Estimated Cost of Developing a Therapeutic Complex Medical Device in the US.

Importance: The US medical device market is the world's largest, but estimates of the cost to bring a medical device to market are not available to help inform policy making and regulatory efforts to enhance device safety and innovation.

Objective: To estimate the mean expected capitalized cost of developing a novel therapeutic complex medical device.

Design, Setting, And Participants: In this economic evaluation, an analytical model of novel therapeutic complex medical device development using data from public and proprietary sources with coverage from 2000 through 2018 was used to estimate the cost, duration, and phase transition success probability associated with each stage of development.

Risk Factors for Retinal Detachment: A Case-Control Study.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate risk factors for retinal detachment or tear (RD/T), and follow up two studies that found increased risk from work-related heavy lifting.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study including 200 cases of RD/T and 415 controls. Participants completed a questionnaire covering general health, vision, and physical exertion.

Chlorine exposure during a biological decontamination study in a mock subway tunnel.

The Underground Transport Restoration (UTR) Operational Technology Demonstration (OTD) was a full-scale field study focused on remediation of a subway system after contamination with a surrogate (, subspecies []). The study involved all aspects of subway system remediation following contamination with a biological surrogate, including characterization, clearance sampling, and waste management. Personal exposure to chlorine gas was also monitored throughout the decontamination portion of the study.

Environmental triggers of COPD symptoms: a case cross-over study.

Introduction: This study investigated the hypothesis that common environmental chemical exposures with known irritant or sensitising properties trigger exacerbations for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Methods: We conducted a case cross-over study in 168 patients with COPD who were members of a disease management group in central Massachusetts. Participants completed a baseline health survey and several short exposure surveys.

Validation of the breathlessness, cough and sputum scale to predict COPD exacerbation.

The breathlessness, cough and sputum scale (BCSS) is a three-item questionnaire rating breathlessness, cough and sputum on a 5-point Likert scale from 0 (no symptoms) to 4 (severe symptoms). Researchers have explored the utility of this tool to quantify efficacy of treatment following a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation; however, little work has been done to investigate the ability of the BCSS to predict COPD exacerbation. As part of a prospective case-crossover study among a cohort of 168 COPD patients residing in central Massachusetts, patients were asked standard BCSS questions during exacerbation and randomly identified non-exacerbation (or healthy) weeks.

Low level air pollution and exacerbation of existing copd: a case crossover analysis.

Background: Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) contribute greatly to increased morbidity, mortality and diminished quality of life. Recent studies report moderately strong positive associations between exposures to several air pollutants and COPD-related emergency department (ED) visits and hospital admissions (HA). Studies that use clinically defined exacerbations rather than counting ED visits and HA may be more sensitive to environmental triggers like air pollution, but very few such studies exist.

Outdoor Air Pollution and COPD-Related Emergency Department Visits, Hospital Admissions, and Mortality: A Meta-Analysis.

A systematic literature review was performed to identify all peer-reviewed literature quantifying the association between short-term exposures of particulate matter <2.5 microns (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO), and sulfur dioxide (SO) and COPD-related emergency department (ED) visits, hospital admissions (HA), and mortality. These results were then pooled for each pollutant through meta-analyses with a random effects model.

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 knockout reduces cognitive impairment and pathogenesis in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology occurs in part as the result of excessive production of β-amyloid (Aβ). Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) is now considered a receptor for Aβ and consequently contributes to pathogenic Aβ signaling in AD.

Results: Genetic deletion of mGluR5 rescues the spatial learning deficits observed in APPswe/PS1ΔE9 AD mice.

Metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 knockout promotes motor and biochemical alterations in a mouse model of Huntington's disease.

Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal-dominant neurodegenerative disorder caused by a polyglutamine expansion in the amino-terminal region of the huntingtin protein, which promotes progressive neuronal cell loss, neurological symptoms and death. In the present study, we show that blockade of mGluR5 with MTEP promotes increased locomotor activity in both control (Hdh(Q20/Q20)) and mutant HD (Hdh(Q111/Q111)) mice. Although acute injection of MTEP increases locomotor activity in both control and mutant HD mice, locomotor activity is increased in only control mice, not mutant HD mice, following the genetic deletion of mGluR5.

The role of group orientation and descriptive norms on water conservation attitudes and behaviors.

Social norms have been shown to impact behaviors, but with mixed results. The theory of normative social behavior delineates factors that moderate the relationship between descriptive norms and behaviors, and it addresses the attributes of behaviors that make them susceptible to normative influence. This study tests whether group orientation moderates the impact of descriptive norms on water conservation attitudes and behavioral intentions.