Hospital Service Volume as an Indicator of Treatment Patterns for Colorectal Cancer.

Introduction: A hospital's approach (volume of cancer treatment services provided) to treating metastatic colorectal cancer influences a patient's treatment as strongly as patient disease status. The implications of hospital-level treatment approaches across disease stages remain understudied. We sought to determine if hospital service volume (SV) for metastatic colorectal cancer could be predictive of nonstandard treatment patterns in stages I-III colon cancer.

Comparing bullying to ACEs in the national survey of children's health: Examining 2016-2019 prevalence trends among children and adolescents.

Objectives: To estimate adverse childhood experience (ACE) prevalence among children and adolescents aged 6-17 years in the United States, to examine factors influencing the prevalence of ACEs over the time period 2016-2019, and to examine the difference in bullying trends compared to ACEs in the NSCH.

Participants And Setting: The National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) is a cross-sectional survey. Participants included respondents who completed the separate surveys for ages 6-11 and 12-17 from 2016 to 2019.

Neurocognitive function and quality-of-life in patients with colorectal cancer.

Objective: Colorectal cancer (CRC) survivors report significant long-term physical and cognitive declines post-treatment. Our purpose was to combine task-evoked Event-Related Potential (ERP) and resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsf/MRI) methodologies to characterize the physiological underpinnings and cognitive sequelae of chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment, including changes in Quality-Of-Life (QOL) in patients with CRC, as compared to healthy control (HC) participants.

Methods: This descriptive study recruited and obtained baseline data from patients with CRC at medical and surgical oncology visits four to six weeks post-op and followed them at 12- and 24-weeks.

A general class of small area estimation using calibrated hierarchical likelihood approach with applications to COVID-19 data.

The direct estimation techniques in small area estimation (SAE) models require sufficiently large sample sizes to provide accurate estimates. Hence, indirect model-based methodologies are developed to incorporate auxiliary information. The most commonly used SAE models, including the Fay-Herriot (FH) model and its extended models, are estimated using marginal likelihood estimation and the Bayesian methods, which rely heavily on the computationally intensive integration of likelihood function.

Does the Heel's Dissipative Energetic Behavior Affect Its Thermodynamic Responses During Walking?

Most of the terrestrial legged locomotion gaits, like human walking, necessitate energy dissipation upon ground collision. In humans, the heel mostly performs net-negative work during collisions, and it is currently unclear how it dissipates that energy. Based on the laws of thermodynamics, one possibility is that the net-negative collision work may be dissipated as heat.

Step width variability as a discriminator of age-related gait changes.

Background: There is scientific evidence that older adults aged 65 and over walk with increased step width variability which has been associated with risk of falling. However, there are presently no threshold levels that define the optimal reference range of step width variability. Thus, the purpose of our study was to estimate the optimal reference range for identifying older adults with normative and excessive step width variability.

Neurophysiologic and ophthalmic markers of chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment in patients diagnosed with hematologic cancer: A feasibility study.

Background: Biomarkers of chemotherapy-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) in hematologic cancer are understudied and underdeveloped. We evaluated the feasibility of using ophthalmic and neurophysiologic markers to assess CRCI in hematologic cancer.

Methods: Hematologic cancer patients either receiving (Ctx+) or not receiving (Ctx-) chemotherapy were recruited from a tertiary medical center.

Strength of Plantar- and Dorsiflexors Mediates Step Regularity During a High Cognitive Load Situation in a Cross-sectional Cohort of Older and Younger Adults.

Background And Purpose: Completing simultaneous tasks while standing or walking (ie, a high cognitive load situation [HCLS]) is inevitable in daily activities and can lead to interference in task performances. Age-related physical and cognitive changes may confound performance variability during HCLS in older and younger adults. Identification of these confounding effects may reveal therapy targets to maintain optimal physical function later in life.

Subjects With COPD Walk With Less Consistent Organization of Movement Patterns of the Lower Extremity.

Background: The inherent stride-to-stride fluctuations during walking are altered in the aging population and could provide insight into gait impairments and falls in patients with COPD. Stride-to-stride fluctuations are quantified two ways: variability of the fluctuations (eg, standard deviation), and movement patterns within the fluctuations. Our objective was to investigate stride-to-stride fluctuations by evaluating the variability and movement patterns of lower limb joints in subjects with COPD compared to subjects without COPD as control subjects.

Using Tribal Data Linkages to Improve the Quality of American Indian Cancer Data in Michigan.

This study examines the extent to which data linkages between Indian Health Service, tribal data, and cancer registries affect cancer incidence rates among American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) in Michigan. The incidence of tobacco- and alcohol-associated cancers for 1995-2012 was analyzed to compare rates of the Upper Peninsula (UP) and Lower Peninsula (LP) in Michigan and among AI/ANs and non-Hispanic Whites (NHWs). Complete linkage resulted in 1,352 additional AI/AN cases; 141 cases were linked via IHS records alone, while 373 were linked via tribal records alone; 838 were linked through both IHS and tribal records.

Impact of Initiating Screening Programs on Referral and Management of Cervical Cancer in Tanzania.

Purpose: We investigated the impact of screening rural patients on referral and management of cervical cancer in Tanzania.

Methods: After reviewing more than 10,000 medical records of patients with cervical cancer who visited Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI) from 2005 to 2014, 108 patients were from the rural communities of Bagamoyo and Chalinze. We abstracted demographic, clinical, and lifestyle factors and linked the data set to databases of all 1,151 patients who visited the Bagamoyo screening clinic from 2011 to 2014 and 1,273 patients who visited the Chalinze screening clinic from 2012 to 2014.

Oxidative Stress Levels Throughout Pregnancy, at Birth, and in the Neonate.

Background: Oxidative stress is associated with poor perinatal outcomes. Little is known regarding the longitudinal levels of oxidative stress in the perinatal period or the correlation between maternal and neonatal oxidative stress levels.

Objective: Describe and compare oxidative stress, specifically superoxide, superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione levels, over the perinatal period.

Electrophysiological Measure of Impaired Information Processing in Drivers with Hematological Malignancy.

The broad goal of this study is to measure remote effects of cancer on brain physiology and behaviors that underpin instrumental activities of daily living such as automobile driving. Studies of hematological malignancies (HM) have demonstrated impairments in multiple brain functions shown to be critical for safe automobile driving. In the current pilot study, brain physiology during driving simulation was examined in 14 HM patients and 13 healthy comparison drivers.

Patterns of occurrence and implications of neratinib-associated diarrhea in patients with HER2-positive breast cancer: analyses from the randomized phase III ExteNET trial.

Background: We characterized patterns of occurrence and the impact of neratinib-associated diarrhea in the absence of protocol-directed antidiarrheal prophylaxis or a formal diarrhea management plan using data from Extended Adjuvant Treatment of Breast Cancer with Neratinib (ExteNET).

Methods: ExteNET is a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized phase III trial involving community-based and academic institutions in 40 countries. Women with HER2-positive early-stage breast cancer with prior standard primary therapy and trastuzumab-based (neo)adjuvant therapy were randomized to neratinib 240 mg/day or placebo for 12 months.

Energy efficient physiologic coupling of gait and respiration is altered in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Aims: Coupling between walking and breathing in humans is well established. In healthy systems, the ability to couple and uncouple leads to energy economization. It is unknown if physiologic efficiency is susceptible to alteration, particularly in individuals with airflow obstruction.

U.S. Medical Examiner/Coroner capability to handle highly infectious decedents.

In the United States of America, Medical Examiners and Coroners (ME/Cs) investigate approximately 20% of all deaths. Unexpected deaths, such as those occurring due to a deceased person under investigation for a highly infectious disease, are likely to fall under ME/C jurisdiction, thereby placing the ME/C and other morgue personnel at increased risk of contracting an occupationally acquired infection. This survey of U.

Stride-time variability is related to sensorimotor cortical activation during forward and backward walking.

Previous research has used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to show that motor areas of the cortex are activated more while walking backward compared to walking forward. It is also known that head movement creates motion artifacts in fNIRS data. The aim of this study was to investigate cortical activation during forward and backward walking, while also measuring head movement.

Gait Mechanics Differences Between Healthy Controls and Patients With Peripheral Artery Disease After Adjusting for Gait Velocity Stride Length and Step Width.

Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) experience significant leg dysfunction. The effects of PAD on gait include shortened steps, slower walking velocity, and altered gait kinematics and kinetics, which may confound joint torques and power measurements. Spatiotemporal parameters, joint torques and powers were calculated and compared between 20 patients with PAD and 20 healthy controls using independent t-tests.

When Coordinating Finger Tapping to a Variable Beat the Variability Scaling Structure of the Movement and the Cortical BOLD Signal are Both Entrained to the Auditory Stimuli.

Rhythmic actions are characterizable as a repeating invariant pattern of movement together with variability taking the form of cycle-to-cycle fluctuations. Variability in behavioral measures is atypically random, and often exhibits serial temporal dependencies and statistical self-similarity in the scaling of variability magnitudes across timescales. Self-similar (i.

Video Head Impulse Test (vHIT): The Role of Corrective Saccades in Identifying Patients With Vestibular Loss.

Objective: 1) Characterize corrective saccades (CS) in normal controls, and 2) examine the sensitivity of the video head impulse test (vHIT) for identifying vestibular loss using both gain and CS.

Study Design: Prospective combined with retrospective review.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

Predictive Factors for Vestibular Loss in Children With Hearing Loss.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine if there are factors that can predict whether a child with hearing loss will also have vestibular loss.

Method: A retrospective chart review was completed on 186 children with hearing loss seen at Boys Town National Research Hospital for vestibular testing from 1999 to 2015 through neurosensory genetics clinic or cochlear implant candidacy. Each child's medical chart was reviewed to obtain the following data: vestibular loss severity (classified as normal, bilateral, or mild to moderate), degree of hearing loss (bilateral pure-tone average [PTA]), imaging abnormalities (classified as "normal" or "abnormal"), parental concerns for gross motor delay (classified as "yes, there is concern" or "no, there is not a concern"), parent report of age when their child sat (months) and walked independently (months), comorbidities (classified as "yes" if there were 1 or more comorbidities or "no" if there were no comorbidities), and score on the Developmental Profile-3.

Effect of parameter selection on entropy calculation for long walking trials.

It is sometimes difficult to obtain uninterrupted data sets that are long enough to perform nonlinear analysis, especially in pathological populations. It is currently unclear as to how many data points are needed for reliable entropy analysis. The aims of this study were to determine the effect of changing parameter values of m, r, and N on entropy calculations for long gait data sets using two different modes of walking (i.

Simultaneous LC-MS/MS analysis of eicosanoids and related metabolites in human serum, sputum and BALF.

The differences among individual eicosanoids in eliciting different physiological and pathological responses are largely unknown because of the lack of valid and simple analytical methods for the quantification of individual eicosanoids and their metabolites in serum, sputum and bronchial alveolar lavage fluid (BALF). Therefore, a simple and sensitive LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous quantification of 34 eicosanoids in human serum, sputum and BALF was developed and validated. This method is valid and sensitive with a limit of quantification ranging from 0.

Identifying Otosclerosis with Aural Acoustical Tests of Absorbance, Group Delay, Acoustic Reflex Threshold, and Otoacoustic Emissions.

Background: Otosclerosis is a progressive middle-ear disease that affects conductive transmission through the middle ear. Ear-canal acoustic tests may be useful in the diagnosis of conductive disorders. This study addressed the degree to which results from a battery of ear-canal tests, which include wideband reflectance, acoustic stapedius muscle reflex threshold (ASRT), and transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs), were effective in quantifying a risk of otosclerosis and in evaluating middle-ear function in ears after surgical intervention for otosclerosis.

Relative contributions of specific frequency bands to the loudness of broadband sounds.

Listeners with normal hearing (NH) and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) were asked to compare pairs of noise stimuli and choose the louder noise in each pair. Each noise was made up of 15, two-ERB (equivalent rectangular bandwidth) wide frequency bands that varied independently over a 12-dB range from one presentation to the next. Mean levels of the bands followed the long-term average speech spectrum (LTASS) or were set to 43, 51, or 59 dB sound pressure level (SPL).