Adult Day Care in South Carolina: Identification of Need and Opportunity.

Objectives: To investigate pre- and post-pandemic demographic profiles of attendees at adult day care (ADC) facilities in the US South, and survey providers for their experience during the pandemic.

Design: Retrospective analysis and prospective interviews and survey.

Setting And Participants: We received administrative data for South Carolina Medicaid recipients in 2019 (pre-pandemic, n = 21,969) and 2022 (post-pandemic, n = 25,118), prospectively interviewed 6 facility owners and surveyed 62 of 82 ADC facilities in South Carolina (75.

Immunological and molecular features of the tumor microenvironment of long-term survivors of ovarian cancer.

BACKGROUNDDespite an overall poor prognosis, about 15% of patients with advanced-stage tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) survive 10 or more years after standard treatment.METHODSWe evaluated the tumor microenvironment of this exceptional, understudied group using a large international cohort enriched for long-term survivors (LTS; 10+ years; n = 374) compared with mid-term (MTS; 5-7.99 years; n = 433) and short-term survivors (STS; 2-4.

Clinician's perspectives on gene therapy for Alzheimer's disease: A qualitative study.

Introduction: We aimed to understand clinician views regarding gene therapy as a future treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and potential barriers and facilitators to its use.

Methods: We interviewed ten clinicians who treat patients with AD. Clinicians helped design a semi-structured interview including the following domains: establishing understanding, cost/access, quality of life, and religion/spirituality.

3D-printed ultra-small Brownian viscometers.

Measuring viscosity in volumes smaller than a microliter is a challenging endeavor. A new type of microscopic viscometers is presented to assess the viscosity of Newtonian liquids. Micron-sized flexible polymer cantilevers are created by two-photon polymerization direct laser writing.

Concurrent RB1 Loss and BRCA Deficiency Predicts Enhanced Immunologic Response and Long-term Survival in Tubo-ovarian High-grade Serous Carcinoma.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate RB1 expression and survival across ovarian carcinoma histotypes and how co-occurrence of BRCA1 or BRCA2 (BRCA) alterations and RB1 loss influences survival in tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC).

Experimental Design: RB1 protein expression was classified by immunohistochemistry in ovarian carcinomas of 7,436 patients from the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis consortium. We examined RB1 expression and germline BRCA status in a subset of 1,134 HGSC, and related genotype to overall survival (OS), tumor-infiltrating CD8+ lymphocytes, and transcriptomic subtypes.

Optically Actuated Soft Microrobot Family for Single-Cell Manipulation.

Precisely controlled manipulation of nonadherent single cells is often a pre-requisite for their detailed investigation. Optical trapping provides a versatile means for positioning cells with submicrometer precision or measuring forces with femto-Newton resolution. A variant of the technique, called indirect optical trapping, enables single-cell manipulation with no photodamage and superior spatial control and stability by relying on optically trapped microtools biochemically bound to the cell.

Integrative multi-omics analyses to identify the genetic and functional mechanisms underlying ovarian cancer risk regions.

To identify credible causal risk variants (CCVs) associated with different histotypes of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), we performed genome-wide association analysis for 470,825 genotyped and 10,163,797 imputed SNPs in 25,981 EOC cases and 105,724 controls of European origin. We identified five histotype-specific EOC risk regions (p value <5 × 10) and confirmed previously reported associations for 27 risk regions. Conditional analyses identified an additional 11 signals independent of the primary signal at six risk regions (p value <10).

Microsecond All-Optical Modulation by Biofunctionalized Porous Silicon Microcavity.

We successfully created a composite photonic structure out of porous silicon (PSi) microcavities doped by the photochromic protein, photoactive yellow protein (PYP). Massive incorporation of the protein molecules into the pores was substantiated by a 30 nm shift of the resonance dip upon functionalization, and light-induced reflectance changes of the device due to the protein photocycle were recorded. Model calculations for the photonic properties of the device were consistent with earlier results on the nonlinear optical properties of the protein, whose degree of incorporation into the PSi structure was also estimated.

Increased FOXJ1 protein expression is associated with improved overall survival in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma: an Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis Consortium Study.

Background: Recently, we showed a >60% difference in 5-year survival for patients with tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC) when stratified by a 101-gene mRNA expression prognostic signature. Given the varied patient outcomes, this study aimed to translate prognostic mRNA markers into protein expression assays by immunohistochemistry and validate their survival association in HGSC.

Methods: Two prognostic genes, FOXJ1 and GMNN, were selected based on high-quality antibodies, correlation with protein expression and variation in immunohistochemical scores in a preliminary cohort (n = 134 and n = 80, respectively).

Art Therapy Open Studio and Teen Identity Development: Helping Adolescents Recover from Mental Health Conditions.

Adolescent identity development is driven to a significant degree by peer interaction. However, when mental health conditions (MHC) or other crises separate teens from their peers, their identity development can be slowed or arrested. We developed a unique open studio intervention (OS-ID) that could facilitate identity development in teens recovering from MHC, and incorporated this intervention into a therapeutic day school catering to our target population.

midline represses Dpp signaling and target gene expression in Drosophila ventral leg development.

Ventral leg patterning in Drosophila is controlled by the expression of the redundant T-box Transcription factors midline (mid) and H15. Here, we show that mid represses the Dpp-activated gene Daughters against decapentaplegic (Dad) through a consensus T-box binding element (TBE) site in the minimal enhancer, Dad13. Mutating the Dad13 DNA sequence results in an increased and broadening of Dad expression.

A Triple Combination of Targeting Ligands Increases the Penetration of Nanoparticles across a Blood-Brain Barrier Culture Model.

Nanosized drug delivery systems targeting transporters of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) are promising carriers to enhance the penetration of therapeutics into the brain. The expression of solute carriers (SLC) is high and shows a specific pattern at the BBB. Here we show that targeting ligands ascorbic acid, leucine and glutathione on nanoparticles elevated the uptake of albumin cargo in cultured primary rat brain endothelial cells.

Polygenic risk modeling for prediction of epithelial ovarian cancer risk.

Polygenic risk scores (PRS) for epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) have the potential to improve risk stratification. Joint estimation of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) effects in models could improve predictive performance over standard approaches of PRS construction. Here, we implemented computationally efficient, penalized, logistic regression models (lasso, elastic net, stepwise) to individual level genotype data and a Bayesian framework with continuous shrinkage, "select and shrink for summary statistics" (S4), to summary level data for epithelial non-mucinous ovarian cancer risk prediction.

Validated biomarker assays confirm that ARID1A loss is confounded with MMR deficiency, CD8 TIL infiltration, and provides no independent prognostic value in endometriosis-associated ovarian carcinomas.

ARID1A (BAF250a) is a component of the SWI/SNF chromatin modifying complex, plays an important tumour suppressor role, and is considered prognostic in several malignancies. However, in ovarian carcinomas there are contradictory reports on its relationship to outcome, immune response, and correlation with clinicopathological features. We assembled a series of 1623 endometriosis-associated ovarian carcinomas, including 1078 endometrioid (ENOC) and 545 clear cell (CCOC) ovarian carcinomas, through combining resources of the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analysis (OTTA) Consortium, the Canadian Ovarian Unified Experimental Resource (COEUR), local, and collaborative networks.

Assessing the Viscoelasticity of Photopolymer Nanowires Using a Three-Parameter Solid Model for Bending Recovery Motion.

Photopolymer nanowires prepared by two-photon polymerization direct laser writing (TPP-DLW) are the building blocks of many microstructure systems. These nanowires possess viscoelastic characteristics that define their deformations under applied forces when operated in a dynamic regime. A simple mechanical model was previously used to describe the bending recovery motion of deflected nanowire cantilevers in Newtonian liquids.

MCM3 is a novel proliferation marker associated with longer survival for patients with tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma.

Tubo-ovarian high-grade serous carcinomas (HGSC) are highly proliferative neoplasms that generally respond well to platinum/taxane chemotherapy. We recently identified minichromosome maintenance complex component 3 (MCM3), which is involved in the initiation of DNA replication and proliferation, as a favorable prognostic marker in HGSC. Our objective was to further validate whether MCM3 mRNA expression and possibly MCM3 protein levels are associated with survival in patients with HGSC.

"The New State That We Are Building": Authoritarianism and System-Justification in an Illiberal Democracy.

The authoritarian personality is characterized by unquestionining obedience and respect to authority. System justification theory (SJT) argues that people are motivated to defend, bolster, and justify aspects of existing social, economic, and political systems. Commitment to the is also a key characteristic of the authoritarian personality.

Optically Manipulated Microtools to Measure Adhesion of the Nanoparticle-Targeting Ligand Glutathione to Brain Endothelial Cells.

Targeting nanoparticles as drug delivery platforms is crucial to facilitate their cellular entry. Docking of nanoparticles by targeting ligands on cell membranes is the first step for the initiation of cellular uptake. As a model system, we studied brain microvascular endothelial cells, which form the anatomical basis of the blood-brain barrier, and the tripeptide glutathione, one of the most effective targeting ligands of nanoparticles to cross the blood-brain barrier.

Targeting the actin/tropomyosin cytoskeleton in epithelial ovarian cancer reveals multiple mechanisms of synergy with anti-microtubule agents.

Background: Anti-microtubule agents are widely used to treat ovarian cancers, but the efficacy is often compromised by drug resistance. We investigated co-targeting the actin/tropomyosin cytoskeleton and microtubules to increase treatment efficacy in ovarian cancers and potentially overcome resistance.

Methods: The presence of tropomyosin-3.

Prognostic and Theranostic Biomarkers in Ovarian Clear Cell Carcinoma.

In this study, we aimed to test whether prognostic biomarkers can achieve a clinically relevant stratification of patients with stage I ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC) and to survey the expression of 10 selected actionable targets (theranostic biomarkers) in stage II to IV cases. From the population-based Alberta Ovarian Tumor Type study, 160 samples of OCCC were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and/or silver-enhanced in situ hybridization for the status of 5 prognostic (p53, p16, IGF2BP3, CCNE1, FOLR1) and 10 theranostic biomarkers (ALK, BRAF V600E, ERBB2, ER, MET, MMR, PR, ROS1, NTRK1-3, VEGFR2). Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were performed.

Insights into graphene oxide interaction with human serum albumin in isolated state and in blood plasma.

The interactions of graphene oxide (GO), a 2-dimensional nanomaterial with hydrophilic edges, hydrophobic basal plane and large flat surfaces, with biological macromolecules, are of key importance for the development of novel nanomaterials for biomedical applications. To gain more insight into the interaction of GO flakes with human serum albumin (HSA), we examined GO binding to HSA in its isolated state and in blood plasma. Calorimetric data reveal that GO strongly stabilizes free isolated HSA against a thermal challenge at low ionic strength, indicating strong binding interactions, confirmed by the drop in ζ-potential of the HSA/GO assemblies compared to bare GO flakes.