Community-Engaged Survey Approach to Pandemic Impacts on Marginalized Communities, Massachusetts, 2020-2021.

To describe how an innovative, community-engaged survey illuminated previously unmeasured pandemic inequities and informed health equity investments. The methodological approach of Massachusetts' COVID-19 Community Impact Survey, a cross-sectional online survey, was driven by key health equity principles: prioritizing community engagement, gathering granular and intersectional data, capturing root causes, elevating community voices, expediting analysis for timeliness, and creating data-to-action pathways. Data collection was deployed statewide in 11 languages from 2020 to 2021.

The association between frequent alcohol drinking and opioid consumption after abdominal surgery: A retrospective analysis.

Aims: It is perceived that patients with a history of frequent alcohol consumption require more opioids for postoperative pain control and experience less postoperative nausea and vomiting than patients without such a history. However, there is scarce evidence supporting this notion. The aim of this study was to assess association between frequent alcohol consumption and opioid requirement for postoperative pain control and occurrence of postoperative nausea and vomiting.

Serum-Based Culture Conditions Provoke Gene Expression Variability in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells as Revealed by Single-Cell Analysis.

Variation in gene expression is an important feature of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). However, the mechanisms responsible for global gene expression variation in ESCs are not fully understood. We performed single-cell mRNA-seq analysis of mouse ESCs and uncovered significant heterogeneity in ESCs cultured in serum.

An analysis of surgical outcomes in patients aged 80 years and older.

Objectives: Elderly patients (aged ≥ 80 years) undergo an increasing number of operations. Elderly patients undergoing operations usually develop more postoperative complications and have poorer outcomes. The aim of this study is to identify the relative importance between preoperative and intraoperative variables to predict adverse postoperative outcomes in these patients.

Mapping cellular hierarchy by single-cell analysis of the cell surface repertoire.

Stem cell differentiation pathways are most often studied at the population level, whereas critical decisions are executed at the level of single cells. We have established a highly multiplexed, quantitative PCR assay to profile in an unbiased manner a panel of all commonly used cell surface markers (280 genes) from individual cells. With this method, we analyzed over 1,500 single cells throughout the mouse hematopoietic system and illustrate its utility for revealing important biological insights.

The hexameric structures of human heat shock protein 90.

Background: The human 90-kDa heat shock protein (HSP90) functions as a dimeric molecular chaperone. HSP90 identified on the cell surface has been found to play a crucial role in cancer invasion and metastasis, and has become a validated anti-cancer target for drug development. It has been shown to self-assemble into oligomers upon heat shock or divalent cations treatment, but the functional role of the oligomeric states in the chaperone cycle is not fully understood.

High dosage of aripiprazole-induced dysphagia.

Background: Dysphagia as a main manifestation of extrapyramidal symptoms is an uncommon adverse effect of second-generation antipsychotics.

Method: We present a 54-year-old drug-naïve patient with schizophrenia, who developed dysphagia with aripiprazole 30 mg daily treatment.

Results: This is the first case report on aripiprazole-induced dysphagia.

Asymptomatic factor VII deficiency: gene analysis and structure-function relationships.

Factor VII Padua is a variant form of factor VII deficiency characterized by a prolongation of the prothrombin time (PT), when the assay is performed using rabbit brain thromboplastin. The PT is normal when performed using either human or ox brain thromboplastin reagents, or a recombinant human tissue factor-based thromboplastin. We report a case of an African-American woman with asymptomatic factor VII deficiency, who had a prolonged PT and factor VII activity levels of 5-8% using rabbit brain thromboplastin, but a normal PT and factor VII activity levels when measured using recombinant human brain thromboplastin or tissue factor.

The in vitro and in vivo apoptotic effects of Mahonia oiwakensis on human lung cancer cells.

Both the root and stem bark of Mahonia species were popular folk medicines. The plant has several proven biological activities including anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-inflammatory effects. However, Mahonia has not been studied for its anticancer effects.

Representation or context as a cognitive strategy in colour constancy?

If an identification task with colour constancy as its objective is carried out under drastically changing illumination, do people rely mainly on colour information or do they rely on other sources of information? This question suggested two hypotheses for testing: (i) context hypothesis: people rely mainly on colour information (spectral reflectance or illumination chromaticity) to achieve colour constancy; (ii) representation hypothesis: people rely mainly on all other clues associated with colour to achieve colour constancy, including form information (any shape elements) and space information (spatial coordinates or spatial correlation). Experiment 1 showed that form information was readily associated with colour information to produce implicit representation. This gave the best colour-constancy performance (95.

Hepatitis C virus ARFP/F protein interacts with cellular MM-1 protein and enhances the gene trans-activation activity of c-Myc.

The ARFP/F protein is synthesized from the +1 reading frame of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) core protein gene. The function of this protein remains unknown. To study the function of the HCV ARFP/F protein, we have conducted the yeast two-hybrid screening experiment to identify cellular proteins that may interact with the ARFP/F protein.

Protective effects of berberine against low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation and oxidized LDL-induced cytotoxicity on endothelial cells.

The oxidative modification of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is thought to have a central role in the pathogenesis of atherogenesis. Berberine, a natural constituent of plants of the genera Coptis and Berberis, has several anti-inflammation and anticancer biological effects. However, its protective effects on LDL oxidation and endothelial injury induced by oxLDL remain unclear.

Chicken heat shock protein 90 is a component of the putative cellular receptor complex of infectious bursal disease virus.

Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) causes a highly contagious disease in young chicks and leads to significant economic losses in the poultry industry. The capsid protein VP2 of IBDV plays an important role in virus binding and cell recognition. VP2 forms a subviral particle (SVP) with immunogenicity similar to that of the IBDV capsid.

Electrophoretic mobility, zeta potential, and fixed charge density of bovine knee chondrocytes, methyl methacrylate-sulfopropyl methacrylate, polybutylcyanoacrylate, and solid lipid nanoparticles.

The electrophoretic mobility and zeta potential of bovine knee chondrocytes (BKCs), methyl methacrylate-sulfopropyl methacrylate (MMA-SPM) nanoparticles (NPs), polybutylcyanoacrylate (PBCA) NPs, and solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) were investigated under the influences of Na+, K+, and Ca2+ with various ionic strengths. The fixed charge density in the surface layers of the four biocolloidal particles was estimated from the experimental mobility of capillary electrophoresis with a theory of soft charged colloids. The results revealed that, for a specific cationic species, the absolute values of the electrophoretic mobility, the zeta potential, and the fixed charge density decreased with an increase in ionic strength.