Publications by authors named "Melissa Mendoza"

Background: In the digital age, large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have emerged as important sources of health care information. Their interactive capabilities offer promise for enhancing health access, particularly for groups facing traditional barriers such as insurance and language constraints. Despite their growing public health use, with millions of medical queries processed weekly, the quality of LLM-provided information remains inconsistent.

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Engineered heart tissues (EHTs) are three-dimensional culture platforms with cardiomyocytes differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) and were designed for assaying cardiac contractility. For drug development applications, EHTs must have a stable function and provide reproducible results. We investigated these properties with EHTs made with different tissue casting batches and lines of differentiated hPSC-cardiomyocytes and analyzed them at different times after being fabricated.

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Calcific nodules form in the fibrosa layer of the aortic valve in calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD). Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), which are normally found in the valve spongiosa, are located local to calcific nodules. Previous work suggests that GAGs induce endothelial to mesenchymal transformation (EndMT), a phenomenon described by endothelial cells' loss of the endothelial markers, gaining of migratory properties, and expression of mesenchymal markers such as alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA).

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Electronic waste is a global issue brought about by the short lifespan of electronics. Viable methods to relieve the inundated disposal system by repurposing the enormous amount of electronic waste remain elusive. Inspired by the need for sustainable solutions, this study resulted in a multifaceted approach to upcycling compact discs.

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Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is an active pathobiological process leading to severe aortic stenosis, where the only treatment is valve replacement. Late-stage CAVD is characterized by calcification, disorganization of collagen, and deposition of glycosaminoglycans, such as chondroitin sulfate (CS), in the fibrosa. We developed a three-dimensional microfluidic device of the aortic valve fibrosa to study the effects of shear stress (1 or 20 dyne per cm), CS (1 or 20 mg mL), and endothelial cell presence on calcification.

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Importance: The number of clinics marketing stem cell products for joint diseases, chronic pain, and most recently, COVID-19, has increased despite warnings from the US Food and Drug Administration that stem cell products for these and other indications have not been proven safe or effective.

Objective: To examine bacterial infections in 20 patients who received umbilical cord blood-derived products marketed as stem cell treatment.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This case series is a national public health investigation including case-finding, medical record review and abstraction, and laboratory investigation, including sterility testing of products and whole-genome sequencing of patient and product isolates.

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Background: We aimed to examine the prevalence of, and describe factors associated with, firearm-related injuries in American households.

Methods: Using the 2010-2016 ACS-TQIP database, all ICD-9/10 external causes of injury for firearm-related injuries were queried with the place of occurrence designated as "home". Causes of injury were identified as assault, intentional self-injury, and unintentional injury.

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We examined the effects of a self-instructional and feedback package on participants' implementation of a paired-stimulus preference assessment. Specifically, in Experiment 1, we used a multiple baseline design across participants to replicate and extend the results of Graff and Karsten (2012) by evaluating the effectiveness of their self-instructional manual. A majority of the participants (i.

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Background/aims: Hemodialysis (HD) patients are less active than their healthy counterparts and frequently experience poor sleep. Our aims were to objectively quantify activity and sleep quality in HD patients of an urban population and to determine the effect of providing feedback on activity.

Methods: Activity parameters and sleep parameters were collected by a commercially available activity tracker in 29 chronic HD patients.

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Hemodialysis (HD) patients are less active than their healthy counterparts; this is associated with higher mortality. Healthcare workers observe their patients only during HD, which accounts for about 7% of the week. Knowing more about what occurs in between sessions, particularly with respect to physical activity, may improve patient care and prognosis.

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Study Design: Prospective multicenter observation.

Objective: To determine the validity of 3 commercially available at recording thoracic-lumbar-sacral orthosis (TLSO) wearing time of children with spinal cord injury (SCI) and to assess each monitor's function during daily activities.

Summary Of Background Data: A major limitation to studies assessing the effectiveness of spinal prophylactic bracing is the patient's compliance with the prescribed wearing time.

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Objective: To delineate the natural history of ambulation of children and youth with spinal cord injuries (SCls).

Design: Retrospective single-center.

Participants/methods: One hundred sixty-nine subjects who sustained SCI at 18 years of age or younger and who were followed up for at least 4 years.

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