Role of allogeneic placental tissues in penile inversion vaginoplasty.

Background: The role of allogeneic placental tissue (APT) in genital gender-affirming surgery (GAS) is not well understood. Penile inversion vaginoplasty (PIV), the most common genital GAS, often results in tissue healing- or wound-related complications, including scarring and neovaginal stenosis. Surgical reoperation and revision vaginoplasty are common.

P66 is a bacterial mimic of CD47 that binds the anti-phagocytic receptor SIRPα and facilitates macrophage evasion by .

Innate immunity, the first line of defense against pathogens, relies on efficient elimination of invading agents by phagocytes. In the co-evolution of host and pathogen, pathogens developed mechanisms to dampen and evade phagocytic clearance. Here, we report that bacterial pathogens can evade clearance by macrophages through mimicry at the mammalian anti-phagocytic "don't eat me" signaling axis between CD47 (ligand) and SIRPα (receptor).

SIRPα controls CD47-dependent platelet clearance in mice and humans.

Over the last decade, more data has revealed that increased surface expression of the "don't eat me" CD47 protein on cancer cells plays a role in immune evasion and tumor progression, with CD47 blockade emerging as a new therapy in immuno-oncology. CD47 is critical in regulating cell homeostasis and clearance, as binding of CD47 to the inhibitory receptor SIRPα can prevent phagocytosis and macrophage-mediated cell clearance. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the CD47-SIRPα signal in platelet homeostasis and clearance.

Development and evaluation of a fluidic facemask for airborne transmission mitigation.

Recently, a fluidic facemask concept was proposed to mitigate the transmission of virus-laden aerosol and droplet infections, such as SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). This paper describes an experimental investigation of the first practical fluidic facemask prototype, or "Air-Screen". It employs a small, high-aspect-ratio, crossflow fan mounted on the visor of a filter-covered cap to produce a rectangular air jet, or screen, in front of the wearer's face.

The environmental impact of surgery: A systematic review.

Background: Climate change is a significant public health threat. Health care comprises 10% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, where surgery is especially resource intensive. We did a systematic review to assess and summarize the published evidence of the environmental impact of surgery.

Numerical Feedback Roundness Affects the Choice of the Self vs. Others as a Reference Point.

People can use social or personal information as a reference point against which they compare their performance. While previous research has shown that reference point choice can be affected by individual characteristics, situational factors, and goals, we suggest that properties of the performance feedback itself can also play a role in this choice. We focus on the effects of round vs.

CD47 blockade reduces the pathologic features of experimental cerebral malaria and promotes survival of hosts with infection.

CD47 is an antiphagocytic "don't eat me" signal that inhibits programmed cell removal of self. As red blood cells (RBCs) age they lose CD47 expression and become susceptible to programmed cell removal by macrophages. CD47 mice infected with , which exhibits an age-based preference for young RBCs, were previously demonstrated to be highly resistant to malaria infection.

Neutrophil and monocyte kinetics play critical roles in mouse peritoneal adhesion formation.

Peritoneal adhesions are pathological fibroses that ensnare organs after abdominal surgery. This dense connective tissue can cause small bowel obstruction, female infertility, and chronic abdominal pain. The pathogenesis of adhesions is a fibrotic response to tissue damage coordinated between mesothelial cells, fibroblasts, and immune cells.

iMAP Beamforming for High-Quality High Frame Rate Imaging.

We present a statistical interpretation of beamforming to overcome the limitations of standard delay-and-sum (DAS) processing. Both the interference and the signal of interest are viewed as random variables, and the distribution of the signal of interest is exploited to maximize the a posteriori distribution of the aperture signals. In this formulation, the beamformer output is a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator of the signal of interest.

Surgical adhesions in mice are derived from mesothelial cells and can be targeted by antibodies against mesothelial markers.

Peritoneal adhesions are fibrous tissues that tether organs to one another or to the peritoneal wall and are a major cause of postsurgical and infectious morbidity. The primary molecular chain of events leading to the initiation of adhesions has been elusive, chiefly due to the lack of an identifiable cell of origin. Using clonal analysis and lineage tracing, we have identified injured surface mesothelium expressing podoplanin (PDPN) and mesothelin (MSLN) as a primary instigator of peritoneal adhesions after surgery in mice.

Small-molecule AgrA inhibitors F12 and F19 act as antivirulence agents against Gram-positive pathogens.

Small-molecule antivirulence agents represent a promising alternative or adjuvant to antibiotics. These compounds disarm pathogens of disease-causing toxins without killing them, thereby diminishing survival pressure to develop resistance. Here we show that the small-molecule antivirulence agents F12 and F19 block staphylococcal transcription factor AgrA from binding to its promoter.

DAF in diabetic patients is subject to glycation/inactivation at its active site residues.

Decay accelerating factor (DAF or CD55) is a cell associated C3 and C5 convertase regulator originally described in terms of protection of self-cells from systemic complement but now known to modulate adaptive T cell responses. It is expressed on all cell types. We investigated whether nonenzymatic glycation could impair its function and potentially be relevant to complications of diabetes mellitus and other conditions that result in nonenzymatic glycation including cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and aging.

Biofilm inhibitors targeting the outer membrane protein A of Pasteurella multocida in swine.

Pasteurella multocida (Pm) is the causative agent of atrophic rhinitis in swine. This study aimed to discover biofilm inhibitors against swine Pm to counteract antibiotic resistance and decrease virulence. The virulence factor outer membrane protein A (OmpA) was targeted.

Preoperative Renal Insufficiency: Underreporting and Association With Readmission and Major Postoperative Morbidity in an Academic Medical Center.

Background: Making a formal diagnosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the preoperative setting may be challenging because of lack of longitudinal data. We explored the predictive value of a single reduced preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) value on adverse patient outcomes in the first 30 days after elective surgery. We compared the rate of major postoperative adverse events, including 30-day readmission rate, hospital length of stay, infection, acute kidney injury (AKI), and myocardial infarction across patients with declining preoperative eGFR values.

Energetic analysis and experiments of earthworm-like locomotion with compliant surfaces.

The energy consumption of worm robots is composed of three parts: heat losses in the motors, internal friction losses of the worm device and mechanical energy locomotion requirements which we refer to as the cost of transport (COT). The COT, which is the main focus of this paper, is composed of work against two types of external factors: (i) the resisting forces, such as weight, tether force, or fluid drag for robots navigating inside wet environments and (ii) sliding friction forces that may result from sliding either forward or backward. In a previous work, we determined the mechanical energy requirement of worm robot locomotion over compliant surfaces, independently of the efficiency of the worm device.

AF1q is a novel TCF7 co-factor which activates CD44 and promotes breast cancer metastasis.

AF1q is an MLL fusion partner that was identified from acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with t (1; 11) (q21; q23) chromosomal abnormality. The function of AF1q is not yet fully known, however, elevated AF1q expression is associated with poor clinical outcomes in various malignancies. Here, we show that AF1q specifically binds to T-cell-factor-7 (TCF7) in the Wnt signaling pathway and results in transcriptional activation of CD44 as well as multiple downstream targets of the TCF7/LEF1.

Prevalence of illicit substance use among Arab adults in Israel: Findings from a national survey.

Introduction And Aims: The aim of this study was to examine illicit psychoactive substance use rates among adult Arabs in Israel.

Design And Methods: Cross-sectional survey of 1200 Arab adults recruited nationwide via cluster sampling and interviewed using a structured questionnaire was conducted.

Results: Fourteen percent of respondents reporting illegal substance use with increased odds of use among males and those who were secular/not religious.

Novel quorum-quenching agents promote methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) wound healing and sensitize MRSA to β-lactam antibiotics.

The dwindling repertoire of antibiotics to treat methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) calls for novel treatment options. Quorum-quenching agents offer an alternative or an adjuvant to antibiotic therapy. Three biaryl hydroxyketone compounds discovered previously (F1, F12, and F19; G.

Validation of a stereo camera system to quantify brain deformation due to breathing and pulsatility.

Purpose: A new stereo vision system is presented to quantify brain shift and pulsatility in open-skull neurosurgeries.

Methods: The system is endowed with hardware and software synchronous image acquisition with timestamp embedding in the captured images, a brain surface oriented feature detection, and a tracking subroutine robust to occlusions and outliers. A validation experiment for the stereo vision system was conducted against a gold-standard optical tracking system, Optotrak CERTUS.

Tobacco and alcohol use among Arab adults in Israel: findings from a nationwide study.

Objective: This comprehensive study focuses exclusively on adult Arabs in Israel and is aimed at examining tobacco and alcohol use rates and their predictors.

Methods: One thousand and two hundred Arab adults were randomly sampled via cluster sampling and interviewed using a structured questionnaire.

Results: Forty-four per cent of respondents reported tobacco use while 39% reported alcohol use.

Combinatorial synthesis and in vitro evaluation of a biaryl hydroxyketone library as antivirulence agents against MRSA.

Antibiotic resistance coupled with decreased development of new antibiotics necessitates the search for novel antibacterial agents. Antivirulence agents offer an alternative to conventional antibiotics. In this work, we report on a family of small-molecule antivirulence agents against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), the most widespread bacterial pathogen.