Patient and Process Outcomes among Pediatric Patients Undergoing Appendectomy during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: COVID-19 forced healthcare systems to make unprecedented changes in clinical care processes. The authors hypothesized that the COVID-19 pandemic adversely impacted timely access to care, perioperative processes, and clinical outcomes for pediatric patients undergoing primary appendectomy.

Methods: A retrospective, international, multicenter study was conducted using matched cohorts within participating centers of the international PEdiatric Anesthesia COVID-19 Collaborative (PEACOC).

Relationship of Neurofilament Light (NfL) and Cognitive Performance in a Sample of Mexican Americans with Normal Cognition, Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia.

Introduction: This study characterized the relationship between plasma NfL and cognition in a community-based sample of older Mexican Americans.

Methods: 544 participants completed a battery of neuropsychological tests and were diagnosed using clinical criteria. NfL was assayed using Simoa.

Demonstrating the benefits of a multidisciplinary aerodigestive program.

Objectives/hypothesis: The Aerodigestive Program (the Aero Program) at Children's Hospital Colorado is a multidisciplinary program focused on airway, digestive, and lung disorders in complex children, involving collaboration between gastroenterology, pulmonology, anesthesiology, and otolaryngology in clinic and operating room. These programs have proliferated as institutions focus on providing greater care coordination and family satisfaction. However, few cost, charge, and satisfaction data exist to support these resource-intensive programs.

Multimodal exercise training in multiple sclerosis: A randomized controlled trial in persons with substantial mobility disability.

Background: Mobility disability is a common, debilitating feature of multiple sclerosis (MS). Exercise training has been identified as an approach to improve MS-related mobility disability. However, exercise randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on mobility in MS have generally not selectively targeted those with the onset of irreversible mobility disability.

Process and Outcomes From a Youth-Led Campaign to Address Healthy Eating in an Urban High School.

This article describes a pilot youth advocacy initiative for obesity prevention informed by social cognitive theory, social network theory, and theories of community mobilization. With assistance from school and health leaders, adolescent-aged youth led a cafeteria food labeling and social marketing campaign. We implemented an anonymous survey 2 weeks prior to and again at the conclusion of the campaign, and used cafeteria records to track servings of fruits and vegetables.

The effect of text messaging on reactive balance and the temporal and spatial characteristics of gait.

The aim of this study was to determine the effects text messaging has on gait characteristics and reactive balance. Thirty-two subjects were recruited. Data was collected on texting ability in standing, while walking and while in perturbed stance.

A survey of screening and practice patterns used for patients with osteoporosis in a sample of physical therapists from Illinois.

Background: Physical therapists provide care for many patients who are at risk or have been diagnosed with osteoporosis. Currently, little information exists about what physical therapists know about osteoporosis, how they screen for the condition, and how they manage patients with osteoporosis.

Purpose: This study assessed knowledge and confidence of physical therapists in screening, examining, and planning interventions for persons diagnosed or at risk for osteoporosis.

The impact of assistive device prescription on gait following total knee replacement.

Purpose: To determine whether patients using a wheeled walker post-total knee replacement (TKR) surgery walk differently prior to hospital discharge and 6 weeks after surgery when compared with patients using a standard walker.

Methods: Fifty-one patients, mean age 67.2 (8.

Improving informed consent to chemotherapy: a randomized controlled trial of written information versus an interactive multimedia CD-ROM.

Objective: This randomized controlled trial aimed to determine whether an interactive CD-ROM improved cancer patients' recall of chemotherapy treatment information over standard written information, and whether demographic, cognitive, and psychological factors better predicted recall than this format of delivery.

Methods: One-hundred-and-one new patients about to commence chemotherapy were randomized to receive written information or a CD-ROM containing treatment information before giving informed consent. Patients' recall, concentration, short-term memory, reading comprehension, anxiety, depression, and coping styles were assessed with standardized measures pre-treatment.

Spirituality as a core domain in the assessment of quality of life in oncology.

Objectives: This study investigated including spiritual wellbeing as a core domain in the assessment of quality of life (QOL) in an Australian oncology population.

Methods: Four hundred and ninety consecutive cancer patients with mixed diagnoses completed the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy--Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-Sp) and the Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC) scale.

Results: Overall, 449 patients completed assessments.

Changing control strategies during standard assessment using computerized dynamic posturography with older women.

The goal of this investigation was to explore the use of spectral analysis to examine the data obtained during computerized dynamic posturography (CDP). In particular, we examined whether spectral analysis would provide more detailed information about underlying postural control strategies and potential learning across conditions and trials of the sensory organization test (SOT). Twenty older women between the ages of 60 and 72 (mean=65.

Children achieve adult-like sensory integration during stance at 12-years-old.

This study examined balance control in children to determine at what age the integration of sensory information in unperturbed stance is comparable to that of adults. In addition, it examined whether overall performance was related to age, gender and specific physical characteristics, such as height, weight and body mass index (BMI). Seventy-four female and 80 male children between the ages of 6 and 12 years participated in the study, as well as 20 adults, aged 20-22 years.

Terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase deficiency decreases autoimmune disease in diabetes-prone nonobese diabetic mice and lupus-prone MRL-Fas(lpr) mice.

The wide diversity of the T and B Ag receptor repertoires becomes even more extensive postneonatally due to the activity of TdT, which adds nontemplated N nucleotides to Ig and TCR coding ends during V(D)J recombination. In addition, complementarity-determining region 3 sequences formed in the absence of TdT are more uniform due to the use of short sequence homologies between the V, D, and J genes. Thus, the action of TdT produces an adult repertoire that is both different from, and much larger than, the repertoire of the neonate.

Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) receptor subtypes S1P1 and S1P3, respectively, regulate lymphocyte recirculation and heart rate.

Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) influences heart rate, coronary artery caliber, endothelial integrity, and lymphocyte recirculation through five related high affinity G-protein-coupled receptors. Inhibition of lymphocyte recirculation by non-selective S1P receptor agonists produces clinical immunosuppression preventing transplant rejection but is associated with transient bradycardia. Understanding the contribution of individual receptors has been limited by the embryonic lethality of the S1P(1) knock-out and the unavailability of selective agonists or antagonists.