Publications by authors named "M D Isaacson"

Small-animal virtual reality (VR) systems have become invaluable tools in neuroscience for studying complex behavior during head-fixed neural recording, but they lag behind commercial human VR systems in terms of miniaturization, immersivity and advanced features such as eye tracking. Here we present MouseGoggles, a miniature VR headset for head-fixed mice that delivers independent, binocular visual stimulation over a wide field of view while enabling eye tracking and pupillometry in VR. Neural recordings in the visual cortex validate the quality of image presentation, while hippocampal recordings, associative reward learning and innate fear responses to virtual looming stimuli demonstrate an immersive VR experience.

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Background: American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) disproportionately suffer from diabetes compared to non-Hispanic whites (NHW). In 2013, 69% of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) in AI/ANs was caused by diabetes (ESKD-D) but accounts for only 44% of ESKD diagnoses in the overall USA population. Moreover, the diagnosis of diabetes and ESKD-D may be significantly related to social determinants of health.

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Effective healthcare clinician communication is a key component of quality palliative and end-of-life (PEOL) care. However, communication may be hampered when clinicians are not comfortable initiating these conversations with patients and their families. Clinicians working in rural areas report several barriers to providing palliative care.

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With a growing need for long-term care facilities in general, and for specialized dementia units in particular, it is important to ensure that the architectural layouts of such facilities support the well-being of both the residents and the unit caregivers. This study aimed to investigate correlations between the support provided by the architectural layout of long-term care units for enhancing residents' well-being and for decreasing unit caregivers' burnout and increasing their resilience-as layouts may impact each party differently. The Psycho Spatial Evaluation Tool was utilized to assess the support provided by the layouts of seventeen long-term care units (ten regular nursing units and seven specialized dementia units) for the residents' physical and social well-being (five dimensions); a questionnaire was used to measure the unit caregivers' burnout and resilience.

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Introduction: Over the past 20 years, palliative care in the United States has grown significantly. Yet, access to and/or engagement with palliative care for minoritized persons with serious illness remains limited. In addition, the focus of palliative and end-of-life care research has not historically focused on equity-informed intervention development that collaborates directly with minoritized populations.

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