Assessing Sarcoma Awareness Among the General Population in Minnesota: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study from the Minnesota State Fair in 2015 and 2022.

Sarcomas are commonly misdiagnosed, and treatment delays negatively impact patient outcomes. The purpose of this study is to explore patient threshold for and timeline to medical evaluation, to identify providers most likely to be contacted first, and to assess general sarcoma knowledge in Minnesota's general population. Voluntary participants were recruited at the 2015 and 2022 Minnesota State Fair to complete a three-part survey.

Phototherapy Alters the Plasma Metabolite Profile in Infants Born Preterm with Hyperbilirubinemia.

Objective: To investigate the effects of gestational age (GA) and phototherapy on the plasma metabolite profile of preterm infants with neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (NHB).

Study Design: From a cohort of prospectively enrolled infants born preterm (n = 92), plasma samples of very preterm (VPT; GA, 28 + 0 to 31 + 6 weeks, n = 27) and moderate/late preterm (M/LPT; GA, 32 + 0 to 35 + 6 weeks, n = 33) infants requiring phototherapy for NHB were collected prior to the initiation of phototherapy and 24 hours after starting phototherapy. An additional sample was collected 48 hours after starting phototherapy in a randomly selected subset (n = 30; VPT n = 15; M/LPT n = 15).

Patient-reported health-related quality of life outcomes following mastectomy for breast cancer, with immediate, delayed or no breast reconstruction: Four-year follow-up from a prospective cohort study.

Background: Breast reconstruction (BR) improves women's health-related quality of life (HRQOL) following mastectomy for breast cancer, yet factors contributing to improved HRQOL remain unclear. This study aimed to explore the overall impact of mastectomy with or without BR on participants' perceptions of HRQOL over time in a cohort of women with high-risk breast cancer; to examine differences in mean HRQOL scores between immediate BR, delayed BR and no BR groups; to assess the influence of patient characteristics potentially associated with HRQOL scores; and to determine the feasibility of long-term collection of patient-reported outcome measures in clinical settings.

Methods: A prospective, longitudinal study of 100 women with high-risk breast cancer who underwent mastectomy with or without breast reconstruction and were likely to require post-mastectomy radiotherapy.

Does breast cancer policy meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in Australia? a review.

Objective: To evaluate if existing Australian public policy related to screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow up care for breast cancer addresses the needs of and outcomes for Indigenous women?

Methods: This review of policy employed a modified Delphi method via an online panel of experts (n = 13), who were purposively recruited according to experience and expertise. A series of online meetings and online surveys were used for data collection. The aims of the study were to: Identify all existing and current breast cancer policy in Australia;  Analyse the extent to which consideration of Indigenous peoples is included in the development, design and implementation of the policy; and Identify policy gaps and make recommendations as to how they could be addressed.

Oxidative control over the morphology of Cu(HHTP), a 2D conductive metal-organic framework.

The morphology of electrically conductive metal-organic frameworks strongly impacts their performance in applications such as energy storage and electrochemical sensing. However, identifying the appropriate conditions needed to achieve a specific nanocrystal size and shape can be a time-consuming, empirical process. Here we show how partial ligand oxidation dictates the morphology of Cu(HHTP) (HHTP = 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexahydroxytriphenylene), a prototypical 2D conductive metal-organic framework.

Radio-isotope occult lesion localization (ROLL) techniques to identify the clipped node for targeted axillary dissection (TAD) in breast cancer.

Background: Breast cancer patients having neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NAST) who have a positive (clipped) lymph node (CN) at presentation must have that CN removed to assess pathologic response at later surgery. Multiple techniques for localizing the CN have been described. We describe a novel ROLL-based approach.

Systematic Review of Real-World Treatment Patterns of Oral Antipsychotics and Associated Economic Burden in Patients with Schizophrenia in the United States.

Background: Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder associated with substantial morbidity and mortality affecting 0.25-1.6% of adults in the USA.

Breast Radiotherapy after Oncoplastic Surgery-A Multidisciplinary Approach.

Oncoplastic breast surgery encompasses a range of techniques used to provide equitable oncological outcomes compared with standard breast surgery while, simultaneously, prioritizing aesthetic outcomes. While the outcomes of oncoplastic breast surgery are promising, it can add an extra complexity to the treatment paradigm of breast cancer and impact on decision-making surrounding adjuvant therapies, like chemotherapy and radiotherapy. As such, early discussions at the multidisciplinary team meeting with surgeons, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists present, should be encouraged to facilitate best patient care.

The role of breast reconstruction choice on body image patient-reported outcomes at four years post-mastectomy for breast cancer: A longitudinal prospective cohort study.

Objectives: To examine the impact of breast reconstruction on women's perceptions of body image over time and to assess the influence of sociodemographic variables on body image.

Methods: A prospective, longitudinal cohort study, using validated breast cancer-specific questionnaires, to compare patient-reported outcomes in women choosing immediate (n = 61), delayed (n = 16) or no (n = 23) breast reconstruction.

Results: One hundred women completed baseline questionnaires that included items on body image; 30 women completed all four annual follow-up sets, while 20 women completed baseline only.

AcanR3990 qPCR: A Novel, Highly Sensitive, Bioinformatically-Informed Assay to Detect Angiostrongylus cantonensis Infections.

Background: Angiostrongylus cantonensis (Ac), or the rat lungworm, is a major cause of eosinophilic meningitis. Humans are infected by ingesting the 3rd stage larvae from primary hosts, snails, and slugs, or paratenic hosts. The currently used molecular test is a qPCR assay targeting the ITS1 rDNA region (ITS1) of Ac.

Development of a recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA-EXO) and lateral flow assay (RPA-LFA) based on the ITS1 gene for the detection of in gastropod intermediate hosts.

Angiostrongylus cantonensis is a parasitic nematode known to infect humans through the ingestion of third stage larvae which can cause inflammation and damage to the central nervous system. Currently, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is one of the most reliable diagnostic methods for detecting A. cantonensis in humans as well as in gastropod hosts, but requires expensive and specialized equipment.

Sentinel node occult lesion localization technique for impalpable breast cancer.

Background: Mammographic screening has enabled earlier detection of breast cancer, with 25-35% of malignancies being non-palpable at diagnosis. Accurate removal and sentinel node biopsy for staging these lesions are crucial to successful management. Both these aspects are achieved by peritumoural localization with radioisotope and lymphoscintigraphy for sentinel lymph node (SN) mapping using the sentinel node and occult lesion localization (SNOLL) technique.

Reduced Emergence of Cylas formicarius elegantulus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) from Sweet Potato Roots by Heterorhabditis indica.

Okinawan sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, is an important food staple and export crop for the Island of Hawaii. Cylas formicarius elegantulus, sweet potato weevil, is a major quarantine pest that causes severe destruction to the crop. Root malformation and a bitter taste occur when larvae feed and tunnel within the storage root.

Window of opportunity treatment in breast cancer.

Window of opportunity therapies, which involve short-term administration of systemic therapy between cancer diagnosis and surgery, have raised significant interest in recent years as a mean of assessing the sensitivity of a patient's cancer to therapy prior to surgery. There is now compelling evidence that in patients with early stage hormone-receptor positive breast cancer, a 2-week preoperative treatment with standard hormone therapies in a preoperative window period provides important prognostic information, which in turn helps to aid decision-making regarding treatment options. Changes in short-term biomarker endpoints such as cell proliferation measured by Ki-67 can act as surrogate markers of long-term outcomes.

Estimating Human Exposure to Rat Lungworm () on Hawai'i Island: A Pilot Study.

is a zoonotic, parasitic nematode causing angiostrongyliasis or rat lungworm disease. Clinical diagnosis in humans is currently confirmed by detection of parasite DNA in cerebrospinal fluid. This study estimated human exposure to in volunteer participants solicitated via public venues on east Hawai'i Island using blood-based tests.

Systematic review of societal costs associated with stroke, bleeding and monitoring in atrial fibrillation.

Economic consequences associated with the rise in nonvitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant use on a societal level remain unclear. Evidence from the past decade on the societal economic burden associated with stroke, bleeding and international normalized ratio monitoring in atrial fibrillation was collected and summarized through a systematic literature review. There were 14 studies identified that reported indirect costs, which were highest among patients with hemorrhagic stroke and intracranial hemorrhage.

Twitter Conversations and English News Media Reports on Poliomyelitis in Five Different Countries, January 2014 to April 2015.

Introduction: Twitter and media coverage on poliomyelitis help maintain global support for its eradication.

Objective: To test our hypothesis that themes of polio-related tweets and media articles would differ by location of interest (hashtag of country name mentioned in the tweet; country name mentioned in media articles) but would be similar to each other (tweets and media articles) for each location of interest.

Methods: We retrospectively examined a 40% random sample of Twitter data containing the hashtag #polio from January 1, 2014, to April 30, 2015 (N = 79,333), from which we extracted 5 subcorpora each with a co-occurring hashtag #India (n = 5027), #Iraq (n = 1238), #Nigeria (n = 1364), #Pakistan (n = 11,427), and #Syria (n = 2952).

Validation of a death assay for larvae (L3) using propidium iodide in a rat model ().

Angiostrongylus cantonensis is a pathogenic nematode and the cause of neuroangiostrongyliasis, an eosinophilic meningitis more commonly known as rat lungworm disease. Transmission is thought to be primarily due to ingestion of infective third stage larvae (L3) in gastropods, on produce, or in contaminated water. The gold standard to determine the effects of physical and chemical treatments on the infectivity of A.

Patient-reported outcomes with neoadjuvant vs adjuvant systemic therapy for operable breast cancer.

Background: Neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NAST) is used for large operable or highly proliferative breast cancers. It is not known whether psychological outcomes differ according to the treatment sequence (chemotherapy or surgery first) or tumour response.

Methods: This was a planned analysis of a multi-institutional single arm longitudinal study of patients considering NAST for operable breast cancer.

Outcomes of breast reconstruction in older women: patterns of uptake and clinical outcomes in a large metropolitan practice.

Background: Older age is associated with lower rates of breast reconstruction (BR) following mastectomy. This study compared a range of factors in women aged 60 years and older who had received mastectomy and BR with those who received no BR (NBR).

Methods: An audit of 338 women aged 60 or over treated with mastectomy with (n = 86) or without (n = 252) BR for primary breast cancer from 2009 to 2016 was conducted.

Pet ownership and the risk of dying from lung cancer, findings from an 18 year follow-up of a US national cohort.

Purpose: In contrast to the popularity of pets, research on the health effects of living with pets, particularly, on the risk of cancer, is minimal and inconclusive. We longitudinally examined relationships between pet ownership and the risk of dying from lung cancer.

Methods: We analyzed nationally representative data of 13,725 adults aged ≥ 19 who answered the question about pet ownership in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994, as the baseline survey.

Short-Term Physiological Response of a Native Hawaiian Plant, Hibiscus arnottianus, to Injury by the Exotic Leafhopper, Sophonia orientalis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae).

Sophonia orientalis (Matsumura), also known as the two-spotted leafhopper, is a widespread exotic pest of many economically important crop plants and ornamental plants in Hawaii. Sophonia orientalis is highly polyphagous and is a major threat to some of the native endemic plants. Despite the successful establishment in Hawaii, interactions of S.

Transdermal Delivery of Enfuvirtide in a Porcine Model Using a Low-Frequency, Low-Power Ultrasound Transducer Patch.

Ultrasound-mediated transdermal delivery is a promising parenteral administration method for large-molecule or unstable medications. This study evaluated skin health and systemic delivery when administering enfuvirtide, an injectable anti-retroviral medication, over a 1-mo period in a porcine model using a low-frequency cymbal transducer. Three groups received twice-daily treatments: (i) enfuvirtide injection control (n = 12); (ii) saline ultrasound control (n = 6); and (iii) enfuvirtide ultrasound treatment (n = 13).