Long-Term Outcomes After Spinal Cord Stimulator Placement in Patients with Pre-procedural Active Opioid Use Versus Patients Who Were Opioid-Naïve.

Background: Outcome optimization after the placement of a spinal cord stimulator (SCS) is critical. The objective of this study was to determine if an association existed between pre-procedural opioid use (compared to patients who were opioid-naïve) and postoperative long-term outcomes following SCS placement.

Objective: To examine the impact of preprocedural opioid use on long-term outcomes after SCS therapy.

Flagellar interference with plasmid uptake in biofilms: a joint experimental and modeling study.

Plasmid conjugation is a key facilitator of horizontal gene transfer (HGT), and plasmids encoding antibiotic resistance drive the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance. In natural, engineered, and clinical environments, bacteria often grow in protective biofilms. Therefore, a better understanding of plasmid transfer in biofilms is needed.

Severe Mental Illness and Cardiovascular Disease: JACC State-of-the-Art Review.

People with severe mental illness, consisting of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression, have a high burden of modifiable cardiovascular risk behaviors and conditions and have a cardiovascular mortality rate twice that of the general population. People with acute and chronic cardiovascular disease are at a higher risk of developing mental health symptoms and disease. There is emerging evidence for shared etiological factors between severe mental illness and cardiovascular disease that includes biological, genetic, and behavioral mechanisms.

Valuing the voice of lived experience of eating disorders in the research process: Benefits and considerations.

Although the inclusion of individuals with lived experience is encouraged within the research process, there remains inconsistent direct involvement in many mental health fields. Within the eating disorders field specifically, there is a very strong and increasing presence of lived experience advocacy. However, due to a number of potential challenges, research undertaken in consultation or in collaboration with individuals with lived experience of an eating disorder is scarce.

Effect of External Force on Agency in Physical Human-Machine Interaction.

In the advent of intelligent robotic tools for physically assisting humans, user experience, and intuitiveness in particular have become important features for control designs. However, existing works predominantly focus on performance-related measures for evaluating control systems as the subjective experience of a user by large cannot be directly observed. In this study, we therefore focus on agency-related interactions between control and embodiment in the context of physical human-machine interaction.

Human-Robot Team Interaction Through Wearable Haptics for Cooperative Manipulation.

The interaction of robot teams and single human in teleoperation scenarios is beneficial in cooperative tasks, for example, the manipulation of heavy and large objects in remote or dangerous environments. The main control challenge of the interaction is its asymmetry, arising because robot teams have a relatively high number of controllable degrees of freedom compared to the human operator. Therefore, we propose a control scheme that establishes the interaction on spaces of reduced dimensionality taking into account the low number of human command and feedback signals imposed by haptic devices.

Initial Slovenian experience with MitraClip therapy : Careful selection of patients is crucial for optimal outcome.

Background: MitraClip is a percutaneous mitral repair technology increasingly used for high surgical risk patients with primary or secondary mitral regurgitation. We describe initial Slovenian experience with MitraClip and discuss the importance of identifying the suitable candidates for this procedure.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the first 10 patients (mean age 75.

Whole Genome Sequencing of a Canadian Bovine Gammaherpesvirus 4 Strain and the Possible Link between the Viral Infection and Respiratory and Reproductive Clinical Manifestations in Dairy Cattle.

Bovine gammaherpesvirus 4 (BoHV-4) is a herpesvirus widespread in cattle populations, and with no clear disease association. Its genome contains a long unique coding region (LUR) flanked by polyrepetitive DNA and 79 open reading frames (ORFs), with unique 17 ORFs, named Bo1 to Bo17. In 2009, a BoHV-4 strain was isolated (FMV09-1180503: BoHV-4-FMV) from cattle with respiratory disease from Quebec, Canada, and its LUR was sequenced.

Integrating Web-Based Applications into Aged Care: Two Case Studies and Discussion.

In anticipation of the growing need for adequate mental health care for older adults in residential aged care facilities, psychologists are challenged to overcome several barriers that impede the uptake and delivery of their services in such settings. Information and communication technologies (ICT) have strong potential to overcome some of these barriers by supporting the delivery of evidence-based psychosocial treatments for common psychogeriatric issues. This paper presents two case studies that illustrate when and how psychologists can use various ICT applications (e.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation in a cancer patient denied for surgical aortic valve replacement-a case report.

Background: Aortic stenosis is a progressive disease. Symptomatic aortic stenosis has a poor prognosis, which is frequently worse than that of a malignant disease. Cancer patients with severe aortic stenosis may be denied for optimal oncologic treatment because of high operative risk and for aortic valve replacement because of the significant comorbidity itself.

Preoperative and perioperative use of levosimendan in cardiac surgery: European expert opinion.

In cardiac surgery, postoperative low cardiac output has been shown to correlate with increased rates of organ failure and mortality. Catecholamines have been the standard therapy for many years, although they carry substantial risk for adverse cardiac and systemic effects, and have been reported to be associated with increased mortality. On the other hand, the calcium sensitiser and potassium channel opener levosimendan has been shown to improve cardiac function with no imbalance in oxygen consumption, and to have protective effects in other organs.

The CD20 homologue MS4A4 directs trafficking of KIT toward clathrin-independent endocytosis pathways and thus regulates receptor signaling and recycling.

MS4A family members differentially regulate the cell cycle, and aberrant, or loss of, expression of MS4A family proteins has been observed in colon and lung cancer. However, the precise functions of MS4A family proteins and their mechanistic interactions remain unsolved. Here we report that MS4A4 facilitates trafficking of the receptor tyrosine kinase KIT through endocytic recycling rather than degradation pathways by a mechanism that involves recruitment of KIT to caveolin-1-enriched microdomains.

Morphological and ultrastructural comparative analysis of bone tissue after Er:YAG laser and surgical drill osteotomy.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to analyze morphological, chemical, and crystallographic changes of bone tissue after osteotomy performed with an erbium:yttrium-aluminium-garnet (Er:YAG) laser and a low speed pilot drill.

Materials And Methods: Bone blocks were prepared from porcine ribs, and on each block, two tunnel preparations were performed using the Er:YAG laser (pulse energy: 1000 mJ, pulse duration: 300 μs, pulse repetition rate: 20 Hz) or the low-speed surgical pilot drill. The morphological changes of the cortical and the spongious surface of the tunnel preparations were analyzed under the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) at low and high resolution.

A biofilm exists on healthy mucosa of the paranasal sinuses: a prospectively performed, blinded, scanning electron microscope study.

Objectives: Based on our hypothesis that biofilm is nothing else but normal, otherwise abundantly colonised mucosal mucous blanket, the aim of this study was to check out whether bacterial biofilm exists exclusively at the diseased mucosal surfaces or at healthy mucosa of paranasal sinuses as well.

Design: Prospective and blinded.

Setting: Tertiary academic hospital.

Governments, off-patent vaccines, smallpox and universal childhood vaccination.

WHO is now celebrating more than 30 years of freedom from smallpox. What was originally seen as a victory over an ancient scourge can now be viewed as an epidemiologically driven programme to overcome governmental inertia and under-achievement in delivering an off-patent vaccine. Though efforts are accelerating global vaccine use, a plea is made to push the world's governments to commit to universal childhood vaccination via a proposed new programme.

Biofilm in nasal polyps.

Introduction: Bacterial biofilms are involved in many human bacterial infectious processes and in chronic rhinosinusitis as well. The aim of this study was to determine whether biofilm exists in nasal polyps, both in diffuse nasal polyposis (DNP) and antrochoanal polyps (ACP).

Method: Tissue samples were taken from seven patients suffering from DNP and three patients suffering from ACP, based on the defined patient inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Composite photopolymerization with diode laser.

Under clinical conditions, the time needed for the proper light curing of luting composites or the multi-incremental buildup of a large restoration with halogen curing units is quite extensive. Due to the development of high power curing devices, such as argon lasers and plasma arc lights and, in order to decrease curing time, halogen and LED devices have developed a high intensity polymerization mode. This study compared the degree of conversion using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) of two composite materials: Tetric Ceram and Tetric EvoCeram polymerized with three polymerization modes (high, low and soft mode) of a Bluephase 16i LED curing unit and blue diode laser intensity of 50 mW on the output of the laser beam and 35 mW/cm2 on the resin composite sample.

Cytotoxicity of nanosize V(2)O(5) particles to selected fibroblast and tumor cells.

Two kinds of nanosize V(2)O(5) particles were synthesized in our own laboratory and concomitantly applied to V79 and L929 fibroblasts and SCCVII, B16F10 and FsaR tumor cells. The morphologies of the cells were monitored using an inverted inverse microscope equipped with digital camera, while quantitative determination of the cytotoxicity of nanosize V(2)O(5) particles was measured using crystal violet bioassay. Twenty four hours after the addition of nanosize V(2)O(5) particles (20muM), noticeable changes in the morphology and density of fibroblast and cancer cells were observed.

Towards universal childhood immunization: why we must and how we might.

Nearly 3 million children die each year of infectious diseases preventable with vaccines, many costing only pennies per dose. The shameful under use of existing vaccines receives scant attention. It is well within the reach of existing resources to assure the ongoing vaccination of all children everywhere.

Health consequences for children with undiagnosed asthma-like symptoms.

Background: A growing body of evidence indicates that there are a substantial number of children who report asthma-like symptoms and are not diagnosed with asthma. However, there is little information on the health consequences of asthma-like symptoms for children with these symptoms and no asthma diagnosis.

Objective: To assess the prevalence and health consequences (school absences, sleep disturbances, activity limitations, physician visits, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations) of asthma-like symptoms among children with and without physician diagnosis.