Dual-labeled anti-GD2 targeted probe for intraoperative molecular imaging of neuroblastoma.

Background: Surgical resection is integral for the treatment of neuroblastoma, the most common extracranial solid malignancy in children. Safely locating and resecting primary tumor and remote deposits of disease remains a significant challenge, resulting in high rates of complications and incomplete surgery, worsening outcomes. Intraoperative molecular imaging (IMI) uses targeted radioactive or fluorescent tracers to identify and visualize tumors intraoperatively.

Detection properties of indium-111 and IRDye800CW for intraoperative molecular imaging use across tissue phantom models.

Significance: Intraoperative molecular imaging (IMI) enables the detection and visualization of cancer tissue using targeted radioactive or fluorescent tracers. While IMI research has rapidly expanded, including the recent Food and Drug Administration approval of a targeted fluorophore, the limits of detection have not been well-defined.

Aim: The ability of widely available handheld intraoperative tools (Neoprobe and SPY-PHI) to measure gamma decay and fluorescence intensity from IMI tracers was assessed while varying characteristics of both the signal source and the intervening tissue or gelatin phantoms.

Effect of graduated drug therapy for moderate-to-severe chronic insomnia on the severity of disease: an observational study in Germany.

Study Objectives: Severe chronic insomnia is a common sleep disorder that is mostly persistent and needs to be treated. Pharmacologic treatment options and guidelines are sparse, particularly for long-term treatment. Our study aimed to investigate a graduated therapy scheme for moderate-to-severe chronic insomnia in practice, considering the effects on self-reported sleep quality and quality of life.

A qualitative study of the ASPECT Patient Engagement Program designed to teach storytelling and advocacy skills to individuals with visual impairments and allies.

Purpose/objective: This study examined the impact of the ASPECT (Advocacy, Support, Perspective, Empowerment, Communication, and Training) Patient Engagement Program on its alumni in order to understand how they used the storytelling and advocacy skills they learned, determine the strengths of the program, and identify recommendations for strengthening the program.

Research Method/design: In spring 2023, eight focus groups and one interview were conducted with ASPECT Program alumni. Inductive coding was used to identify themes.

Prenatal Testing for Variants in Genes Associated with Hereditary Cancer Risk: Laboratory Experience and Considerations.

Prenatal molecular genetic testing for familial variants that cause inherited disorders has been performed for decades and is accepted as standard of care. However, the spectrum of genes considered for prenatal testing is expanding because of genetic testing for hereditary cancer risk (HCR) and inclusion of conditions with associated cancer risk in carrier screening panels. A few of these disorders, such as ataxia telangiectasia and Bloom syndrome, include increased cancer risk as part of the phenotype, already meet professional guidelines for prenatal testing, and may be associated with increased cancer risk in heterozygous carriers.

Survival following complete resection of neuroblastoma in novel orthotopic rat xenograft model.

Neuroblastoma accounts for 15% of pediatric cancer deaths, despite multimodal therapy including surgical resection. Current neuroblastoma rodent models are insufficient for studying the impact of surgery and combination treatments, largely due to the small size of mouse models. Human neuroblastoma SK-N-BE(2) cells were injected into the left adrenal gland of 5-6-week-old RNU homozygous nude rats.

Variant Classification for Pompe disease; ACMG/AMP specifications from the ClinGen Lysosomal Diseases Variant Curation Expert Panel.

Accurate determination of the clinical significance of genetic variants is critical to the integration of genomics in medicine. To facilitate this process, the NIH-funded Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) has assembled Variant Curation Expert Panels (VCEPs), groups of experts and biocurators which provide gene- and disease- specifications to the American College of Medical Genetics & Genomics and Association for Molecular Pathology's (ACMG/AMP) variation classification guidelines. With the goal of classifying the clinical significance of GAA variants in Pompe disease (Glycogen storage disease, type II), the ClinGen Lysosomal Diseases (LD) VCEP has specified the ACMG/AMP criteria for GAA.

Nocturnal positive pressure ventilation improves relationship satisfaction of patients with OSA and their partners.

Objective: Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) ventilation is considered the therapeutic standard for obstructed sleep apnea (OSA). Therapy success may also be affected by the patient's bed partner. A questionnaire was developed and tested that measures the attitude of the bed partner towards CPAP therapy and relationship effects.

The Benefit of Bimodal Training in Voice Learning.

It is known that talkers can be recognized by listening to their specific vocal qualities-breathiness and fundamental frequencies. However, talker identification can also occur by focusing on the talkers' unique articulatory style, which is known to be available auditorily and visually and can be shared across modalities. Evidence shows that voices heard while seeing talkers' faces are later recognized better on their own compared to the voices heard alone.

Comparative study of the SleepImage ring device and polysomnography for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea.

Unlabelled: We aim to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the SleepImage Ring device in identifying obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) across different severity in comparison to standard polysomnography (PSG). Thirty-nine patients (mean age, 56.8 ± 15.

Neural correlates of visual and tactile path integration and their task related modulation.

Self-motion induces sensory signals that allow to determine travel distance (path integration). For veridical path integration, one must distinguish self-generated from externally induced sensory signals. Predictive coding has been suggested to attenuate self-induced sensory responses, while task relevance can reverse the attenuating effect of prediction.

Semantic priming from McGurk words: Priming depends on perception.

The McGurk effect is an illusion in which visible articulations alter the perception of auditory speech (e.g., video 'da' dubbed with audio 'ba' may be heard as 'da').

Impact of Gender on Insomnia.

There is a distinct preponderance of female insomniacs when compared to male insomniacs. The aim of this study was to examine possible gender differences in the causes for insomnia, and the phenotypes of insomnia, and to investigate whether gender-specific insomnia diagnosis and treatment could be relevant in clinical practice. Data were collected from 121 insomniac patients by a medical specialist in the framework of normal clinical practice in Germany.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Transportation of Adults With Visual Impairments.

Access to efficient and affordable transportation options has long been a challenge for many individuals with vision loss. In spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a quick shift in the availability and safety of transportation. Using the constant comparison method, open-ended responses from 1,162 participants in the study were coded.

Incidental molecular diagnoses and heterozygous risk alleles in a carrier screening cohort.

Purpose: Expanded pan-ethnic carrier screening is an effective tool for the management of reproductive risk. However, growth in the number of conditions screened, in combination with increasingly more comprehensive test methodologies, can lead to the detection of genetic findings that may affect the health of the tested individual. The objective of this study was to investigate the frequency of pathogenic genotypes in a presumed healthy carrier screening cohort to facilitate broader discussions regarding disclosure of genetic information from carrier screening.

Visuo-tactile heading perception.

Self-motion through an environment induces various sensory signals, i.e., visual, vestibular, auditory, or tactile.

The Interplay Between Poor Sleep and Work-Related Health.

Objectives: Sleep disorders can arise from work. Employees who experience work overload are more likely to develop sleep problems. Poor sleep leads to decreased performance, sick leave, and accidents.

Transitioning to Digital Systems: The Role of World Health Organization's Digital Adaptation Kits in Operationalizing Recommendations and Interoperability Standards.

Introduction: The transition from paper to digital systems requires quality assurance of the underlying content and application of data standards for interoperability. The World Health Organization (WHO) developed digital adaptation kits (DAKs) as an operational and software-neutral mechanism to translate WHO guidelines into a standardized format that can be more easily incorporated into digital systems.

Methods: WHO convened health program area and digital leads, reviewed existing approaches for requirements gathering, mapped to established standards, and incorporated research findings to define DAK components.

Influence of Tactile Flow on Visual Heading Perception.

The integration of information from different sensory modalities is crucial for successful navigation through an environment. Among others, self-motion induces distinct optic flow patterns on the retina, vestibular signals and tactile flow, which contribute to determine traveled distance (path integration) or movement direction (heading). While the processing of combined visual-vestibular information is subject to a growing body of literature, the processing of visuo-tactile signals in the context of self-motion has received comparatively little attention.

Exploring Resource-Sharing Behaviors for Finding Relevant Health Resources: Analysis of an Online Ovarian Cancer Community.

Background: Online health communities (OHCs) provide patients and survivors of ovarian cancer (OvCa) and their caregivers with help beyond traditional support channels, such as health care providers and clinicians. OvCa OHCs promote connections and exchanges of information among users with similar experiences. Users often exchange information, which leads to the sharing of resources in the form of web links.

Concerns on healthcare access, utilization, and safety due to COVID-19 among American adults with vision loss.

Background: Limited studies have indicated that Americans with vision loss are differentially impacted by COVID-19.

Objective: We examined concerns with healthcare and safety among Americans with vision loss during the early phase of the pandemic (April 2020).

Methods: The Flatten Inaccessibility Survey assessed the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare (pharmacy access, maintenance of eyecare regimen, caregiver access, and resource denial) and safety (social distancing, clean surfaces, and touching public signage) concerns among Americans with low vision or who were blind.

Adventures of a Government Researcher.

Visualization, interactive computer graphics, and related topics have been a particularly dynamic area of computer science, producing advances that impact society. Working at times in a research laboratory and at times for two science funding agencies, I held positions at the level of an individual researcher, Director of a VR Laboratory, and funding agency Program Director. This article will discuss some of my experiences, including insight into how science programs in funding agencies are initiated.

Using mHealth to Improve Timeliness and Quality of Maternal and Newborn Health in the Primary Health Care System in Ethiopia.

The Last Ten Kilometers 2020 Project (L10K 2020) designed a strategy for piloting, implementing, and scaling a mobile health (mHealth) digital solution to improve the quality of community-level maternal and child health service delivery in Ethiopia. L10K 2020 first conducted a landscape assessment to design a context-appropriate smartphone-based mHealth solution for the Health Extension Workers and tablets for their supervisors and the midwives managing the same clients at the health center level. These applications included multiple modules and packages including client registration and appointment management; follow-up and notifications; digital job aids for each of the maternal and child health program packages (for Health Extension Workers only); and referral and client tracking systems.

Selective adaptation in speech: Measuring the effects of visual and lexical contexts.

Speech selective adaptation is a phenomenon in which repeated presentation of a speech stimulus alters subsequent phonetic categorization. Prior work has reported that lexical, but not multisensory, context influences selective adaptation. This dissociation suggests that lexical and multisensory contexts influence speech perception through separate and independent processes (see Samuel & Lieblich, 2014).

Machine learning for the prediction of pathologic pneumatosis intestinalis.

Background: The radiographic finding of pneumatosis intestinalis can indicate a spectrum of underlying processes ranging from a benign finding to a life-threatening condition. Although radiographic pneumatosis intestinalis is relatively common, there is no validated clinical tool to guide surgical management.

Methods: Using a retrospective cohort of 300 pneumatosis intestinalis cases from a single institution, we developed 3 machine learning models for 2 clinical tasks: (1) the distinction of benign from pathologic pneumatosis intestinalis cases and (2) the determination of patients who would benefit from an operation.