Publications by authors named "Michael S Cohen"

The extent to which a belief is rooted in one's sense of morality has significant societal implications. While moral conviction can inspire positive collective action, it can also prompt dogmatism, intolerance, and societal divisions. Research in social psychology has documented the functional characteristics of moral conviction and shows that poor metacognition exacerbates its negative outcomes.

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Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of video modules in improving trainees' objective knowledge of middle ear anatomy and to compare the efficacy of using the endoscope to the microscope in video modules.

Methods: Medical students and residents were recruited. Two videos reviewing middle ear anatomy were developed.

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Previous work has shown that false information affects decision-making even after being corrected, a phenomenon known as "continued influence effects" (CIEs). Using mock social media posts about fictional political candidates, we observe robust within-participant CIEs: candidates targeted by corrected accusations are rated more poorly than candidates not targeted by allegations. These effects occur both immediately and after as much as a 2-day delay.

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Objective: The objective of the study is to evaluate the outcomes of surgical management options for cholesteatoma using a national database.

Study Design: Database analysis of the Pediatric Health Information System database to identify children undergoing surgical intervention for cholesteatoma from October 2015 to December 2022.

Methods: Patients were categorized by initial surgical modality: tympanoplasty (TM), tympanoplasty with canal wall-up tympanomastoidectomy (TM-CWU), and tympanoplasty with canal wall-down tympanomastoidectomy (TM-CWD).

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Tumor-infiltrating regulatory T cells (TI-Tregs) elicit immunosuppressive effects in the tumor microenvironment (TME) leading to accelerated tumor growth and resistance to immunotherapies against solid tumors. Here, we demonstrate that poly-(ADP-ribose)-polymerase-11 (PARP11) is an essential regulator of immunosuppressive activities of TI-Tregs. Expression of PARP11 correlates with TI-Treg cell numbers and poor responses to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) in human patients with cancer.

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The prevailing view on post-translational modifications (PTMs) is that amino acid side chains in proteins are modified with a single PTM at any given time. However, a growing body of work has demonstrated crosstalk between different PTMs, some occurring on the same residue. Such interplay is seen with ADP-ribosylation and ubiquitylation, where specialized E3 ligases ubiquitylate targets for proteasomal degradation in an ADP-ribosylation-dependent manner.

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ADP-ribosylation, the transfer of ADP-ribose (ADPr) from nico-tinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) groups to proteins, is a conserved post-translational modification (PTM) that occurs most prominently in response to DNA damage. ADP-ribosylation is a dynamic PTM regulated by writers (PARPs), erasers (ADPr hy-drolases), and readers (ADPR binders). PARP1 is the primary DNA damage-response writer responsible for adding a polymer of ADPR to proteins (PARylation).

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The Islamist group ISIS has been particularly successful at recruiting Westerners as terrorists. A hypothesized explanation is their simultaneous use of two types of propaganda: Heroic narratives, emphasizing individual glory, alongside Social narratives, which emphasize oppression against Islamic communities. In the current study, functional MRI was used to measure brain responses to short ISIS propaganda videos distributed online.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Myhre syndrome is a rare genetic disorder linked to mutations in the SMAD4 gene, with recent studies from Massachusetts General Hospital highlighting its complexities through evaluations of 47 patients.
  • - The findings indicate that symptom progression occurs in all patients after at least 5 years of observation, with different SMAD4 variants associated with varying health outcomes, particularly regarding hearing loss and aortic hypoplasia.
  • - There is a call for more research and evidence-based guidelines to improve understanding and treatment of Myhre syndrome, especially given the serious complications observed, including deaths related to cardiovascular issues.
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The experience of a reward appears to enhance memory for recent prior events, adaptively making that information more available to guide future decision-making. Here, we tested whether reward enhances memory for associative item-location information and also whether the effect of reward spreads to other categorically-related but unrewarded items. Participants earned either points (Experiment 1) or money (Experiment 2) through a time-estimation reward task, during which stimuli-location pairings around a 2D-ring were shown followed by either high-value or low-value rewards.

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PARP14 is a 203 kDa multi-domain protein that is primarily known as an ADP-ribosyltransferase, and is involved in a variety of cellular functions including DNA damage, microglial activation, inflammation, and cancer progression. In addition, PARP14 is upregulated by interferon (IFN), indicating a role in the antiviral response. Furthermore, PARP14 has evolved under positive selection, again indicating that it is involved in host-pathogen conflict.

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Robotic-assisted surgery has gained popularity for otolaryngology procedures. It provides high-definition images and surgical precision to perform diverse procedures. It is an alternative to the operating microscope, endoscope, or exoscope when reaching hidden anatomical structures in the ear.

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Prior work has demonstrated improved accuracy in otitis media diagnosis based on otoscopy using artificial intelligence (AI)-based approaches compared to clinician evaluation. However, this difference in accuracy has not been shown in a setting resembling the point-of-care. In this study, we compare the diagnostic accuracy of a machine-learning model to that of pediatricians using standard handheld otoscopes.

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PARPs encompass a small yet pervasive group of 17 enzymes that catalyze a post-translational modification known as ADP-ribosylation. PARP1, the founding member, has received considerable focus; however, in recent years, the spotlight has shifted to other members within the PARP family. In this opinion piece, we first discuss surprising findings that some FDA-approved PARP1 inhibitors activate innate immune signaling in cancer cells that harbor mutations in the DNA repair pathway.

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Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) encodes multiple putative G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). US28 functions as a viral chemokine receptor and is expressed during both latent and lytic phases of virus infection. US28 actively promotes cellular migration, transformation, and plays a major role in mediating viral latency and reactivation; however, knowledge about the interaction partners involved in these processes is still incomplete.

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Relations among behavioral, psychological, and electrophysiological correlates of Linguistic Empathy were examined in two experiments using lateralized stimuli. Linguistic Empathy is defined as a linguistic manifestation of the point of view the speaker assumes toward the content of the utterance, and of the speaker's attitude toward/identification with the referents therein. Linguistic choices made by the speaker among multiple logically and referentially synonymous lexical and grammatical options reveal the speaker's perspectives.

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Objective: To assess the impact of an education specialist in a multidisciplinary pediatric hearing loss clinic.

Study Design: Retrospective review and cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Single tertiary care center.

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Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unexpected disruptions in patient care, including adherence to the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) 1-3-6 guidelines. These guidelines mandate newborn hearing screening (NHS) by 1 month of age, diagnosis of hearing loss (HL) by 3 months, and referral to Early Intervention by 6 months. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on EHDI benchmarks in a major US city to help clinicians address current needs and prepare for future disruptive events.

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Objective: To determine the relationship between hearing loss etiology, cochlear implant (CI) programming levels, and speech perception performance in a large clinical cohort of pediatric CI recipients.

Study Design: Retrospective chart review.

Setting: Tertiary care hospitals.

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Controlled protein synthesis is required to regulate gene expression and is often carried out in a cell type-specific manner. Protein synthesis is commonly measured by labeling the nascent proteome with amino acid analogs or isotope-containing amino acids. These methods have been difficult to implement in vivo as they require lengthy amino acid replacement procedures.

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Objective: To systematically review the literature to determine auditory outcomes of cochlear implantation in children ≤12 months old.

Data Source: PubMed, EMBASE, Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were searched from inception to 9/1/2021 using PRISMA guidelines.

Review Methods: Studies analyzing auditory outcomes after cochlear implantation (CI) in children ≤12 months of age were included.

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Synthetic clinical images could augment real medical image datasets, a novel approach in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery (OHNS). Our objective was to develop a generative adversarial network (GAN) for tympanic membrane images and to validate the quality of synthetic images with human reviewers. Our model was developed using a state-of-the-art GAN architecture, StyleGAN2-ADA.

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One critical approach for promoting the efficiency of memory is to adopt selective encoding strategies to prioritize more valuable information. Past neuroimaging studies have shown that value-directed modulation of verbal memory depends heavily on the engagement of left-lateralized semantic processing regions, particularly in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). In the present study, we used high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) to seek evidence for a causal role of left VLPFC in supporting the memory advantage for high-value items.

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This study sought to assess the current state of screening for congenital cytomegalovirus infection in newborns among birth hospitals and newborn nurseries in the state of Massachusetts. A survey assessing hospital protocols for cytomegalovirus testing in newborns was distributed to all birth hospitals and newborn nurseries in Massachusetts from November 2020 to February 2021. 73.

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