Prevalence, Demographic, and Clinical Factors Associated With Cognitive Dysfunction in Patients With Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorder.

Background And Objectives: Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is a chronic CNS demyelinating autoimmune disorder targeting the astrocyte antigen aquaporin-4 (AQP4), typically presenting with optic neuritis, transverse myelitis, and brain syndromes. Cognitive dysfunction (CD) in NMOSD is under-recognized and poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and clinical variables associated with CD in NMOSD.

Bringing Micro to the Macro: How Citizen Science Data Enrich Geospatial Visualizations to Advance Health Equity.

Social and spatial contexts affect health, and understanding nuances of context is key to informing successful interventions for health equity. Layering mixed methods and mixed scale data sources to visualize patterns of health outcomes facilitates analysis of both broad trends and person-level experiences across time and space. We used micro-scale citizen scientist-collected data from four Bay Area communities along with aggregate epidemiologic and population-level data sets to illustrate barriers to, and facilitators of, physical activity in low-income aging adults.

Cardiovascular Diseases, Medications, and ALS: A Population-Based Case-Control Study.

Introduction: We investigated the associations between antecedent all-cause CVD diagnoses, cause-specific CVD diagnosis, and CVD medication prescriptions with the risk of developing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Materials And Methods: We conducted a population-based case-control study of U.S.

Utilizing the AIM Curriculum to Improve Job Performance in an Educational Setting for Children With Autism and Related Disabilities.

The current study evaluated the effect of brief, daily present moment awareness activities on the work performance of paraprofessionals working at a school for children with disabilities. A nonconcurrent multiple-baseline design across three participants evaluated changes in staff-initiated interactions with students and staff's accuracy of data collection on student behavior. Relative to baseline, participants demonstrated an average increase in staff-initiated interactions and an increase in the average percentage accuracy of data collection.

Using Relational Training to Improve Performance During Acceptance and Commitment Training Sessions.

The current study investigated the effect of relational training on improving engagement during acceptance and commitment training (ACT) sessions that aimed to reduce maladaptive behavior. Three female children diagnosed with autism participated in the current research. The relational training protocol involved eight programs designed to improve participants' ability to engage in relational responding.

The timed 25-foot walk in a large cohort of multiple sclerosis patients.

Background: The timed 25-foot walk (T25FW) is a key clinical outcome measure in multiple sclerosis patient management and clinical research.

Objectives: To evaluate T25FW performance and factors associated with its change in the Multiple Sclerosis Outcome Assessments Consortium (MSOAC) Placebo Database ( = 2465).

Methods: We created confirmed disability progression (CDP) variables for T25FW and Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) outcomes.

Association Between Income Inequality and County-Level COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in the US.

Importance: Socioeconomically marginalized communities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Income inequality may be a risk factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection and death from COVID-19.

Objective: To evaluate the association between county-level income inequality and COVID-19 cases and deaths from March 2020 through February 2021 in bimonthly time epochs.

Randomized, controlled, double-blinded field trial to assess Leishmania vaccine effectiveness as immunotherapy for canine leishmaniosis.

Better tools are necessary to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Modeling studies for regional Leishmania elimination indicate that an effective vaccine is a critical tool. Dogs are the reservoir host of L.

Impact of Iowa's Prescription Monitoring Program on Opioid Pain Reliever Prescribing Patterns: An Interrupted Time Series Study 2003-2014.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of Iowa's prescription monitoring program (PMP), implemented in 2009, on opioid pain reliever (OPR) prescribing patterns.

Methods: We conducted interrupted time series analyses using 2003-2014 health insurance claims from a private health insurer in Iowa. OPR prescriptions for all beneficiaries were included.

Approximate Bayesian computation for spatial SEIR(S) epidemic models.

Approximate Bayesia n Computation (ABC) provides an attractive approach to estimation in complex Bayesian inferential problems for which evaluation of the kernel of the posterior distribution is impossible or computationally expensive. These highly parallelizable techniques have been successfully applied to many fields, particularly in cases where more traditional approaches such as Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) are impractical. In this work, we demonstrate the application of approximate Bayesian inference to spatially heterogeneous Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Removed (SEIR) stochastic epidemic models.

Spirituality and well-being: the relationship between religious coping and recovery from sexual assault.

Despite a growing body of literature documenting beneficial outcomes of religious coping, there are virtually no studies examining sexual assault survivors' use of religious coping. To fill this gap in the literature, the current study examines predictors and outcomes of positive and negative religious coping among 100 sexual assault survivors who believed in God. Results suggested that African American survivors were more likely to use both forms of religious coping than survivors from other ethnicities.