Geographic trends in overall and long-acting opioid prescriptions under Medicaid and Medicare Part D in the United States, 2013-2021.

Amid the national opioid epidemic, it is important to assess trends in opioid prescriptions. Long-acting opioids (LAOs) are of particular interest as they are among the most intensely misused prescription opioids. Moreover, understanding geographic trends in opioid prescriptions may help identify state-level variations, illustrating state-specific disparities.

Classifying Alzheimer's Disease Neuropathology Using Clinical and MRI Measurements.

Background: Computer-aided machine learning models are being actively developed with clinically available biomarkers to diagnose Alzheimer's disease (AD) in living persons. Despite considerable work with cross-sectional in vivo data, many models lack validation against postmortem AD neuropathological data.

Objective: Train machine learning models to classify the presence or absence of autopsy-confirmed severe AD neuropathology using clinically available features.

Interaction between sleep duration and trouble sleeping on depressive symptoms among U.S. adults, NHANES 2015-2018.

Background: This study aims to examine the associations and interaction effects of sleep duration and trouble sleeping on depressive symptoms among U.S. adults.

Associations between e-cigarette use and sleep health among adults in the United States, NHANES 2015-2018.

Objective: To examine the associations between e-cigarette use or dual (e-cigarette and combustible cigarette) use and short sleep duration and trouble sleeping among U.S. adults.

Moderation effects of serotype on dengue severity across pregnancy status in Mexico.

Background: Pregnancy increases a woman's risk of severe dengue. To the best of our knowledge, the moderation effect of the dengue serotype among pregnant women has not been studied in Mexico. This study explores how pregnancy interacted with the dengue serotype from 2012 to 2020 in Mexico.

Relationship Between Valence and Arousal for Subjective Experience in a Real-life Setting for Supportive Housing Residents: Results From an Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

Background: The circumplex model of affect posits that valence and arousal are the principal dimensions of affect. The center of the 2D space represents a neutral state of valence and a medium state of arousal. The role of valence and arousal in human emotion has been studied extensively.

Higher Expression of Annexin A2 in Metastatic Bladder Urothelial Carcinoma Promotes Migration and Invasion.

In this study, we aim to evaluate the significance of AnxA2 in BLCA and establish its metastatic role in bladder cancer cells. Analysis of TCGA data showed that AnxA2 mRNA expression was significantly higher in BLCA tumors than in normal bladder tissues. High mRNA expression of AnxA2 in BLCA was significantly associated with high pathological grades and stages, non-papillary tumor histology, and poor overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and diseases specific survival (DSS).

Country-Level Governance Indicators as Predictors of COVID-19 Morbidity, Mortality, and Vaccination Coverage: An Exploratory Global Analysis.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect all countries across the globe, this study seeks to investigate the relationship between nations' governance, COVID-19 national data, and nation-level COVID-19 vaccination coverage. National-level governance indicators (corruption index, voice and accountability, political stability, and absence of violence/terrorism), officially reported COVID-19 national data (cases, death, and tests per one million population), and COVID-19 vaccination coverage was considered for this study to predict COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Results indicate a strong relationship between nations' governance and officially reported COVID-19 data.

Trends in prevalence of short sleep duration and trouble sleeping among US adults, 2005-2018.

Study Objectives: To determine trends in prevalence of short sleep duration and trouble sleeping among US adults from 2005 to 2018, and to assess how sleep trends vary by sex and race/ethnicity.

Methods: Seven cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data between 2005-2006 and 2017-2018 were analyzed. Trouble sleeping and sleep duration were self reported.

Longitudinal Changes in Cognitive Functioning and Brain Structure in Professional Boxers and Mixed Martial Artists After They Stop Fighting.

Background And Objectives: This study compares longitudinal changes in cognitive functioning and brain structures in male fighters who transitioned to an inactive fighting status without any further exposure to repetitive head impacts (RHIs) and fighters remaining active with continual exposure to RHIs.

Methods: Participants were recruited from the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study. At time point (TP)1, all fighters were active, with continual exposure to RHIs.

Characteristic Deviations of Auditory Evoked Potentials in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Background: Neurological, structural, and behavioral abnormalities are widely reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); yet there are no objective markers to date. We postulated that by using dominant and nondominant ear data, underlying differences in auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) between ASD and control groups can be recognized.

Purpose: The primary purpose was to identify if significant differences exist in AEPs recorded from dominant and nondominant ear stimulation in (1) children with ASD and their matched controls, (2) adults with ASD and their matched controls, and (3) a combined child and adult ASD group and control group.

The Health & Aging Brain among Latino Elders (HABLE) study methods and participant characteristics.

Introduction: Mexican Americans remain severely underrepresented in Alzheimer's disease (AD) research. The Health & Aging Brain among Latino Elders (HABLE) study was created to fill important gaps in the existing literature.

Methods: Community-dwelling Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic White adults and elders (age 50 and above) were recruited.

Energy-Period Profiles of Brain Networks in Group fMRI Resting-State Data: A Comparison of Empirical Mode Decomposition With the Short-Time Fourier Transform and the Discrete Wavelet Transform.

Traditionally, functional networks in resting-state data were investigated with linear Fourier and wavelet-related methods to characterize their frequency content by relying on pre-specified frequency bands. In this study, Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), an adaptive time-frequency method, is used to investigate the naturally occurring frequency bands of resting-state data obtained by Group Independent Component Analysis. Specifically, energy-period profiles of Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) obtained by EMD are created and compared for different resting-state networks.

MicroRNA-940 as a Potential Serum Biomarker for Prostate Cancer.

Prostate cancer is one of the leading causes of death despite an astoundingly high survival rate for localized tumors. Though prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, performed in conjunction with digital rectal examinations, is reasonably accurate, there are major caveats requiring a thorough assessment of risks and benefits prior to conducting the test. MicroRNAs, a class of small non-coding RNAs, are stable molecules that can be detected in circulation by non-invasive methods and have gained importance in cancer prognosis and diagnosis in the recent years.

Clinical Significance of Annexin A2 Expression in Breast Cancer Patients.

Increasing evidence suggests that AnxA2 contributes to invasion and metastasis of breast cancer. However, the clinical significance of AnxA2 expression in breast cancer has not been reported. The expression of AnxA2 in cell lines, tumor tissues, and serum samples of breast cancer patients were analyzed by immunoblotting, immunohistochemistry, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively.

Resting-State Static and Dynamic Functional Abnormalities in Active Professional Fighters With Repetitive Head Trauma and With Neuropsychological Impairments.

Previous neuroimaging studies have identified structural brain abnormalities in active professional fighters with repetitive head trauma and correlated these changes with fighters' neuropsychological impairments. However, brain changes in these fighters derived using neuroimaging techniques remain unclear. In this study, both static and dynamic functional connectivity alterations were investigated (1) between healthy normal control subjects (NC) and fighters and (2) between non-impaired and impaired fighters.

Clinical Symptoms of Arboviruses in Mexico.

Arboviruses such as Chikungunya (CHIKV), Dengue (DENV), and Zika virus (ZIKV) have emerged as a significant public health concern in Mexico. The existing literature lacks evidence regarding the dispersion of arboviruses, thereby limiting public health policy's ability to integrate the diagnosis, management, and prevention. This study seeks to reveal the clinical symptoms of CHIK, DENV, and ZIKV by age group, region, sex, and time across Mexico.

Effects of Auditory Training on Electrophysiological Measures in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Background: Identifying objective changes following an auditory training program is central to the assessment of the program's efficacy.

Purpose: This study aimed (1) to objectively determine the efficacy of a 12-week auditory processing training (APT) program in individuals with autism spectrum disorder using auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) and (2) to identify the top central AEP predictors of the overall score on the Test of Auditory Processing Skills-3 (TAPS-3), the primary behavioral outcome measure of the APT program published in our earlier article.

Research Design: A one-group pretraining, posttraining design was used.

Multivariate group-level analysis for task fMRI data with canonical correlation analysis.

Task-based functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has been widely used to determine population-based brain activations for cognitive tasks. Popular group-level analysis in fMRI is based on the general linear model and constitutes a univariate method. However, univariate methods are known to suffer from low sensitivity for a given specificity because the spatial covariance structure at each voxel is not taken entirely into account.

Identifying Behaviors Predicting Early Morning Emotions by Observing Permanent Supportive Housing Residents: An Ecological Momentary Assessment.

Background: Behavior and emotions are closely intertwined. The relationship between behavior and emotions might be particularly important in populations of underserved people, such as people with physical or mental health issues. We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine the relationship between emotional state and other characteristics among people with a history of chronic homelessness who were participating in a health coaching program.

Risk Assessment of Recreational Noise-Induced Hearing Loss from Exposure through a Personal Audio System-iPod Touch.

Background: Recreational noise-induced hearing loss (RNIHL) is a major health issue and presents a huge economic burden on society. Exposure to loud music is not considered hazardous in our society because music is thought to be a source of relaxation and entertainment. However, there is evidence that regardless of the sound source, frequent exposure to loud music, including through personal audio systems (PAS), can lead to hearing loss, tinnitus, difficulty processing speech, and increased susceptibility to age-related hearing loss.

Safety of Autologous Umbilical Cord Blood Therapy for Acquired Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Children.

Background And Objectives: Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in children is associated with neurocognitive morbidity. The cause of SNHL is a loss of hair cells in the organ of Corti. There are currently no reparative treatments for SNHL.

3D spatially-adaptive canonical correlation analysis: Local and global methods.

Local spatially-adaptive canonical correlation analysis (local CCA) with spatial constraints has been introduced to fMRI multivariate analysis for improved modeling of activation patterns. However, current algorithms require complicated spatial constraints that have only been applied to 2D local neighborhoods because the computational time would be exponentially increased if the same method is applied to 3D spatial neighborhoods. In this study, an efficient and accurate line search sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm has been developed to efficiently solve the 3D local CCA problem with spatial constraints.