Evaluation of Nurse Navigator Support for Patients During Telehealth Neurosurgery Clinics.

Telehealth clinics have been used in many specialities, including neurosurgery, to improve access for patients in rural communities. The introduction of nurse navigators involved with the patient before, during and after the clinic was evaluated. Clinics were held in a rural hospital with a nurse navigator present in the clinic with the patient, and the physician consulting remotely.

Telemedicine visits requiring follow-up in-person visits at an urban academic family medicine centre.

Background: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine was rapidly implemented in care settings globally. To understand what factors affect the successful completion of telemedicine visits in our urban, academic family medicine clinic setting, we analysed telemedicine visits carried out during the pandemic.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of telemedicine visits from 2 clinical units within a family medicine centre.

Screening for prostate cancer: protocol for updating multiple systematic reviews to inform a Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care guideline update.

Purpose: To inform updated recommendations by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care on screening for prostate cancer in adults aged 18 years and older in primary care. This protocol outlines the planned scope and methods for a series of systematic reviews.

Methods: Updates of two systematic reviews and a de novo review will be conducted to synthesize the evidence on the benefits and harms of screening for prostate cancer with a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and/or digital rectal examination (DRE) (with or without additional information) and patient values and preferences.

Treatment of complex regional pain syndrome: an updated systematic review and narrative synthesis.

Purpose: Although multiple treatments have been advocated for complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), the levels of supportive evidence are variable and sometimes limited. The purpose of this updated review is to provide a critical analysis of the evidence pertaining to the treatment of CRPS derived from recent randomized-controlled trials (RCTs).

Source: The MEDLINE, EMBASE, Psychinfo, and CINAHL databases were searched to identify relevant RCTs conducted on human subjects and published in English between 1 May 2009 and 24 August 2017.

Properties of atoms in electronically excited molecules within the formalism of TDDFT.

The topological analysis of the electron density for electronic excited states under the formalism of the quantum theory of atoms in molecules using time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is presented. Relaxed electron densities for electronic excited states are computed by solving a Z-vector equation which is obtained by means of the Sternheimer interchange method. This is in contrast to previous work in which the electron density for excited states is obtained using DFT instead of TDDFT, that is, through the imposition of molecular occupancies in accordance with the electron configuration of the excited state under consideration.

Heart rate variability and procedural outcome in catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation.

Introduction: In patients with normal hearts, increased vagal tone is associated with onset of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). Vagal denervation of the atria renders AF less inducible. Circumferential pulmonary vein isolation (CPVI) is effective for treating paroxysmal and persistent AF, and has been shown to impact heart rate variability (HRV) indices, in turn, reflecting vagal denervation.

Establishment of motor neuron-V3 interneuron progenitor domain boundary in ventral spinal cord requires Groucho-mediated transcriptional corepression.

Background: Dorsoventral patterning of the developing spinal cord is important for the correct generation of spinal neuronal types. This process relies in part on cross-repressive interactions between specific transcription factors whose expression is regulated by Sonic hedgehog. Groucho/transducin-like Enhancer of split (TLE) proteins are transcriptional corepressors suggested to be recruited by at least certain Sonic hedgehog-controlled transcription factors to mediate the formation of spatially distinct progenitor domains within the ventral spinal cord.

Subshell fitting of relativistic atomic core electron densities for use in QTAIM analyses of ECP-based wave functions.

Scalar-relativistic, all-electron density functional theory (DFT) calculations were done for free, neutral atoms of all elements of the periodic table using the universal Gaussian basis set. Each core, closed-subshell contribution to a total atomic electron density distribution was separately fitted to a spherical electron density function: a linear combination of s-type Gaussian functions. The resulting core subshell electron densities are useful for systematically and compactly approximating total core electron densities of atoms in molecules, for any atomic core defined in terms of closed subshells.

Perisynaptic glia discriminate patterns of motor nerve activity and influence plasticity at the neuromuscular junction.

In the nervous system, the induction of plasticity is coded by patterns of synaptic activity. Glial cells are now recognized as dynamic partners in a wide variety of brain functions, including the induction and modulation of various forms of synaptic plasticity. However, it appears that glial cells are usually activated by stereotyped, sustained neuronal activity, and little attention has been given to more subtle changes in the patterns of synaptic activation.

Obstructive sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia. The clinical impact of AF results primarily from its association with stroke, heart failure, and increased overall mortality. Recently there has been increasing evidence of an important association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and AF.

ECG for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism when conventional imaging cannot be utilized: a case report and review of the literature.

The diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism has always been challenging. However, it has recently been greatly assisted through advances in radiological imaging. While imaging techniques are widely available, they cannot always be utilized.

Atomic partitioning of the dissociation energy of the P-O(H) bond in hydrogen phosphate anion (HPO4(2-)): disentangling the effect of Mg2+.

This paper has three goals: (1) to provide a first step in understanding the atomic basis of the role of magnesium in facilitating the dissociation of the P-O bond in phosphorylated biochemical fuel molecules (such as ATP or GTP), (2) to compare second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) results with those obtained at the more economical density functional theory (DFT) level for a future study of larger more realistic models of ATP/GTP, and (3) to examine the calculation of atomic total energies from atomic kinetic energies within a Kohn-Sham implemention of DFT, as compared to ab initio methods. A newly described method based on the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM), which is termed the "atomic partitioning of the bond dissociation energy" (APBDE), is applied to a simple model of phosphorylated biological molecules (HPO42-). The APBDE approach is applied in the presence and in the absence of magnesium.

Neurotrophins modulate neuron-glia interactions at a vertebrate synapse.

Neurotrophins are important modulators of synaptic function at both developing and mature synapses in the CNS and PNS. At the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), neurotrophins, as well as perisynaptic Schwann cells (PSCs) are critical for the long-term maintenance and stability of the synapse. Considering this correlation and the acute interactions that occur at the synapse between PSCs and the nerve terminal, we wondered if neurotrophins could also be involved in neuron-glia signalling.

Neuron-glia interactions at the neuromuscular synapse.

The contribution of glial cells in the regulation of the transfer of information in CNS and PNS is now increasingly recognized. Perisynaptic Schwann cells (PSCs), glial cells at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), have proven to be an exceptionally important model for studying these roles. PSCs surround nerve terminals at the NMJ and are activated by transmitter release in a frequency-dependent manner.

Purinergic modulation of synaptic signalling at the neuromuscular junction.

Purines have physiologically important functions throughout the nervous system. In both the central (CNS) and peripheral nervous systems (PNS), purines in the form of adenosine triphosphate and adenosine can play a number of roles in neuronal activation and inhibition. In addition, purines are known to be important for glial cell signaling in both the CNS and PNS.

Glial cells in synaptic plasticity.

Plasticity of synaptic transmission is believed to be the cellular basis for learning and memory, and depends upon different pre- and post-synaptic neuronal mechanisms. Recently, however, an increasing number of studies have implicated a third element in plasticity; the perisynaptic glial cell. Originally glial cells were thought to be important for metabolic maintenance and support of the nervous system.

NMR chemical shifts. Substituted acetylenes.

The MPW1PW91/6-311+G(2d,p) and MP2/6-311+G(2d,p) GIAO nuclear shieldings for a series of monosubstituted acetylenes have been calculated using the MP2/6-311G(2d,p) geometries. Axially symmetric substituents such as fluorine may lead to large changes in the isotropic shielding but have little effect on the tensor component (zz) about the C[triple bond]C bond axis. On the other hand, substituents such as vinyl and aldehyde groups lead to essentially no difference in the isotropic shielding but are calculated to give a large zz paramagnetic shift to the terminal carbon of the acetylene group, without having much effect on the inner carbon.

Activation of ionotropic glutamate receptors on peripheral axons of primary motoneurons mediates transmitter release at the zebrafish NMJ.

The development and function of the vertebrate neuromuscular junction (NMJ) is continually being redefined. Previous studies have indicated that glutamate may play a role in the development or function of the NMJ by associating with presynaptic receptors. We have used larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) to investigate the presence of presynaptic ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs) at the NMJ in vivo.