An Injectable, Shape-Retaining Collagen Hydrogel Cross-linked Using Thiol-Maleimide Click Chemistry for Sealing Corneal Perforations.

Injectable hydrogels show great promise in developing novel regenerative medicine solutions and present advantages for minimally invasive applications. Hydrogels based on extracellular matrix components, such as collagen, have the benefits of cell adhesiveness, biocompatibility, and degradability by enzymes. However, to date, reported collagen hydrogels possess severe shortcomings, such as nonbiocompatible cross-linking chemistry, significant swelling, limited range of mechanical properties, or gelation kinetics unsuitable for injection.

Influence of extracellular matrix composition on tumour cell behaviour in a biomimetic in vitro model for hepatocellular carcinoma.

The tumor micro-environment (TME) of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) consists out of cirrhotic liver tissue and is characterized by an extensive deposition of extracellular matrix proteins (ECM). The evolution from a reversible fibrotic state to end-stage of liver disease, namely cirrhosis, is characterized by an increased deposition of ECM, as well as changes in the exact ECM composition, which both contribute to an increased liver stiffness and can alter tumor phenotype. The goal of this study was to assess how changes in matrix composition and stiffness influence tumor behavior.

A Biomimetic Model for Liver Cancer to Study Tumor-Stroma Interactions in a 3D Environment with Tunable Bio-Physical Properties.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a primary liver tumor developing in the wake of chronic liver disease. Chronic liver disease and inflammation leads to a fibrotic environment actively supporting and driving hepatocarcinogenesis. Insight into hepatocarcinogenesis in terms of the interplay between the tumor stroma micro-environment and tumor cells is thus of considerable importance.

Integrating questionnaire measures for transdiagnostic psychiatric phenotyping using word2vec.

Background: Recent initiatives in psychiatry emphasize the utility of characterizing psychiatric symptoms in a multidimensional manner. However, strategies for applying standard self-report scales for multiaxial assessment have not been well-studied, particularly where the aim is to support both categorical and dimensional phenotypes.

Methods: We propose a method for applying natural language processing to derive dimensional measures of psychiatric symptoms from questionnaire data.

Injectable Shape-Holding Collagen Hydrogel for Cell Encapsulation and Delivery Cross-linked Using Thiol-Michael Addition Click Reaction.

Injectable hydrogels based on extracellular matrix-derived polymers show much promise in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, the hydrogels reported to date have at least one characteristic that limits their potential for clinical use, such as excessive swelling, complicated and potentially toxic cross-linking process, or lack of shear thinning and self-healing properties. We hypothesized that a collagen hydrogel cross-linked using thiol-Michael addition click reaction would be able to overcome these limitations.

High Throughput Phenotyping for Dimensional Psychopathology in Electronic Health Records.

Background: Relying on diagnostic categories of neuropsychiatric illness obscures the complexity of these disorders. Capturing multiple dimensional measures of neuropathology could facilitate the clinical and neurobiological investigation of cognitive and behavioral phenotypes.

Methods: We developed a natural language processing-based approach to extract five symptom dimensions, based on the National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria definitions, from narrative clinical notes.

Introduction.

When Thomas Insel announced last year that he was stepping down from his position as director of the National Institute of Mental Health to join Google Life Sciences, some surprise was expressed by my colleagues. Typically, their thinking was that individuals in his position would (should?) return to academia or perhaps work at a pharmaceutical firm developing new therapeutics. As someone familiar with both psychiatry and the technology field, I thought Dr Insel's decision was quite rational given the increasing overlap between both fields and that his move reflected this new paradigm.

Validation of electronic health record phenotyping of bipolar disorder cases and controls.

Objective: The study was designed to validate use of electronic health records (EHRs) for diagnosing bipolar disorder and classifying control subjects.

Method: EHR data were obtained from a health care system of more than 4.6 million patients spanning more than 20 years.

Cohort of birth modifies the association between FTO genotype and BMI.

A substantial body of research has explored the relative roles of genetic and environmental factors on phenotype expression in humans. Recent research has also sought to identify gene-environment (or g-by-e) interactions, with mixed success. One potential reason for these mixed results may relate to the fact that genetic effects might be modified by changes in the environment over time.

Estimating peer effects in longitudinal dyadic data using instrumental variables.

The identification of causal peer effects (also known as social contagion or induction) from observational data in social networks is challenged by two distinct sources of bias: latent homophily and unobserved confounding. In this paper, we investigate how causal peer effects of traits and behaviors can be identified using genes (or other structurally isomorphic variables) as instrumental variables (IV) in a large set of data generating models with homophily and confounding. We use directed acyclic graphs to represent these models and employ multiple IV strategies and report three main identification results.

Seasonality in seeking mental health information on Google.

Background: Population mental health surveillance is an important challenge limited by resource constraints, long time lags in data collection, and stigma. One promising approach to bridge similar gaps elsewhere has been the use of passively generated digital data.

Purpose: This article assesses the viability of aggregate Internet search queries for real-time monitoring of several mental health problems, specifically in regard to seasonal patterns of seeking out mental health information.

Lessons from social network analyses for behavioral medicine.

Purpose Of Review: This study presents an overview of the rapidly expanding field of social network analysis, with an emphasis placed on work relevant to behavioral health clinicians and researchers. I outline how social network analysis is a distinct empirical methodology within the social sciences that has the potential to deepen our understanding of how mental health and addiction are influenced by social environmental factors.

Recent Findings: Whereas there have been a number of recent studies in the mental health literature that discuss social influences on mental illness and addiction, and a number of studies looking at how social networks influence health and behaviors, there are still relatively few studies that combine the two.

The spread of alcohol consumption behavior in a large social network.

Background: Alcohol consumption has important health-related consequences and numerous biological and social determinants.

Objective: To explore quantitatively whether alcohol consumption behavior spreads from person to person in a large social network of friends, coworkers, siblings, spouses, and neighbors, followed for 32 years.

Design: Longitudinal network cohort study.

Social network determinants of depression.

The etiology of depression has long been thought to include social environmental factors. To quantitatively explore the novel possibility of person-to-person spread and network-level determination of depressive symptoms, analyses were performed on a densely interconnected social network of 12,067 people assessed repeatedly over 32 years as part of the Framingham Heart Study. Longitudinal statistical models were used to examine whether depressive symptoms in one person were associated with similar scores in friends, co-workers, siblings, spouses and neighbors.

The impact of poor health on academic performance: New evidence using genetic markers.

This paper examines the influence of health conditions on academic performance during adolescence. To account for the endogeneity of health outcomes and their interactions with risky behaviors we exploit natural variation within a set of genetic markers across individuals. We present evidence that specific genetic markers have good statistical properties to identify the impacts of ADHD, depression and obesity.

Work environment factors affecting quality work in Swedish oral and maxillofacial surgery.

The aim of this study was to investigate how work environment influenced attitudes to and knowledge of quality among employees of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) clinics in Sweden. Data were collected with a questionnaire of 67 questions, related to quality management at the clinic, working situation, content of "good work", physical environment and health. 22 clinics with 297 employees responded, 65% of the clinics and 86% of the employees.

Transferring disease management and health promotion programs to other countries: critical success factors.

Governments and health service providers around the world are under pressure to improve health outcomes while containing rising healthcare costs. In response to such challenges, many regions have implemented services that have been successful in other countries-but 'importing' initiatives has many challenges. This article summarizes factors found to be critical to the success of adapting a US disease management and health promotion programme for use in Italy and the UK.

Psychosocial work environment related health in Swedish oral and maxillofacial surgery in comparison with other human service workers.

The aims of this study were to describe how the employees of OMFS clinics in Sweden perceive their health, to compare with female unpromoted general practice dentists and other human service groups and to explore the dimensionality of the health measure. Data were collected by way of a questionnaire with 67 questions, related to quality management at the clinic, working situation, questions about the content of "good work", the connection between physical environment and health, emphasis on physical environment. 22 clinics with 297 employees responded, 65% of the clinics and 86% of the employees.

Effect of betamethasone on the degree of macrophage recruitment and nerve growth factor receptor p75 immunoreaction during recovery of the sciatic nerve after injury: an experimental study in rats.

Purpose: This study was designed to explain our previous findings of beneficial effects of betamethasone given perioperatively on decreasing the incidence of neurosensory disturbance after sagittal split osteotomy and improving functional recovery after crush injury to rat sciatic nerves. We analysed the pattern of macrophage recruitment and expression of nerve growth factor p75.

Material And Methods: The sciatic nerve was crushed in each of 42 animals by tying the nerve against a glass rod for 30s.