Publications by authors named "Schaffer J"

People attribute purposes in both mundane and profound ways-such as when thinking about the purpose of a knife and the purpose of a life. In three studies (total = 13,720 observations from = 3,430 participants), we tested whether these seemingly very different forms of purpose attributions might actually involve the same cognitive processes. We examined the impacts of four factors on purpose attributions in six domains (artifacts, social institutions, animals, body parts, sacred objects, and human lives).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Despite guideline recommendations, transfer rates to high-volume aortic centers (high-VACs) for acute type A aortic dissections (TAAD) remain suboptimal; this may be because the benefit of undergoing surgical repair of TAAD at high-VACs remains poorly quantified. Medicare beneficiaries undergoing surgical repair of TAAD from 1999-2019 were identified. Hospital and surgeon annual aortic case volumes in Medicare beneficiaries were determined.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Importance: This review aimed to describe research initiatives, evolution, and processes of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-supported Pelvic Floor Disorders Network (PFDN). This may be of interest and inform researchers wishing to conduct multisite coordinated research initiatives as well as to provide perspective to all urogynecologists regarding how the PFDN has evolved and functions.

Study Design: Principal investigators of several PFDN clinical sites and Data Coordinating Center describe more than 20 years of development and maturation of the PFDN.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To describe composite 30-day postoperative complication rates among patients undergoing hysterectomy during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to determine baseline and postoperative mental health symptoms, levels of social support, and socioeconomic status and their association with hysterectomy outcomes.

Methods: This multicenter prospective cohort study at eight centers across the United States enrolled patients who underwent minimally invasive hysterectomy for benign indications during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients completed preoperative and postoperative surveys assessing mental health (PHQ-9 [Patient Health Questionnaire]), social support (MOS-SS [Medical Outcomes Study Social Support Survey]), and socioeconomic status (Hollingshead Index [Hollingshead Four Factor Index of Socioeconomic Status]).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on the development of bioabsorbable metals for medical implants like vascular stents, which release metal ions and degradation products into surrounding tissues, an area that hasn't been well researched.* -
  • Researchers used a technique called laser ablation inductively coupled plasma time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-TOF-MS) to analyze the distribution and concentration of corrosion products from a new magnesium alloy (WE22) implanted in the vascular system of mice.* -
  • Findings show the presence of corrosion products in various vascular structures and suggest that their distribution may be influenced by inflammatory cells, particularly macrophages, within the tissue.*
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Despite growing evidence of efficacy, oncology patient navigation is not ubiquitously offered. Navigation may reduce barriers to cancer care, yet geographic location may limit patient access. To overcome geographical barriers and increase patient education in oncology, our medical center developed a virtual navigation program.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Oxylipins and specialized pro-resolving lipid mediators (SPMs) derived from polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are mediators that coordinate an active process of inflammation resolution. While these mediators have potential as circulating biomarkers for several disease states with inflammatory components, the source of plasma oxylipins/SPMs remains a matter of debate but may involve white adipose tissue (WAT). Here, we aimed to investigate to what extent high or low omega (n)-3 PUFA enrichment affects the production of cytokines and adipokines (RT-PCR), as well as oxylipins/SPMs (liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry) in the WAT of mice during lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced systemic inflammation (intraperitoneal injection, 2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Long-term outcomes after multivalve cardiac surgery remain underevaluated.

Methods: Medicare administrative claims from 2008 to 2019 identified beneficiaries undergoing multivalve surgery. Operative characteristics were doubly adjudicated using International Classification of Diseases and Current Procedural Technology codes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Most syphilitic aneurysms involve the ascending aorta. Those involving the descending aorta are less common, and those involving the abdominal aorta are unusual. Rarer yet, we present the case of a 40-year-old man with HIV and a history of syphilis with a thoracoabdominal aneurysm.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Data on the long-term outcomes of prosthesis patient mismatch (PPM) after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) remain controversial. This study aimed to investigate the incidence and clinical outcomes of measured PPM (PPM) and predicted PPM (PPM) in patients who underwent TAVI. This is a retrospective analysis of 3,016 patients who underwent TAVI at a large health care system between 2012 and 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Flow diverter devices are tiny stents designed to redirect blood flow away from brain aneurysms, helping to prevent their rupture by inducing blood clotting within the aneurysm.
  • Current options leave permanent materials in the body, which can lead to complications, making absorbable devices that dissolve after use a better choice.
  • The study introduces a new composite wire made of absorbable iron alloy and pure molybdenum, showing promising mechanical properties, progressive corrosion, and reduced fragmentation risk, indicating they could be ideal for absorbable flow diverters.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Among patients with bicuspid aortic valves (BAV) who are potential candidates for valve-sparing root replacement (VSRR), the long-term durability of this technique is not well understood. This study aimed to compare the clinical and echocardiographic outcomes of VSRR in those with BAV and tricuspid aortic valve (TAV) morphology.

Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of patients who underwent VSRR between 2007 and 2021 at a single center.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In recent years, pharmaceutical counterfeiting has become an increasingly dangerous situation. A patient who unknowingly consumes a counterfeit drug is at a serious health risk. To address this problem, a low-cost and robust approach for authentication that can be administered at the point-of-care is required.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ranaviruses are pathogens of ectothermic vertebrates (fish, amphibians, and reptiles). Turtles are the most common group of reptiles reported with ranaviral infections. However, there have been no surveys for wild ranaviral infection in any turtles from the suborder Pleurodira, despite ranaviral distributions and experimentally susceptible pleurodiran turtle populations overlapping in several areas, including Australia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Flow in a porous medium can be driven by the deformations of the boundaries of the porous domain. Such boundary deformations locally change the volume fraction accessible by the fluid, creating non-uniform porosity and permeability throughout the medium. In this work, we construct a deformation-driven porous medium transport model with spatially and temporally varying porosity and permeability that are dependent on the boundary deformations imposed on the medium.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Doctors studied patients who had heart surgery to see how many got a blood clot in their leg (DVT) after the procedure.
  • They found that none of the 211 patients developed DVT, which is good news!
  • There were a few other health problems like bleeding and a stroke, but the overall risk of DVT was very low for those patients getting proper care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ceramides and cardiorespiratory (CR) fitness are both related to cardiovascular diseases. The associations of three blood plasma ceramides (C16:0, C22:0, and C24:0) with CR fitness in the population-based Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-START-1; n = 1,102; mean age 50.3 years, 51.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Animals can learn about sources of danger while minimizing their own risk by observing how others respond to threats. However, the distinct neural mechanisms by which threats are learned through social observation (known as observational fear learning (OFL)) to generate behavioural responses specific to such threats remain poorly understood. The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) performs several key functions that may underlie OFL, including processing of social information and disambiguation of threat cues.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The clinical use of flow diverters for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms has rapidly grown. Consequently, the market and technology for these devices has also grown. Clinical performance characteristics of the flow diverter are well-known to the clinician.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Family planning, whether for pregnancy prevention or conception, is of pivotal importance to women of reproductive age. As hormonally driven methods, such as oral contraceptive pills, are widely used but have numerous side effects, women often seek alternative non-hormonal, non-invasive options, including fertility-tracking mobile applications (apps). However, the effectiveness of these apps as a method of contraception and conception planning has not been extensively vetted.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pancreatic β cells are specialized for coupling glucose metabolism to insulin peptide production and secretion. Acute glucose exposure robustly and coordinately increases translation of proinsulin and proteins required for secretion of mature insulin peptide. By contrast, chronically elevated glucose levels that occur during diabetes impair β cell insulin secretion and have been shown experimentally to suppress insulin translation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pancreatic β-cells are specialized for coupling glucose metabolism to insulin peptide production and secretion. Acute glucose exposure robustly and coordinately increases translation of proinsulin and proteins required for secretion of mature insulin peptide. By contrast, chronically elevated glucose levels that occur during diabetes impair β-cell insulin secretion and have been shown experimentally to suppress insulin translation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF