Glial-mediated neuroinflammatory mechanisms in age-related macular degeneration.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by photoreceptor and retinal pigment epithelium loss often complicated by neovascularization and is one of the leading causes of irreversible vision loss worldwide. However, the precise pathophysiology of AMD remains to date unclear, and there is a dearth of effective therapies for the early stages of the disease. A growing body of evidence has identified microglia-mediated neuroinflammation as a key driver of neuronal damage in AMD, presenting a novel avenue for the development of pharmacological agents targeting this cell population.

Evaluation of an emergency safe supply drugs and managed alcohol program in COVID-19 isolation hotel shelters for people experiencing homelessness.

Background: During a COVID-19 outbreak in the congregate shelter system in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, a healthcare team provided an emergency "safe supply" of medications and alcohol to facilitate isolation in COVID-19 hotel shelters for residents who use drugs and/or alcohol. We aimed to evaluate (a) substances and dosages provided, and (b) outcomes of the program.

Methods: We reviewed medical records of all COVID-19 isolation hotel shelter residents during May 2021.

Determining whether Public Communications Campaigns Based on the The Social Norms Approach are a Viable COVID-19 Prevention Strategy for College Campuses.

The purpose of this study is to (a) outline the formative steps that universities can follow to determine if a media campaign based on the social norms approach (SNA) is a viable method for increasing COVID-19 prevention behaviors among their students, (b) present formative research data collected at a large public land-grant university in the U.S., and (c) as a test case, apply that data to assess the SNA's viability for promoting COVID-19 prevention behaviors among students at that institution.

Oral isotretinoin: 29 years of medical malpractice cases in the United States.

Background: Reviews of malpractice claims in the United States show trends of increasing payments with statistically higher payouts for more debilitating and permanent injuries.

Objectives: To examine lawsuits involving notable associated adverse reactions of isotretinoin.

Methods: Court records of US legal trials from 1985 to 2014 were obtained from a major computerized database: LexisNexis.

The long-term effectiveness of a social norming campaign to reduce high-risk drinking: The Michigan State University experience, 2000-2014.

Evaluate effectiveness of a university-wide social norms marketing campaign to reduce high-risk drinking and its consequences among students at MSU. Campaign messages regarding descriptive and injunctive norms were distributed campus-wide from 2001 to 2014 to correct norm misperceptions. Random samples of students surveyed most semesters to monitor message saturation, dosage, and believability along with drinking attitudes, behaviors and harm related to celebratory events.

Perioperative Pain and Addiction Interdisciplinary Network (PAIN) clinical practice advisory for perioperative management of buprenorphine: results of a modified Delphi process.

Until recently, the belief that adequate pain management was not achievable while patients remained on buprenorphine was the impetus for the perioperative discontinuation of buprenorphine. We aimed to use an expert consensus Delphi-based survey technique to 1) specify the need for perioperative guidelines in this context and 2) offer a set of recommendations for the perioperative management of these patients. The major recommendation of this practice advisory is to continue buprenorphine therapy in the perioperative period.

Lagged cumulative spruce budworm defoliation affects the risk of fire ignition in Ontario, Canada.

Detailed understanding of forest disturbance interactions is needed for effective forecasting, modelling, and management. Insect outbreaks are a significant forest disturbance that alters forest structure as well as the distribution and connectivity of combustible fuels at broad spatial scales. The effect of insect outbreaks on fire activity is an important but contentious issue with significant policy consequences.

Effects of Prey Presence and Scale on Bobcat Resource Selection during Winter.

Factors relevant to resource selection in carnivores may vary across spatial and temporal scales, both in magnitude and rank. Understanding relationships among carnivore occupancy, prey presence, and habitat characteristics, as well as their interactions across multiple scales, is necessary to improve our understanding of resource selection and predict population changes. We used a multi-scale dynamic hierarchical co-occurrence model with camera data to study bobcat and snowshoe hare occupancy in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during winter 2012-2013.

Metalloregulator CueR biases RNA polymerase's kinetic sampling of dead-end or open complex to repress or activate transcription.

Metalloregulators respond to metal ions to regulate transcription of metal homeostasis genes. MerR-family metalloregulators act on σ(70)-dependent suboptimal promoters and operate via a unique DNA distortion mechanism in which both the apo and holo forms of the regulators bind tightly to their operator sequence, distorting DNA structure and leading to transcription repression or activation, respectively. It remains unclear how these metalloregulator-DNA interactions are coupled dynamically to RNA polymerase (RNAP) interactions with DNA for transcription regulation.

Concentration- and chromosome-organization-dependent regulator unbinding from DNA for transcription regulation in living cells.

Binding and unbinding of transcription regulators at operator sites constitute a primary mechanism for gene regulation. While many cellular factors are known to regulate their binding, little is known on how cells can modulate their unbinding for regulation. Using nanometer-precision single-molecule tracking, we study the unbinding kinetics from DNA of two metal-sensing transcription regulators in living Escherichia coli cells.

Failings of trauma-specific and related psychological tests in detecting post-traumatic stress disorder in forensic settings.

Judges and juries tend to be particularly impressed by test data, especially quantitative test data. Psychometric tests specific for assessing the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are commonly employed by forensic mental health evaluators. Most of these instruments, however, have been designed to detect PTSD in treatment or research, and not forensic, settings.

Medication associated with hearing loss: 25 years of medical malpractice cases in the United States.

Objectives: Many medications have the potential for ototoxicity. To potentiate management of this risk, this study examines malpractice litigation trends of lawsuits involving hearing loss associated with medication use. As experts in hearing loss, it may benefit otolaryngologists to be familiar with this information.

Single-molecule dynamics and mechanisms of metalloregulators and metallochaperones.

Understanding how cells regulate and transport metal ions is an important goal in the field of bioinorganic chemistry, a frontier research area that resides at the interface of chemistry and biology. This Current Topic reviews recent advances from the authors' group in using single-molecule fluorescence imaging techniques to identify the mechanisms of metal homeostatic proteins, including metalloregulators and metallochaperones. It emphasizes the novel mechanistic insights into how dynamic protein-DNA and protein-protein interactions offer efficient pathways via which MerR-family metalloregulators and copper chaperones can fulfill their functions.

Direct substitution and assisted dissociation pathways for turning off transcription by a MerR-family metalloregulator.

Metalloregulators regulate transcription in response to metal ions. Many studies have provided insights into how transcription is activated upon metal binding by MerR-family metalloregulators. In contrast, how transcription is turned off after activation is unclear.

College students' estimation and accuracy of other students' drinking and believability of advertisements featured in a social norms campaign.

Social norms campaigns, which are based on correcting misperceptions of alcohol consumption, have frequently been applied to reduce college students' alcohol consumption. This study examined estimation and accuracy of normative perceptions for students during everyday drinking occasions. Students who reported having 4 or fewer drinks underestimated the percentage of other students who had 4 or fewer drinks, while those who drank 5 or more drinks overestimated the percentage of other students who had 5 or more drinks.

Commentary: Approaching and stalking public figures--a prerequisite to attack.

The concept of studying approaches to public figures (i.e., physical pursuit or stalking) arose as a proxy measure to aid in the development of tools to prevent assassination, a low base rate event.

Separating subjective norms, university descriptive and injunctive norms, and U.S. descriptive and injunctive norms for drinking behavior intentions.

The theory of planned behavior and the social norms approach both stress the important influence that normative perceptions have on behavioral intentions and behavior. These 2 approaches were used to examine the behavioral intention to limit drinking to 0 to 4 drinks. Further, this study examined whether perception of subjective norms, university- and U.

The influence of weather and fuel type on the fuel composition of the area burned by forest fires in Ontario, 1996-2006.

Forest fires are influenced by weather, fuels, and topography, but the relative influence of these factors may vary in different forest types. Compositional analysis can be used to assess the relative importance of fuels and weather in the boreal forest. Do forest or wild land fires burn more flammable fuels preferentially or, because most large fires burn in extreme weather conditions, do fires burn fuels in the proportions they are available despite differences in flammability? In the Canadian boreal forest, aspen (Populus tremuloides) has been found to burn in less than the proportion in which it is available.

Neuroscience and the law: philosophical differences and practical constraints.

Controversies surrounding the value of neuroscience as forensic evidence are explored from the perspective of the philosophy of mind, as well as from a practical analysis of the state of the scientific research literature. At a fundamental philosophical level there are profound differences in how law and neuroscience view the issue of criminal responsibility along the continuum from free will to determinism. At a more practical level, significant limitations in the current state of neuroimaging research constrain its ability to inform legal decision-making.