Superlubric Sliding of Graphene Auto-Kirigami with Interfaces Containing Self-Assembled Stripe-Pattern Adsorbates.

Van der Waals heterostructures formed by stacked 2D materials show exceptional electronic, mechanical, and optical properties. Superlubricity, a condition where atomically flat, incommensurate planes of atoms result in ultra-low friction, is a prime example enabling, for example, self-assembly of optically visible graphene nanostructures in air via a sliding auto-kirigami process. Here, it is demonstrated that a subtle but ubiquitous adsorbate stripe structure found on graphene and graphitic surfaces in ambient conditions remains stable within the interface between twisted graphene layers as they slide over each other.

Psychological support for orthognathic patients: Who is doing what?

Objective: To investigate: (1) orthodontists' training experience in the psychological assessment of orthognathic patients and their wish for training/further training; (2) the availability of psychological support, referral patterns and outcomes after referral; (3) and adverse incidents prompting orthodontists to refer patients for psychological assessment.

Design: Prospective cross-sectional study.

Methods: A 25-item questionnaire was designed to investigate the above mentioned aims.

An incidental dense bone island: A review of potential medical and orthodontic implications of dense bone islands and case report.

Dense bone islands (DBIs) are usually asymptomatic and do not require any treatment. This case report presents a DBI of an unusual presentation, which was an incidental finding on a radiograph of a 15-year-old orthodontic patient. The DBI lesion was 24 mm in size, occupying at least 50% of the alveolar process between the upper right canine and lateral incisor, extending up the lateral aspect of the anterior margin of the right nasal fossa.

Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program Study #553: Chemotherapy After Prostatectomy for High-risk Prostate Carcinoma: A Phase III Randomized Study.

Background: The Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program study #553 was designed to evaluate the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy added to the standard of care (SOC) for patients who are at high risk for relapse after prostatectomy.

Objective: To test whether addition of chemotherapy to surgery for high-risk prostate cancer improves progression-free survival (PFS).

Design, Setting, And Participants: Eligible patients after prostatectomy were randomized to the SOC group with observation or to the chemotherapy group with docetaxel and prednisone administered every 3 wk for six cycles.

Trends in diagnosis of painful neck and back conditions, 2002 to 2011.

Neck and back pain are pervasive problems. Some have suggested that rising incidence may be associated with the evidence of rising prevalence.To describe the trends in diagnosis of painful neck and back conditions in a large national healthcare system.

Early orthognathic surgery in response to bullying due to malocclusion.

Urifavourable dental and facial features can have a psychological impact on patients. Orthodontic treatment can have a positive impact on the psychosocial well-being of patients who are bullied about dentofacial features. The use of orthognathic surgery in growing patients to correct dentofacial deformity is a controversial topic.

From collision to collaboration - Integrating informal recyclers and re-use operators in Europe: A review.

The European Union hosts some of the world's most developed waste management systems and an ambitious policy commitment to the circular economy. The existence of informal recycling and re-use activities in Europe has been vigorously denied until quite recently, and remains a very challenging subject for the European solid waste management sector, as well as for European government and private institutions. In countries ranging from Malta to Macedonia and from France to Turkey, informal recyclers excluded from legal recycling niches increasingly collide with formalised and controlled European Union approaches to urban waste management, packaging recovery schemes, formal re-use enterprises, and extended producer responsibility systems.

Evaluating Two Measures of Lumbar Spine MRI Overuse: Administrative Data Versus Chart Review.

Purpose: Lumbar spine (LS) MRI overuse may be identified in administrative data, but these data may lack the detailed clinical information needed to correctly assess overuse. The aim of this study was to compare chart review with analysis of administrative data to determine the appropriateness of LS MRI.

Methods: The sensitivity and specificity of the administrative method were determined, with inappropriateness regarded as the positive result, as if chart review determined the true state.

The musculoskeletal diagnosis cohort: examining pain and pain care among veterans.

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are highly prevalent, painful, and costly disorders. The MSD Cohort was created to characterize variation in pain, comorbidities, treatment, and outcomes among patients with MSD receiving Veterans Health Administration care across demographic groups, geographic regions, and facilities. We searched electronic health records to identify patients treated in Veterans Health Administration who had ICD-9-CM codes for diagnoses including, but not limited to, joint, back, and neck disorders, and osteoarthritis.

Workforce Projections 2010-2020: Annual Supply and Demand Forecasting Models for Physical Therapists Across the United States.

Background: Health human resources continue to emerge as a critical health policy issue across the United States.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a strategy for modeling future workforce projections to serve as a basis for analyzing annual supply of and demand for physical therapists across the United States into 2020.

Design: A traditional stock-and-flow methodology or model was developed and populated with publicly available data to produce estimates of supply and demand for physical therapists by 2020.

Using lean management to reduce blood culture contamination.

Background: Blood culture contamination (BCC) is a common and avoidable complication of patient care and incurs considerable cost. A quality improvement (QI) initiative was undertaken at a large Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center to reduce the BCC rate.

Methods: Lean management QI methods, including a rapid process improvement workshop (RPIW), were used to identify root causes of variation in blood culture procedures and countermeasures (potential improvement strategies) to address each problem were developed.

Cost-effectiveness of supported employment for veterans with spinal cord injuries.

Objective: To estimate the cost-effectiveness of a supported employment (SE) intervention that had been previously found effective in veterans with spinal cord injuries (SCIs).

Design: Cost-effectiveness analysis, using cost and quality-of-life data gathered in a trial of SE for veterans with SCI.

Setting: SCI centers in the Veterans Health Administration.

Racial differences in veterans' satisfaction with examination of disability from posttraumatic stress disorder.

Objective: The examination that determines if a veteran has service-connected posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects veterans' lives for years. This study examined factors potentially associated with veterans' perception of their examination's quality.

Methods: Veterans (N=384) being evaluated for an initial PTSD service-connection claim were randomly assigned to receive either a semistructured interview or the examiner's usual interview.

Impact of evidence-based standardized assessment on the disability clinical interview for diagnosis of service-connected PTSD: a cluster-randomized trial.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the fastest growing compensated medical conditions. The present study compared usual disability examiner practices for PTSD with a standardized assessment that incorporates evidence-based assessments. The design was a multicenter, cluster randomized, parallel-group study involving 33 clinical examiners and 384 veterans at 6 Veterans Affairs medical centers.

Effectiveness of supported employment for veterans with spinal cord injuries: results from a randomized multisite study.

Objective: To examine whether supported employment (SE) is more effective than treatment as usual (TAU) in returning veterans to competitive employment after spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Prospective, randomized, controlled, multisite trial of SE versus TAU for vocational issues with 12 months of follow-up data.

Setting: SCI centers in the Veterans Health Administration.

HLA class II locus and susceptibility to podoconiosis.

Background: Podoconiosis is a tropical lymphedema resulting from long-term barefoot exposure to red-clay soil derived from volcanic rock. The World Health Organization recently designated it as a neglected tropical disease. Podoconiosis develops in only a subgroup of exposed people, and studies have shown familial clustering with high heritability (63%).

Identifying neck and back pain in administrative data: defining the right cohort.

Study Design: We reviewed existing methods for identifying patients with neck and back pain in administrative data. We compared these methods using data from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Objective: To answer the following questions: (1) what diagnosis codes should be used to identify patients with neck pain and back pain in administrative data; (2) because the majority of complaints are characterized as nonspecific or mechanical, what diagnosis codes should be used to identify patients with nonspecific or mechanical problems in administrative data; and (3) what procedure and surgical codes should be used to identify patients who have undergone a surgical procedure on the neck or back.

Variation in practices and attitudes of clinicians assessing PTSD-related disability among veterans.

One hundred thirty-eight Veterans Affairs mental health professionals completed a 128-item Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Practice Inventory that asked about their practices and attitudes related to disability assessment of PTSD. Results indicate strikingly wide variation in the attitudes and practices of clinicians conducting disability assessments for PTSD. In a high percentage of cases, these attitudes and practices conflict with best-practice guidelines.

Outcomes of hospitalized patients with non-acute coronary syndrome and elevated cardiac troponin level.

Objective: Cardiac troponin levels help risk-stratify patients presenting with an acute coronary syndrome. Although cardiac troponin levels may be elevated in patients presenting with non-acute coronary syndrome conditions, specific diagnoses and long-term outcomes within that cohort are unclear.

Methods: By using the Veterans Affairs centralized databases, we identified all hospitalized patients in 2006 who had a troponin assay obtained during their initial reference hospitalization.

Mental health and substance use disorder spending in the Department of Veterans Affairs, fiscal years 2000-2007.

Objective: This study analyzed spending for treatment of mental health and substance use disorders in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in fiscal years (FYs) 2000 through 2007.

Methods: VA spending as reported in the VA Decision Support System was linked to patient utilization data as reported in the Patient Treatment Files, the National Patient Care Database, and the VA Fee Basis files. All care and costs from FY 2000 to FY 2007 were analyzed.

British Society for Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics and British Transplantation Society guidelines for the detection and characterisation of clinically relevant antibodies in allotransplantation.

Ongoing technological developments in antibody detection and characterisation allowing relative quantitation of HLA-specific antibody levels, combined with crossmatch results, now allow a graded assessment of patient potential donor immunological risk for allotransplantation, rather than a simple 'positive' or 'negative' categorization of crossmatch results. These developments have driven a thorough revision of the British Society for Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics and British Transplantation Society Guidelines for the Detection and Characterisation of Clinically Relevant Antibodies in Allotransplantation. These newly published revised Guidelines contain a number of recommendations as to best practice for antibody detection and crossmatching for the transplantation of a wide range of solid organs and tissues.

Methods of a multisite randomized clinical trial of supported employment among veterans with spinal cord injury.

This article compares the methods of a randomized multisite clinical trial of evidence-based supported employment with conventional vocational rehabilitation among veterans with spinal cord injury (SCI). The primary hypothesis is that, compared with conventional vocational rehabilitation (i.e.

Administrative delays and chronic disability in patients with acute occupational low back injury.

Objectives: This study assessed whether an organizational factor, delays to claim acceptance or administrative delays, had an influence on outcomes for individuals with acute back injuries in the workers' compensation system.

Methods: Multivariate logistic regression was used to test whether individuals who experienced administrative delays were more likely to develop chronic disability than those who did not experience delays.

Results: Beyond the first 2 weeks, each interval of administrative delay was associated with increased odds of developing chronic disability.