Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, health care professionals experienced high levels of depression. However, extant research has not highlighted effective internet-based psychological interventions to improve the mental health in this population during the pandemic. It remains unclear whether self-guided, internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) programs are effective in improving the mental health of health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The pediatric emergency department (PED) is experiencing a rising volume of patients with mental health concerns, leading to prolonged boarding times and delays in initiating active therapeutic plans. A paucity of research exists for the self-reported pediatric patient experience during such boarding.
Objectives: To inform more individualized and patient-centered PED care for patients boarding for mental health admission, by learning the prior trauma experiences and patient perspective on prolonged PED mental health stays.
Floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) are artificial platforms that allow aquatic emergent plants to grow in water. Aquatic macrophytes and microorganisms attached to plant roots contribute to the remediation of the contaminated water through physicochemical and biological processes. The pollutant removal treatment performance is affected by various factors, including the plant species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Biologic therapies inhibiting the IL-4 or IL-5 pathways are very effective in the treatment of asthma and other related conditions. However, the cytokines IL-4 and IL-5 also play a role in the generation of adaptive immune responses. Although these biologics do not cause overt immunosuppression, their effect in primary severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) immunization has not been studied completely.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe organization of nucleosomes into chromatin and their accessibility are shaped by local DNA mechanics. Conversely, nucleosome positions shape genetic variations, which may originate from mismatches during replication and chemical modification of DNA. To investigate how DNA mismatches affect the mechanical stability and the exposure of nucleosomal DNA, we used an optical trap combined with single-molecule FRET and a single-molecule FRET cyclization assay.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Virtual interviews (VI) are now a permanent part of pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) recruitment, especially given the cost and equity advantages. Yet inability to visit programs in person can impact decision-making, leading applicants to apply to more programs. Moreover, the cost advantages of VI may encourage applicants to apply to programs farther away than they might otherwise have been willing or able to travel.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hyperlipidemia is associated with chronic inflammation and thromboinflammation. This is an underlying cause of several cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis. In diseased blood vessels, rampant thrombin generation results in the initiation of the coagulation cascade, activation of platelets, and endothelial cell dysfunction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtracellular vesicles (EVs) have been shown as key mediators of extracellular small RNA transport. However, carriers of cell-free messenger RNA (cf-mRNA) in human biofluids and their association with cancer remain poorly understood. Here, we performed a transcriptomic analysis of size-fractionated plasma from lung cancer, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, and healthy donors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in training programs restructuring their curricula. Fellowship programs are required to monitor each fellow's training progress through a combination of formal evaluations, competency tracking, and measures of knowledge acquisition. The American Board of Pediatrics administers subspecialty in-training examinations (SITE) to pediatric fellowship trainees annually and board certification exams at the completion of the fellowship.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: We sought to describe how the Emergency Department Work Index (EDWIN) saturation tool (1) correlates with PED overcrowding during a capacity management activation policy, known internally as Purple Alert and (2) compare overall hospital-wide capacity metrics on days in which the alert was instituted versus days it was not.
Methods: This study was conducted between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2019 in a 30-bed academic quaternary care, urban PED within a university hospital. The EDWIN tool was implemented in January 2019 and objectively measured the busyness of the PED.
J Ration Emot Cogn Behav Ther
October 2022
The simultaneous occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition to adulthood have posed particular obstacles to university students' mental health. However, it remains unclear whether hope promotes mental health in the relationship between self-compassion, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction. Therefore, this study investigated the role of hope as a mediator in the relationship between self-compassion, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction among Vietnamese undergraduate students in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell-free RNA (cfRNA) in plasma reflects phenotypic alterations of both localized sites of cancer and the systemic host response. Here we report that cfRNA sequencing enables the discovery of messenger RNA (mRNA) biomarkers in plasma with the tissue of origin-specific to cancer types and precancerous conditions in both solid and hematologic malignancies. To explore the diagnostic potential of total cfRNA from blood, we sequenced plasma samples of eight hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and ten multiple myeloma (MM) patients, 12 patients of their respective precancerous conditions, and 20 non-cancer (NC) donors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe discovery and utility of clinically relevant circulating biomarkers depend on standardized methods that minimize preanalytical errors. Despite growing interest in studying extracellular vesicles (EVs) and cell-free messenger RNA (cf-mRNA) as potential biomarkers, how blood processing and freeze/thaw impacts the profiles of these analytes in plasma was not thoroughly understood. We utilized flow cytometric analysis to examine the effect of differential centrifugation and a freeze/thaw cycle on EV profiles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtecting the mental health of healthcare workers is an urgent global public health priority. Healthcare workers, especially those immersed in palliative care, are prone to burnout due to the intense emotions associated with end-of-life caregiving. This study examines the efficacy of a novel, multimodal, and group-based Mindful-Compassion Art-based Therapy (MCAT) that integrates reflective self-awareness with creative emotional expression for protecting healthcare workers' mental health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: This study aimed to evaluate both applicant and interviewer satisfaction with the virtual interviewing process for pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellowship in hopes to improve the fellowship interviewing process. It was proposed that fellowship programs and applicants would prefer virtual interviews over traditional interviews.
Methods: A survey developed in collaboration with UT Southwestern PEM fellowship leaders and national PEM leaders was sent to all PEM fellowship applicants and programs at the conclusion of the 2020 interview season and rank list submission.
Previous transcriptome studies of human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) compare non-cancerous pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias (PanIN) with late-stage PDAC obtained from different patients, thus have limited ability to discern network dynamics that contribute to the disease progression. We demonstrated previously that the 10-22 cell line, an induced pluripotent stem cell-like line reprogrammed from late-stage human PDAC cells, recapitulated the progression from PanINs to PDAC upon transplantation into NOD/LtSz-scid/IL2R-gamma mice. Herein, we investigated the transition from precursor to PDAC using the isogenic model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: Paediatric emergency departments (ED) nationwide experience a shared burden of boarding mental health patients. Whilst boarding, some patients have a change in disposition from hospitalization to discharge home. This phenomenon raises concern because EDs often have scarce resources for mental health patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) Head Injury/Trauma Algorithm is a well-validated decision rule used to identify patients at low risk of clinically important traumatic brain injuries who may not need head CT. In adult patients with mild head trauma, elevated serum glucose and white cell count (WCC) have been associated with abnormal head CT findings. Currently, glucose or WCC is not considered in pediatric patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMechanical deformations of DNA such as bending are ubiquitous and have been implicated in diverse cellular functions. However, the lack of high-throughput tools to measure the mechanical properties of DNA has limited our understanding of how DNA mechanics influence chromatin transactions across the genome. Here we develop 'loop-seq'-a high-throughput assay to measure the propensity for DNA looping-and determine the intrinsic cyclizabilities of 270,806 50-base-pair DNA fragments that span Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosome V, other genomic regions, and random sequences.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany emerging technologies are reliant on circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and cell-free RNA (cfRNA) applications in the clinic. However, the impact of diurnal cycles or daily meals on circulating analytes are poorly understood and may be confounding factors when developing diagnostic platforms. To begin addressing this knowledge gap, we obtained plasma from four healthy donors serially sampled five times during 12 h in a single day.
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