Moderating Effects of Patient Characteristics on the Impact of Financial Incentives.

While financial incentives to providers or patients are increasingly common as a quality improvement strategy, their impact on patient subgroups and health care disparities is unclear. To examine these patterns, we analyzed data from a randomized clinical trial of financial incentives to lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels in patients at risk for cardiovascular disease. Patients with higher baseline LDL experienced greater cholesterol reductions in the shared incentive arm (0.

Does Noise Weighting Matter in CT Iterative Reconstruction?

This paper uses a computer simulation to investigate whether a more accurate noise model always results in less noisy images in CT iterative reconstruction. We start with a hypothetic non-realistic noise model for the CT measurements, by assuming that the attenuation coefficient is energy independent and there is no scattering. A variance formula for this model is derived and presented.

Lymph node dissection and survival in patients with early stage nonsmall cell lung cancer: A 10-year cohort study.

It is still debatable whether complete mediastinal lymph node dissection (MLND) is associated with better survival than mediastinal lymph node sampling (MLNS) in surgical treatment of nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We aimed to assess the impact of lymph node dissection on long-term survival among stage I NSCLC patients.In this cohort study, 317 stage I NSCLC Chinese patients in Shanghai Chest Hospital were followed up for at least 10 years to evaluate the impact of different lymph node dissection modes on their survival.

Effect of Financial Incentives on Glucose Monitoring Adherence and Glycemic Control Among Adolescents and Young Adults With Type 1 Diabetes: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Glycemic control often deteriorates during adolescence and the transition to young adulthood for patients with type 1 diabetes. The inability to manage type 1 diabetes effectively during these years is associated with poor glycemic control and complications from diabetes in adult life.

Objective: To determine the effect of daily financial incentives on glucose monitoring adherence and glycemic control in adolescents and young adults with type 1 diabetes.

Novel cycloneolignans from Vernicia fordii with inhibitory effects on over-activation of BV2 cells in vitro.

Novel natural products 7R, 8R, 7'R, 9'S-verniciasin A (1a), 7S, 8S, 7'S, 9'R- verniciasin A (1b), 7R, 8R, 7'R, 9'S-7'-methoxylverniciasin A (2a) and 7S, 8S, 7'S, 9'R-7'-methoxylverniciasin A (2b) were characterized from the seed capsule of Vernicia fordii. And the unique 9-O-9'-7, 9'-cyclo-8, 1'-neolignan skeleton with a seven-membered ring, was identified by extensive spectroscopic analysis. Further the possible biosynthetic pathway was briefly discussed.

Effect of a Game-Based Intervention Designed to Enhance Social Incentives to Increase Physical Activity Among Families: The BE FIT Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Gamification, the application of game design elements such as points and levels in nongame contexts, is often used in digital health interventions, but evidence on its effectiveness is limited.

Objective: To test the effectiveness of a gamification intervention designed using insights from behavioral economics to enhance social incentives within families to increase physical activity.

Design, Setting, And Participants: The Behavioral Economics Framingham Incentive Trial (BE FIT) was a randomized clinical trial with a 12-week intervention period and a 12-week follow-up period.

Hybrid Pre-Log and Post-Log Image Reconstruction for Computed Tomography.

Tomographic image reconstruction for low-dose computed tomography (CT) is increasingly challenging as dose continues to reduce in clinical applications. Pre-log domain methods and post-log domain methods have been proposed individually and each method has its own disadvantage. While having the potential to improve image quality for low-dose data by using an accurate imaging model, pre-log domain methods suffer slow convergence in practice due to the nonlinear transformation from the image to measurements.

A novel method for transmitting southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus to rice without insect vector.

Background: Southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus (SRBSDV) has spread from the south of China to the north of Vietnam in the past few years, and has severely influenced rice production. However, previous study of traditional SRBSDV transmission method by the natural virus vector, the white-backed planthopper (WBPH, Sogatella furcifera), in the laboratory, researchers are frequently confronted with lack of enough viral samples due to the limited life span of infected vectors and rice plants and low virus acquisition and inoculation efficiency by the vector. Meanwhile, traditional mechanical inoculation of virus only apply to dicotyledon because of the higher content of lignin in the leaves of the monocot.

Genome-wide Analysis and Expression Divergence of the Trihelix family in Brassica Rapa: Insight into the Evolutionary Patterns in Plants.

Trihelix gene family is an important transcription factor (TF) family involved in plants' growth and development. This extensive study of trihelix genes from Arabidopsis thaliana to Brassica rapa could shed light on the evolution in plants and support crop breeding. In this study, a total of 52 trihelix genes were identified in B.

Thrombectomy Combined with Indwelling-catheter Thrombolysis is more Effective than Pure Thrombectomy for the Treatment of Lower Extremity Deep Venous Thrombosis.

Unlabelled: This study was a retrospective analysis of the efficacy of thrombectomy plus local catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) for the treatment of lower extremity deep venous thrombosis (LDVT). The experimental group underwent thrombectomy plus LCDT, whereas the control group underwent thrombectomy plus systemic thrombolysis via the dorsalis pedis vein. Venography and vascular color Doppler ultrasound were performed 7 days after surgery and at follow-up.

Citrus CitNAC62 cooperates with CitWRKY1 to participate in citric acid degradation via up-regulation of CitAco3.

Citric acid is the predominant organic acid of citrus fruit. Degradation of citric acid occurs during fruit development, influencing fruit acidity. Associations of CitAco3 transcripts and citric acid degradation have been reported for citrus fruit.

Comparison of anti-pathogenic activities of the human and bovine milk N-glycome: Fucosylation is a key factor.

Health differences between breast- and formula-fed infants have long been apparent despite great efforts in improving the function of baby formula by adjusting the levels of various milk nutritional components. However, the N-glycome, a type of oligosaccharide decorating a diverse range of proteins, has not been extensively studied in milk regarding its biological function. In this study, the anti-pathogenic function of the enzymatically released human and bovine milk N-glycome against 5 food-borne pathogens was investigated.

CHNHPbI grain growth and interfacial properties in meso-structured perovskite solar cells fabricated by two-step deposition.

Although the two-step deposition (TSD) method is widely adopted for the high performance perovskite solar cells (PSCs), the CHNHPbI perovskite crystal growth mechanism during the TSD process and the photo-generated charge recombination dynamics in the mesoporous-TiO (mp-TiO)/CHNHPbI/hole transporting material (HTM) system remains unexploited. Herein, we modified the concentration of PbI () solution to control the perovskite crystal properties, and observed an abnormal CHNHPbI grain growth phenomenon atop mesoporous TiO film. To illustrate this abnormal grain growth mechanism, we propose that a grain ripening process is taking place during the transformation from PbI to CHNHPbI, and discuss the PbI nuclei morphology, perovskite grain growing stage, as well as Pb:I atomic ratio difference among CHNHPbI grains with different morphology.

Effect of a Price Transparency Intervention in the Electronic Health Record on Clinician Ordering of Inpatient Laboratory Tests: The PRICE Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Many health systems are considering increasing price transparency at the time of order entry. However, evidence of its impact on clinician ordering behavior is inconsistent and limited to single-site evaluations of shorter duration.

Objective: To test the effect of displaying Medicare allowable fees for inpatient laboratory tests on clinician ordering behavior over 1 year.

Regularization parameter selection for penalized-likelihood list-mode image reconstruction in PET.

Penalized likelihood (PL) reconstruction has demonstrated potential to improve image quality of positron emission tomography (PET) over unregularized ordered-subsets expectation-maximization (OSEM) algorithm. However, selecting proper regularization parameters in PL reconstruction has been challenging due to the lack of ground truth and variation of penalty functions. Here we present a method to choose regularization parameters using a cross-validation log-likelihood (CVLL) function.

Transcriptomic analysis of the biosynthesis, recycling, and distribution of ascorbic acid during leaf development in tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze).

Ascorbic acid (AsA), known as vitamin C, is an essential nutrient for humans and mainly absorbed from food. Tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O.

Evaluation of Rice Resistance to Southern Rice Black-Streaked Dwarf Virus and Rice Ragged Stunt Virus through Combined Field Tests, Quantitative Real-Time PCR, and Proteome Analysis.

Unlabelled: Diseases caused by southern rice black-streaked dwarf virus (SRBSDV) and rice ragged stunt virus (RRSV) considerably decrease grain yield. Therefore, determining rice cultivars with high resistance to SRBSDV and RRSV is necessary. In this study, rice cultivars with high resistance to SRBSDV and RRSV were evaluated through field trials in Shidian and Mangshi county, Yunnan province, China.

Comprehensive Analysis of the CDPK-SnRK Superfamily Genes in Chinese Cabbage and Its Evolutionary Implications in Plants.

The CDPK-SnRK (calcium-dependent protein kinase/Snf1-related protein kinase) gene superfamily plays important roles in signaling pathways for disease resistance and various stress responses, as indicated by emerging evidence. In this study, we constructed comparative analyses of gene structure, retention, expansion, whole-genome duplication (WGD) and expression patterns of CDPK-SnRK genes in and their evolution in plants. A total of 49 , 14 , 3 , 5 , and 56 s were identified in .

Developmental processes and responses to hormonal stimuli in tea plant (Camellia sinensis) leaves are controlled by GRF and GIF gene families.

Tea plant (Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze) is an important leaf-type woody crop used for producing of non-alcoholic beverages worldwide.

An investigation of fungal contamination on the surface of medicinal herbs in China.

Background: The dried parts of medicinal herbs are susceptible to the infection of fungi during pre- or post-harvest procedure. This study aimed to investigate the presence of fungi and their metabolites mycotoxins on the surface of medicinal herbs collected from China.

Methods: Forty-five retail samples of 15 different medicinal herbs were collected from 3 different regions in China.

Automated Reminders and Physician Notification to Promote Immunosuppression Adherence Among Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Randomized Trial.

Background: Immunosuppression nonadherence increases the risk for kidney transplant loss after transplantation. Wireless-enabled pill bottles have created the opportunity to monitor medication adherence in real time. Reminders may help patients with poor memory or organization.