Risk Factors and Pain Management in the Incidence of Postoperative Delirium in Elderly Patients: A Retrospective Study.

: Postoperative delirium (POD) is a common surgical complication that increases hospital stay duration, hospitalization costs, readmission rates and mortality. This study aims to describe the incidence of POD in an elderly patient population and to investigate pain assessment as a risk factor for postoperative confusion. Additionally, we aim to determine a predictive model for POD.

Diagnostic Accuracy of the Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Card Test, Puerto Rico.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for rapid and accurate diagnostic tools. In August 2020, the Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Card test became available as a timely and affordable alternative for SARS-CoV-2 molecular testing, but its performance may vary due to factors including timing and symptomatology. This study evaluates BinaxNOW diagnostic performance in diverse epidemiological contexts.

Prolactin promotes the recruitment of main olfactory bulb cells and enhances the behavioral exploration toward a socio-sexual stimulus in female mice.

Olfactory communication is triggered by pheromones that profoundly influence neuroendocrine responses to drive social interactions. Two principal olfactory systems process pheromones: the main and the vomeronasal or accessory system. Prolactin receptors are expressed in both systems suggesting a participation in the processing of olfactory information.

Extremely missing numerical data in Electronic Health Records for machine learning can be managed through simple imputation methods considering informative missingness: A comparative of solutions in a COVID-19 mortality case study.

Background And Objective: Reusing Electronic Health Records (EHRs) for Machine Learning (ML) leads on many occasions to extremely incomplete and sparse tabular datasets, which can hinder the model development processes and limit their performance and generalization. In this study, we aimed to characterize the most effective data imputation techniques and ML models for dealing with highly missing numerical data in EHRs, in the case where only a very limited number of data are complete, as opposed to the usual case of having a reduced number of missing values.

Methods: We used a case study including full blood count laboratory data, demographic and survival data in the context of COVID-19 hospital admissions and evaluated 30 processing pipelines combining imputation methods with ML classifiers.

High molar ratios of tumor necrosis factor (TNF ) soluble receptors I and II to the TNF ligand in human plasma from male veterans with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).

Background And Objectives: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are associated with chronic inflammation, as inferred from increased, but variable, peripheral levels of cytokines. We sought proof of concept for the notion that peripheral cytokine binding proteins and/or soluble receptors can confound measures of cytokines in those with a history of physical and psychological traumatic exposures. Efforts were focused on one of the major cytokines involved in inflammation, tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-).

Imaging fibrosis in pediatric kidney transplantation: A pilot study.

Background: Noninvasive alternatives to biopsy for assessment of interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (IFTA), the major determinant of kidney transplant failure, remain profoundly limited. Elastography is a noninvasive technique that propagates shear waves across tissues to measure their stiffness. We aimed to test utility of elastography for early detection of IFTA in pediatric kidney allografts.

Activation of the central but not the medial and cortical amygdala during anticipation for daily nursing in the rabbit.

Rabbits have remarkable nursing behavior: after parturition, does visit daily their pups for nursing only once with circadian periodicity. Before the nursing events, they present increased activity and arousal, which shift according to the timing of scheduled nursing, either during the day or night. Brain areas related to maternal behavior and neuroendocrine cells for milk secretion are also entrained.

Lactation attenuates pro-oxidant reactions in the maternal brain.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are intimately linked to bioenergetics and redox biology, contributing to cellular functioning and physiological signaling, but also acting as toxic agents during oxidative stress. Hence, the balance between pro-oxidant reactions and the activity of antioxidant defenses sustains a basal oxidative status, controls the increase of redox signaling, and mediates potential pathological events during oxidative stress. Maternal experience, especially during nursing, requires high energetic demands and expenditure to ensure the well-being of the offspring.

Interactions of Glutamate and Gamma Amino Butyric Acid with the insulin-like growth factor system in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and/or cardiovascular accidents (CVA or stroke): A systematic review.

The brain maintains homeostasis of neural excitation in part through the receptor-mediated signaling of Glutamate (Glu) and Gamma Amino Butyric Acid (GABA), but localized injuries cause cellular release of excess Glu leading to neurotoxicity. The literature strongly supports the role of Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in adult brain neuroprotection and repair, and research supporting the existence of molecular interactions between Glu, GABA, and IGF-1 and in normal animals raises the question of whether and/or how the Glu/GABA system interacts with IGF-1 post-injury. This systematic review was undertaken to explore works addressing this question among adults with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and/or cerebrovascular accident (CVA; stroke).

Neuroimmunoendocrine Link Between Chronic Kidney Disease and Olfactory Deficits.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a multifactorial pathology that progressively leads to the deterioration of metabolic functions and results from deficient glomerular filtration and electrolyte imbalance. Its economic impact on public health is challenging. Mexico has a high prevalence of CKD that is strongly associated with some of the most common metabolic disorders like diabetes and hypertension.

The presence of a large patent foramen ovale reduces acute and chronic success in atrial fibrillation ablation.

Purpose: In this study, we analyzed PFO implications in atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation.

Methods: Six hundred and twenty-five consecutive patients with AF undergoing PV isolation were included. We considered that a large and/or compliant PFO was present if the catheters advanced gently into the LA without puncturing the septum.

Rabbits can be conditioned in a food-induced place preference paradigm.

The conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm has been employed in behavioral studies to investigate the responses to an environment where a reinforcing event occurs. It is applied to reveal incentive motivational responses to reward-related stimuli. It is standardized and widely applied in mice and rats, two of the most common species of laboratory animals.

The gut microbiota of chickens in a commercial farm treated with a Salmonella phage cocktail.

The microbiota in broiler chicken intestines affects the animals' health, metabolism, and immunity both positively and negatively. Accordingly, it has a significant impact on animal productivity. Phages, host-specific parasites of bacterial cells, are a promising antimicrobial alternative that selectively target pathogens without disturbing the microbiota.

Triage and monitoring of COVID-19 patients in intensive care using unsupervised machine learning.

Background: We designed an algorithm to assess COVID-19 patients severity and dynamic intubation needs and predict their length of stay using the breathing frequency (BF) and oxygen saturation (SpO) signals.

Methods: We recorded the BF and SpO signals for confirmed COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU of a teaching hospital during both the first and subsequent outbreaks of the pandemic in France. An unsupervised machine-learning algorithm (the Gaussian mixture model) was applied to the patients' data for clustering.

Predictors of Complication Following Cleft Lip and Palate Surgery in a Low-Resource Setting: A Prospective Outcomes Study in Nicaragua.

Background: Higher rates of postoperative complication following cleft lip or palate repair have been documented in low resource settings, but their causes remain unclear. This study sought to delineate patient, surgeon, and care environment factors in cleft complications in a low-income country.

Design: Prospective outcomes study.

The Role of Spermidine Synthase (SpdS) and Spermine Synthase (Sms) in Regulating Triglyceride Storage in .

Polyamines are small organic cations that are important for several biological processes such as cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, and apoptosis. The dysregulation of intracellular polyamines is often associated with diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and developmental disorders. Although polyamine metabolism has been well studied, the effects of key enzymes in the polyamine pathway on lipid metabolism are not well understood.

Remote Online Project: Traveling in a Virtual World, Researching Microbes.

The undergraduate general microbiology course-based research projects were disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. Therefore, we developed a remote online research project that combines aspects of microbiology lectures and laboratory techniques. The project allows students to virtually travel to environmental sites to research different microorganisms.

Prolactin Attenuates Neuroinflammation in LPS-Activated SIM-A9 Microglial Cells by Inhibiting NF-κB Pathways Via ERK1/2.

Prolactin (PRL) is a pleiotropic hormone with multiple functions in several tissues and organs, including the brain. PRL decreases lesion-induced microgliosis and modifies gene expression related to microglial functions in the hippocampus, thereby providing a possible mechanism through which it might participate in neuroimmune modulatory responses and prevent neuronal cell damage. However, the direct contribution of microglial cells to PRL-mediated neuroprotection is still unclear and no studies have yet documented whether PRL can directly activate cellular pathways in microglial cells.