Contractile responses of engineered human myometrium to prostaglandins and inflammatory cytokines.

Preterm labor is a prevalent public health problem and occurs when the myometrium, the smooth muscle layer of the uterus, begins contracting before the fetus reaches full term. Abnormal contractions of the myometrium also underlie painful menstrual cramps, known as dysmenorrhea. Both disorders have been associated with increased production of prostaglandins and cytokines, yet the functional impacts of inflammatory mediators on the contractility of human myometrium have not been fully established, in part due to a lack of effective model systems.

Capturing Catchment Area Data Comprehensively: The North Carolina Cancer Health Assets and Needs Assessment (CHANA) Approach.

Background: A key requirement of community outreach and engagement offices within National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers is to conduct a comprehensive examination of their catchment area's population, cancer burden, and assets. To accomplish this task, we describe the plan for implementing our initiative, the Cancer Health Assets and Needs Assessment (CHANA). CHANA compiles, into a single source, up-to-date data that describes the cancer landscape of North Carolina's 100 counties.

Indomethacin and Cefazolin for physical exam-indicated cerclage to improve latency - a protocol validation study.

Objective: A single center randomized trial showed improved latency with use of indomethacin and cefazolin (I/C) during and following exam-indicated cerclage (EIC). The same center recently published a pre/post comparison demonstrating similar results. This research aimed to validate the protocol in a different setting.

Non-Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medicine: Advancements and Applications in Supervised and Unsupervised Machine Learning.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within pathology and healthcare has advanced extensively. We have accordingly witnessed increased adoption of various AI tools which are transforming our approach to clinical decision support, personalized medicine, predictive analytics, automation, and discovery. The familiar and more reliable AI tools that have been incorporated within healthcare thus far fall mostly under the non-generative AI domain, which includes supervised and unsupervised machine learning (ML) techniques.

Diacylated 1,10-diaza-18-crown-6 as an Alternative Template for Fluorescent Sensors of Calcium Ions.

The performance of many known fluorescent sensors for Ca is pH-dependent. We set out to address this by preparing a novel calcium sensor based on diacylated 1,10-diaza-18-crown-6 and containing no basic centres. The sensor is sensitive to sub-millimolar levels of Ca and partially tolerant of an aqueous environment.