidacin in Cynomolgus Macaques following a Francisella tularensis Inhalational Challenge.

Francisella tularensis (F. tularensis) is a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) category "A" Gram-negative biothreat pathogen. Inhalation of F.

Globus pallidus internus deep brain stimulation evokes resonant neural activity in Parkinson's disease.

Globus pallidus internus deep brain stimulation is an established therapy for patients with medication-refractory Parkinson's disease. Clinical outcomes are highly dependent on applying stimulation to precise locations in the brain. However, robust neurophysiological markers are needed to determine the optimal electrode location and to guide postoperative stimulation parameter selection.

Inverse CO /C H Separation with MFU-4 and Selectivity Reversal via Postsynthetic Ligand Exchange.

Although many porous materials, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), have been reported to selectively adsorb C H in C H /CO separation processes, CO -selective sorbents are much less common. Here, we report the remarkable performance of MFU-4 (Zn Cl (bbta) , bbta=benzo-1,2,4,5-bistriazolate) toward inverse CO /C H separation. The MOF facilitates kinetic separation of CO from C H , enabling the generation of high purity C H (>98 %) with good productivity in dynamic breakthrough experiments.