Decreasing Opioid Addiction and Diversion Using Behavioral Economics Applied Through a Digital Engagement Solution: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Despite strong and growing interest in ending the ongoing opioid health crisis, there has been limited success in reducing the prevalence of opioid addiction and the number of deaths associated with opioid overdoses. Further, 1 explanation for this is that existing interventions target those who are opiate-dependent but do not prevent opioid-naïve patients from becoming addicted.

Objective: Leveraging behavioral economics at the patient level could help patients successfully use, discontinue, and dispose of their opioid medications in an acute pain setting.

Machine Learning Prediction of Objective Hearing Loss With Demographics, Clinical Factors, and Subjective Hearing Status.

Objective: Hearing loss (HL) is highly prevalent, yet underrecognized and underdiagnosed. Lack of standardized screening, awareness, cost, and access to hearing testing present barriers to HL identification. To facilitate prescreening and selection of patients who warrant audiometric evaluation, we developed a machine learning (ML) model to predict speech-frequency pure-tone average (PTA).

Corticosterone Is Essential for Survival Through Frog Metamorphosis.

Thyroid hormone (TH) is required for frog metamorphosis, and corticosterone (CORT) increases TH signaling to accelerate metamorphic progression. However, a requirement for CORT in metamorphosis has been difficult to assess prior to the recent development of gene-editing technologies. We addressed this long-standing question using transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN) gene disruption to knock out proopiomelanocortin (pomc) and disrupt CORT production in Xenopus tropicalis.

Simultaneous Fluorescein Angiography and Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Correlate Retinal Thickness Changes to Vascular Abnormalities in an In Vivo Mouse Model of Retinopathy of Prematurity.

Background: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a condition of abnormal retinal vascular development (RVD) in premature infants. Fluorescein angiography (FA) has depicted phases (early, mid, late, and mature) of RVD in oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) mice. We sought to establish the relationship between retinal structural and vascular changes using simultaneous FA and spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT).