Clinical Validation of MyProstateScore 2.0 Testing Using First-Catch, Non-DRE Urine.

Purpose: The 18-gene MyProstateScore 2.0 (MPS2) test was previously validated for detection of Grade Group≥2 (GG≥2) prostate cancer using post-digital rectal examination (DRE) urine. To improve ease of testing, we validated MPS2 using first-catch, non-DRE urine.

DDX50 cooperates with STAU1 to effect stabilization of pro-differentiation RNAs.

Glucose binding can alter protein oligomerization to enable differentiation. Here, we demonstrate that glucose binding is a general capacity of DExD/H-box RNA helicases, including DDX50, which was found to be essential for the differentiation of diverse cell types. Glucose binding to conserved DDX50 ATP binding sequences altered protein conformation and dissociated DDX50 dimers.

Advancing diagnostic consistency: Statistical methods and interrater reliability in neuropsychological assessments with the MNB.

In the field of neuropsychology, the accuracy of neuropsychological data interpretation has significant implications for both research and clinical practice. The process of test interpretation is fraught with challenges, and a lack of consensus among neuropsychologists can lead to discrepancies in assessment outcomes. Smith et al.

Social and Polygenic Risk Factors for Time to Comorbid Diagnoses in Individuals with Substance Use Disorders: A Phenome-Wide Survival Analysis.

Importance: Persons with substance use disorders (SUD) often suffer from additional comorbidities, including psychiatric conditions and physical health problems. Researchers have explored this overlap in electronic health records (EHR) using phenome wide association studies (PheWAS) to characterize how different indicators are related to all conditions in an individual's EHR. However, analyses have been largely cross-sectional in nature.

Demographics, clinical characteristics, and real-world treatment patterns among patients with beta-thalassemia: a retrospective medical record abstraction study.

Background: Beta-thalassemias (BTs) are characterized by deficient or absent synthesis of the beta-globin subunit, leading to anemia. Patient characteristics and treatment patterns in these patients may vary.

Objective: This retrospective study evaluated demographics, clinical characteristics, and treatment patterns in patients with transfusion-dependent BT (TDT) and non-transfusion-dependent BT (NTDT).

Childhood trauma is associated with developmental trajectories of EEG coherence, alcohol-related outcomes, and PTSD symptoms.

Background: Associations between childhood trauma, neurodevelopment, alcohol use disorder (AUD), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are understudied during adolescence.

Methods: Using 1652 participants (51.75% female, baseline = 14.

Disease-Linked Regulatory DNA Variants and Homeostatic Transcription Factors in Epidermis.

Identifying noncoding single nucleotide variants ( SNVs ) in regulatory DNA linked to polygenic disease risk, the transcription factors ( TFs ) they bind, and the target genes they dysregulate is a goal in polygenic disease research. Massively parallel reporter gene analysis ( MPRA ) of 3,451 SNVs linked to risk for polygenic skin diseases characterized by disrupted epidermal homeostasis identified 355 differentially active SNVs ( daSNVs ). daSNV target gene analysis, combined with daSNV editing, underscored dysregulated epidermal differentiation as a pathomechanism shared across common polygenic skin diseases.

Polygenic risk for alcohol use disorder affects cellular responses to ethanol exposure in a human microglial cell model.

Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) assess genetic susceptibility to alcohol use disorder (AUD), yet their molecular implications remain underexplored. Neuroimmune interactions, particularly in microglia, are recognized as notable contributors to AUD pathophysiology. We investigated the interplay between AUD PRS and ethanol in human microglia derived from iPSCs from individuals with AUD high-PRS (diagnosed with AUD) or low-PRS (unaffected).

In vivo CRISPRi screen identified lncRNA portfolio crucial for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma tumor growth.

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) accounts for 20% of all skin cancer deaths globally, making it the second-highest subtype of skin cancer. The prevalence of cSCC in humans, as well as the poor capacity for an efficient prognosis, highlights the need to uncover alternative actors and mechanisms at the foundation of skin cancer development. Significant advances have been made to better understand some key factors in cSCC progression.

HBI: a hierarchical Bayesian interaction model to estimate cell-type-specific methylation quantitative trait loci incorporating priors from cell-sorted bisulfite sequencing data.

Methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTLs) quantify the effects of genetic variants on DNA methylation levels. However, most published studies utilize bulk methylation datasets composed of different cell types and limit our understanding of cell-type-specific methylation regulation. We propose a hierarchical Bayesian interaction (HBI) model to infer cell-type-specific meQTLs, which integrates a large-scale bulk methylation data and a small-scale cell-type-specific methylation data.

Ambulatory surgery center versus outpatient hospitals: a comparison of reimbursements for patients undergoing anterior cervical discectomy and fusion.

Background Context: While some studies have demonstrated that ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are associated with reduced costs of orthopedic procedures, there is no consensus in the current literature as to the impact of ASCs versus hospital-based outpatient departments (HOPDs) on anterior cervical discectomies and fusions (ACDFs).

Purpose: This study sought to (1) compare immediate procedure reimbursements, patient out-of-pocket expenditures, and surgeon reimbursements for ACDFs performed at ASCs versus HOPDs and (2) identify factors predicting facility utilization.

Study Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study.

Biological Insights from Schizophrenia-associated Loci in Ancestral Populations.

Large-scale genome-wide association studies of schizophrenia have uncovered hundreds of associated loci but with extremely limited representation of African diaspora populations. We surveyed electronic health records of 200,000 individuals of African ancestry in the Million Veteran and All of Us Research Programs, and, coupled with genotype-level data from four case-control studies, realized a combined sample size of 13,012 affected and 54,266 unaffected persons. Three genome-wide significant signals - near , , and - are the first to be independently identified in populations of predominantly African ancestry.

Diversified humoral immunity and impacts of booster vaccines: SARS-CoV-2 antibody profile and Omicron BA.2 neutralization before and after first or second boosters.

This study aims to investigate humoral immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and assess the impact of booster vaccines. We recruited individuals scheduled to receive either the first (original formula) or the second (bivalent) booster following the initial two-dose SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. We tested for IgG antibodies targeting the spike protein receptor-binding domain (RBD), S1, S2, and nucleocapsid protein, as well as for neutralizing antibodies against Omicron BA.

Quality Assessment of a Virtual Post Offer Placement Assessment in Employee Occupational Health Services.

Objective: The rise in remote work and increased access to technology allow opportunity for virtual onboarding. The aim of this project was to assess the quality of virtual onboarding versus the traditional in-person onboarding.

Methods: A multidisciplinary team utilized a survey to evaluate staff and new hire candidate satisfaction with the in-person versus virtual post offer placement assessment (POPA).

Pharmacological reprogramming of zebrafish lateral line supporting cells to a migratory progenitor state.

In the zebrafish lateral line, non-sensory supporting cells readily re-enter the cell cycle to generate new hair cells and supporting cells during homeostatic maintenance and following damage to hair cells. This contrasts with supporting cells from mammalian vestibular and auditory sensory epithelia which rarely re-enter the cell cycle, and hence loss of hair cells results in permanent sensory deficit. Lateral line supporting cells are derived from multipotent progenitor cells that migrate down the trunk midline as a primordium and are deposited to differentiate into a neuromast.

Alcohol milestones and internalizing, externalizing, and executive function: longitudinal and polygenic score associations.

Background: Although the link between alcohol involvement and behavioral phenotypes (e.g. impulsivity, negative affect, executive function [EF]) is well-established, the directionality of these associations, specificity to stages of alcohol involvement, and extent of shared genetic liability remain unclear.

Building a NICU quality & safety infrastructure.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Standards for Levels of Neonatal Care, published in 2023, highlights key components of a Neonatal Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Program (NPSQIP). A comprehensive Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) quality and safety infrastructure (QSI) is based on four foundational domains: quality improvement, quality assurance, safety culture, and clinical guidelines. This paper serves as an operational guide for NICU clinical leaders and quality champions to navigate these domains and develop their local QSI to include the AAP NPSQIP standards.

Human milk derived fortifiers are associated with glucose, phosphorus, and calcium derangements.

Objective: In 2017, our Level IV NICU switched from providing bovine-derived (BOV-fort) to human milk-derived fortifiers (HM-fort) and donor human milk (DHM) to premature infants born ≤ 30 weeks or ≤1250 g. Following this change, providers anecdotally observed increased hypoglycemia, hypercalcemia, and hyperphosphatemia. This study investigated potential laboratory differences between infants fed Bovine vs.

A guide to critical appraisal of quality improvement reports.

Quality improvement (QI) has become an integral part of healthcare. Despite efforts to improve the reporting of QI through frameworks such as the SQUIRE 2.0 guidelines, there is no standard or well-accepted guide to evaluate published QI for rigor, validity, generalizability, and applicability.

Non-linear development of EEG coherence in adolescents and young adults shown by the analysis of neurophysiological trajectories and their covariance.

To contribute to the understanding of changes in the factors governing the development of neural connectivity, the developmental structure of EEG coherence in adolescents and young adults was analyzed using the means, variances, and covariances of high alpha frequency band coherence measures from a set of 27 coherence pairs obtained from a sample of 1426 participants from the COGA study with 5006 observations over ages 12 through 31. Means and covariances were calculated at 96 age centers by a LOESS method. In the current study, trajectories of covariance matrices considered as individual units were determined by tensorial analysis: calculation of Riemannian geodesic (non-Euclidean) distances between matrices and application of both linear and non-linear dimension reduction techniques to these distances.