Opening the black box: Think Aloud as a method to study the spontaneous stream of consciousness.

Asking participants to Think Aloud is a common method for studying conscious experience, but it remains unclear whether this approach alters thought qualities-such as meta-awareness, rate of topic shifts, or the content of thoughts in task-absent conditions. To investigate this, we conducted two studies comparing thinking aloud to thinking silently. In Study 1, 111 participants alternated between 15-minute intervals of verbalizing and silently reflecting on their stream of consciousness in a counterbalanced design.

Complicated urinary tract infections: an update of new and developing antibiotics.

Introduction: Complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs) represent a significant clinical challenge due to their association with sepsis, high morbidity and mortality, and an increased risk of recurrence and chronic infection. Effective management requires prompt, targeted interventions.

Areas Covered: This review highlights the importance of early, targeted antibiotic therapy based on local resistance profiles, patient-specific factors, and pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic considerations.

Mass Spectrometry-Based Protein Footprinting for Protein Structure Characterization.

ConspectusProtein higher-order structure (HOS) is key to biological function because the mechanisms of protein machinery are encoded in protein three-dimensional structures. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based protein footprinting is advancing protein structure characterization by mapping solvent-accessible regions of proteins and changes in H-bonding, thereby providing higher order structural information. Footprinting provides insights into protein dynamics, conformational changes, and interactions, and when conducted in a differential way, can readily reveal those regions that undergo conformational change in response to perturbations such as ligand binding, mutation, thermal stress, or aggregation.

Fiber optic laryngoscopy findings in pediatric burn patients referred to the pediatric emergency department.

Introduction: Facial burn injuries can compromise the airways in pediatric patients. Because prompt assessment of airway safety is a must, most assessment algorithms rely mainly on clinical judgment. There is little data on the value or utility of Fiber Optic Laryngoscopy (FOL) as an ancillary test.