Evaluating a 14-week neck strengthening protocol for neuromuscular indicators associated with head and neck trauma.

Increased neck strength has been linked to a potential decrease in traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The purpose was to determine the efficacy of a neck-strengthening protocol using a novel neck-strengthening device to increase isometric neck strength and rate of force development (RFD). Utilizing self-generated centripetal force, participants trained for 14 weeks.

BLOOD LEAD CONCENTRATION ANALYSIS BETWEEN REHABILITATION FACILITY AND PERI-URBAN ENVIRONMENT VIRGINIA OPOSSUMS () OF ILLINOIS.

The Virginia opossum () is the only marsupial in North America with a natural range north of Mexico. Its range is widespread throughout the United States, including Illinois. Virginia opossums are opportunistic omnivores that will eat a variety of fruits, grains, insects, and even carrion.

Evaluation of an in-house indirect immunoperoxidase test for detection of antibodies against African swine fever virus.

African swine fever (ASF) is a high-consequence transboundary animal disease caused by African swine fever virus (ASFV). Given that vaccines are not widely available, ASFV detection, including by molecular and serologic assays, is paramount to efficacious control and mitigation of ASF. ASFV-specific antibodies can be detected as early as 7-10 d postinfection in infected animals and may persist for several months or longer.

Nano-Pulse Stimulation Therapy in Oncology.

Background: Nano-Pulse Stimulation (NPS) therapy applies electric pulses in the nanosecond domain to initiate regulated cell death in the treated tissues. This nonthermal therapy has been used to treat a wide range of murine tumors and has been shown to activate the immune system to inhibit the growth of rechallenge tumors, as well as untreated, abscopal tumors when accompanied by the injection of immune system stimulants into the treated tumors. Clinical trials have begun using NPS to treat basal cell carcinoma and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Nano-Pulse Stimulation Treatment Inhibits Pan02 Murine Pancreatic Tumor Growth and Induces a Long-Term Adaptive Immune Response with Abscopal Effects When Combined with Immune-Enhancing Agents.

Pancreatic cancer is associated with a poor prognosis and immunotherapy alone has not demonstrated sufficient efficacy in the treatment of nonresectable tumors. Nano-Pulse Stimulation™ therapy (NPS™) applies nanosecond electric pulses that lead to regulated cell death, exposing tumor antigen to the immune system. To establish a primary Pan02 tumor, mice were intradermally injected with Pan02 cells into the right flank.

Nursing leadership in tobacco dependence treatment to advance health equity: An American Academy of Nursing policy manuscript.

Background: Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States and is a significant cause of health disparities.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to update the Tobacco Control policy paper published over a decade ago by the American Academy of Nursing's Health Behavior Expert Panel Tobacco Control subcommittee.

Methods: Members reviewed and synthesized published literature from 2012 to 2024 to identify the current state of the science related to nurse-led tobacco dependence treatment and implications for nursing practice, education, and research.

The experience of caregiving for adults with benign brain tumors: An integrative review.

Background: Caregiving for the adult benign brain tumor (aBBT) population is unique, as patients' extended period of survivorship poses significant challenges related to the long-term sequelae of the disease and the foreboding possibility of recurrence. In this integrative review, we examined the caregiving experience across the spectrum of the aBBT population.

Methods: We searched OVID, CINAHL, and PubMed databases from 2000 to 2022.

Defect graph neural networks for materials discovery in high-temperature clean-energy applications.

We present a graph neural network approach that fully automates the prediction of defect formation enthalpies for any crystallographic site from the ideal crystal structure, without the need to create defected atomic structure models as input. Here we used density functional theory reference data for vacancy defects in oxides, to train a defect graph neural network (dGNN) model that replaces the density functional theory supercell relaxations otherwise required for each symmetrically unique crystal site. Interfaced with thermodynamic calculations of reduction entropies and associated free energies, the dGNN model is applied to the screening of oxides in the Materials Project database, connecting the zero-kelvin defect enthalpies to high-temperature process conditions relevant for solar thermochemical hydrogen production and other energy applications.

Evaluating Neck-Strengthening Protocols to Reduce the Incidence of Traumatic Brain Injury: Traditional vs. Nontraditional Neck-Strengthening Techniques.

Schroeder, LH, McDaniel, AT, Wang, Y, Dickens, GM, Pantani, V, and Kubinak, H. Evaluating neck-strengthening protocols to reduce the incidence of traumatic brain injury: traditional vs. nontraditional neck-strengthening techniques.

An institutional experience in applying quality improvement measures to pituitary surgery: clinical and resource implications.

Objective: The aim of this study was to report the authors' experience developing a Lean Six Sigma clinical care pathway (CCP) for endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal operations.

Methods: Using Lean Six Sigma quality improvement principles-including the define, measure, analyze, improve, and control framework-the authors developed a CCP for endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal operations, incorporating preoperative, intraoperative, and inpatient and outpatient postoperative phases of care. Efficacy and quality metrics were defined as postoperative length of stay (LOS), presentation to the emergency department (ED) or readmission within 30 days of discharge, and hospital charges.

"If You Don't Have the Heart to Help, You Cannot Do This Job": The Multidimensional Wellbeing of Community Health Workers Serving Refugees During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Community health workers are members of two groups whose short- and long-term health has been uniquely shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic: health workers and the oft-marginalized populations that they serve. Yet, their wellbeing, particularly of those serving resettled refugees, before and during the pandemic has been largely overlooked. Drawing from a holistic conceptualization of wellness, this study examined the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on a group of cultural health navigators (CHNs), who serve resettled refugees.

Downregulation of YAP Activity Restricts P53 Hyperactivation to Promote Cell Survival in Confinement.

Cell migration through confining three dimensional (3D) topographies can lead to loss of nuclear envelope integrity, DNA damage, and genomic instability. Despite these detrimental phenomena, cells transiently exposed to confinement do not usually die. Whether this is also true for cells subjected to long-term confinement remains unclear at present.

Psychophysics of Pain: A Methodological Introduction.

For over 100 years, psychophysics ..÷ the scientific study between physical stimuli and sensation .

Nano-pulse stimulation™ therapy (NPS™) is superior to cryoablation in clearing murine melanoma tumors.

Background: Nano-Pulse Stimulation™ Therapy (NPS™) is a new, bioelectric modality that applies ultrashort pulses of electric energy to trigger regulated cell death in treated tissues. Instead of initiating necrosis by heating or freezing, NPS therapy permeabilizes intracellular organelles to activate the cell's own self-destruct pathway of programmed or regulated cell death. Unlike cryotherapies that can both damage structural tissues and diffuse into the periphery beyond the margins of the lesion, NPS only affects cells within the treated zone leaving surrounding tissue and acellular components unaffected.

Individual interviews versus focus groups for evaluations of international development programs: Systematic testing of method performance to elicit sensitive information in a justice study in Haiti.

Focus group discussions (FGDs) and individual interviews (IIs) with community members are common methods used in evaluations of all kinds of projects, including those in international development. As resources are often limited, evaluators must carefully choose methods that yield the best information for their particular program. A concern with FGDs and IIs is how well they elicit information on potentially sensitive topics; very little is known about differences in disclosure by methodology in the domain of justice.

Efficacy of Army Combat Fitness Test 12-Week Virtual Exercise Program.

Introduction: The Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) is the fitness assessment used by the Army launched in April of 2022. The ACFT consists of six physically demanding motor movements that parallel to the stressors experienced by the modern-day combat soldier. The aim of this study is to determine the efficacy of a 12-week virtual exercise program on the individual and their overall ACFT scores.

Efficacy of a 6-Week Suspension Training Exercise Program on Fitness Components in Older Adults.

The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a 6-week suspension training exercise program on fitness components in older adults. Eleven participants (age = 80 ± 5 yrs) completed a 6-week suspension training exercise program. Pre- and post-fitness assessments comprised of body composition, handgrip dynamometer, functional reach, and balance.

First-generation inequality and college integration.

Institutional integration has long been an important focus in literatures on inequality, education and mobility. Building on this work and drawing from multi-wave survey and records data from a large public university, the analyses we offer in this article provide unique and systematic comparative tests of first- versus continuing-generation inequalities in integration, disaggregated by academic versus social types, and with attention to other potentially influential status attributes. Our findings reveal: (1) clear overall inequalities in campus integration for first-generation students that cut across gender and race/ethnic lines; (2) a higher likelihood of employment among first-generation students-employment that tends to detract from integration opportunities; and (3) especially pronounced inequalities when it comes to forms of academic and social integration that entail bureaucratic- and resource-related barriers.

Letter to the Editor Regarding Eosinophilic Otitis Media.

We commend Varghese for "mandating a different outlook" in their recent article on eosinophilic otitis media (EOM). Their statements are supported by medical literature dating back to 1931, reported by Proetz, Shambaugh, Zhang, Draper, Doyle, Pelikan, Ojala, McMahan, Tomonaga, Nsouli, Lasisi, Nguyen, Tian, Sobol, Smirnova, Shim, Smirnova, Luong, and ourselves. Allergy causes EOM and it responds to immunotherapy.

The role of H-H interactions and impurities on the structure and energetics of H/Pd(111).

Understanding hydrogen incorporation into palladium requires detailed knowledge of surface and subsurface structure and atomic interactions as surface hydrogen is being embedded. Using density functional theory (DFT), we examine the energies of hydrogen layers of varying coverage adsorbed on Pd(111). We find that H-H and H-Pd interactions promote the formation of the well-known 3×3 phases but also favor an unreported (3 × 3) phase at high H coverages for which we present experimental evidence.

Formulation of 7-Component Surrogate Mixtures for Military Jet Fuel and Testing in Diesel Engine.

In this work, military jet fuel JP-5 surrogates were formulated and tested in comparison to a nominal JP-5 fuel. Combustion experiments were conducted in an advanced engine technology (AET) ignition quality tester (IQT) and a Yanmar L100W Tier 4 diesel engine due to the potential use of jet fuel in diesel engines in military situations. The surrogate development process began with determining the fuel chemical composition based on analyses of 256 JP-5 fuel samples.

Clinical Relevance and Advantages of Intradermal Test Results in 371 Patients with Allergic Rhinitis, Asthma and/or Otitis Media with Effusion.

Background: We evaluated the value of positive intradermal dilution testing (IDT) after negative skin prick tests (SPT) by retrospectively determining allergy immunotherapy (AIT) outcomes.

Methods: This private practice, cohort study compared the relative value of SPT vs. IDT in 371 adults and children with suspected manifestations of allergy: chronic allergic rhinitis (AR), asthma and/or chronic otitis media with effusion (OME).

Disruption of speech motor adaptation with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the articulatory representation in primary motor cortex.

When auditory feedback perturbation is introduced in a predictable way over a number of utterances, speakers learn to compensate by adjusting their own productions, a process known as sensorimotor adaptation. Despite multiple lines of evidence indicating the role of primary motor cortex (M1) in motor learning and memory, whether M1 causally contributes to sensorimotor adaptation in the speech domain remains unclear. Here, we aimed to assay whether temporary disruption of the articulatory representation in left M1 by repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) impairs speech adaptation.