Skeletal and Adipose Manifestations of Stress in a Contemporary Pediatric Sample.

Introduction: Adverse experiences leading to physiological disruptions (stress) in early life produce cascade effects on various biological systems, including the endocrine and metabolic systems, which, in turn, shape the developing skeletal system. To evaluate the effects of stress on adipose and skeletal tissues, we examine the relationship between skeletal indicators of stress (porotic hyperostosis [PH] and cribra orbitalia [CO]), bone mineral density (BMD), vertebral neural canal (VNC) diameters, and adipose tissue distribution in a contemporary pediatric autopsy sample.

Methods: Data is from 702 (409 males, 293 females) individuals from a pediatric (0.

'Taking it one day at a time' and 'Reaching back out to help someone': How transgender women living with HIV and community stakeholders navigate violence, oppression, and health through coping and advocacy.

Background: Transgender women living with HIV face intersectional oppression resulting in consequences for their mental and physical health. Interventions are needed that center the voices of transgender women living with HIV (TWLWH) and community stakeholders engrossed in work on behalf of the transgender community through advocacy and/or work roles.

Methods: Through a partnership with a trans led and focused program of a community-based health organization and an academic partner, from October 2020 through October 2021, TWLWH and community stakeholders participated in qualitative interviews on trauma, violence, mental health struggles, HIV stigma, gender discrimination, health behaviors (e.

Comparative Toxicogenomics Database's 20th anniversary: update 2025.

For 20 years, the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD; https://ctdbase.org) has provided high-quality, literature-based curated content describing how environmental chemicals affect human health. Today, CTD includes over 94 million toxicogenomic connections relating chemicals, genes/proteins, phenotypes, anatomical terms, diseases, comparative species, pathways and exposures.

Age added to MELD or ACLF predicts survival in patients with alcohol-associated hepatitis declined for liver transplantation.

Background: Severe alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) that is nonresponsive to corticosteroids is associated with high mortality, particularly with concomitant acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). Most patients will not be candidates for liver transplantation (LT) and their outcomes are largely unknown. Our aim was to determine the outcomes of these declined candidates and to derive practical prediction models for transplant-free survival applicable at the time of the waitlist decision.

A Real-World Experience Utilizing the FAST Score to Identify Patients With Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Fibrosis.

Background And Aims: We aimed to test the performance of the Fibroscan-aspartate aminotransferase (FAST) score, a noninvasive test, to identify nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and significant fibrosis (NASH + ≥F2) in a cohort of patients with a histological diagnosis of NASH, using a cutoff of ≥0.35 as a rule in factor. We also compared performance to liver stiffness measurement (LSM) ≥8 kPa and the fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) ≥1.

Standardizing a transitions of care pharmacist workflow for tobacco cessation efforts.

Background: Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death. Pharmacists can aid in smoking cessation through pharmacotherapy recommendations, patient counseling, and follow-up.

Objective: Describe a standardized transitions of care (TOC) pharmacist workflow for patients' tobacco cessation efforts at hospital discharge and to secondarily evaluate patient participation, impact on cessation outcomes, and pharmacist effort to provide the service.

Transforming environmental health datasets from the comparative toxicogenomics database into chord diagrams to visualize molecular mechanisms.

In environmental health, the specific molecular mechanisms connecting a chemical exposure to an adverse endpoint are often unknown, reflecting knowledge gaps. At the public Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD; https://ctdbase.org/), we integrate manually curated, literature-based interactions from CTD to compute four-unit blocks of information organized as a potential step-wise molecular mechanism, known as "CGPD-tetramers," wherein a chemical interacts with a gene product to trigger a phenotype which can be linked to a disease.

Simulating left atrial arrhythmias with an interactive N-body model.

Background: Heart disease and strokes are leading global killers. While atrial arrhythmias are not deadly by themselves, they can disrupt blood flow in the heart, causing blood clots. These clots can travel to the brain, causing strokes, or to the coronary arteries, causing heart attacks.

What's luck got to do with it? A generative model for examining the role of stochasticity in age-at-death, with implications for bioarchaeology.

Introduction: The role of "luck" in determining individual exposure to health insults is a critical component of the processes that shape age-at-death distributions in mortality samples but is difficult to address using traditional bioarcheological analysis of skeletal materials. The present study introduces a computer simulation approach to modeling stochasticity's contribution to the mortality schedule of a simulated cohort.

Methods: The present study employs an agent-based model of 15,100 individuals across a 120 year period to examine the predictive value of birth frailty on age-at-death when varying the likelihood of exposure to health insults.

Qualitative Analysis of the Lived Experience of Reproductive and Pediatric Health Care in the Military Health Care System.

Introduction: Persistent inequities exist in obstetric and neonatal outcomes in military families despite universal health care coverage. Though the exact underlying cause has not been identified, social determinants of health may uniquely impact military families. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively investigate the potential impact of social determinants of health and the lived experiences of military individuals seeking maternity care in the Military Health System.

Rare variants in increase risk for isolated hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is a severe congenital heart defect (CHD) characterized by hypoplasia of the left ventricle and aorta along with stenosis or atresia of the aortic and mitral valves. HLHS represents only ∼4%-8% of all CHDs but accounts for ∼25% of deaths. HLHS is an isolated defect (i.

Assessing the association of skeletal indicators of stress with mean age-at-death in sub-adults.

Objectives: The present study investigated the association of skeletal indicator of stress presence with mean age-at-death as a means of understanding whether commonly studied indicators are indeed indicative of increased frailty.

Materials And Methods: Using a medieval Gaelic population from Ballyhanna (Co. Donegal), the present study assessed the association between skeletal indicators of stress and mean age-at-death using the Kaplan-Meier survival function with log rank test to determine whether these indicators were associated with younger age-at-death, and therefore increased frailty, in sub-adults only (0 to 18 years, N = 139) and through comparison to an all-ages cohort (N = 318).

CTD tetramers: a new online tool that computationally links curated chemicals, genes, phenotypes, and diseases to inform molecular mechanisms for environmental health.

The molecular mechanisms connecting environmental exposures to adverse endpoints are often unknown, reflecting knowledge gaps. At the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD), we developed a bioinformatics approach that integrates manually curated, literature-based interactions from CTD to generate a "CGPD-tetramer": a 4-unit block of information organized as a step-wise molecular mechanism linking an initiating Chemical, an interacting Gene, a Phenotype, and a Disease outcome. Here, we describe a novel, user-friendly tool called CTD Tetramers that generates these evidence-based CGPD-tetramers for any curated chemical, gene, phenotype, or disease of interest.

Modification of the diabetes prevention program for the treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A pilot study.

Objective: The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) is the gold standard lifestyle modification program that reduces incident type 2 diabetes mellitus. Patients with prediabetes and patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) often share metabolic features; we hypothesized that the DPP could be adapted and used to improve outcomes in patients with NAFLD.

Methods: NAFLD patients were recruited into a 1 year modified DPP.

Data to Action: Community-Based Participatory Research to Address Concerns about Metal Air Pollution in Overburdened Neighborhoods near Metal Recycling Facilities in Houston.

Background: Exposures to environmental contaminants can be influenced by social determinants of health. As a result, persons living in socially disadvantaged communities may experience disproportionate health risks from environmental exposures. Mixed methods research can be used to understand community-level and individual-level exposures to chemical and nonchemical stressors contributing to environmental health disparities.

High-throughput printing of combinatorial materials from aerosols.

The development of new materials and their compositional and microstructural optimization are essential in regard to next-generation technologies such as clean energy and environmental sustainability. However, materials discovery and optimization have been a frustratingly slow process. The Edisonian trial-and-error process is time consuming and resource inefficient, particularly when contrasted with vast materials design spaces.

Step-by-Step Guide for Synthesis and Delamination of Ti C T MXene.

To advance the MXene field, it is crucial to optimize each step of the synthesis process and create a detailed, systematic guide for synthesizing high-quality MXene that can be consistently reproduced. In this study, a detailed guide is provided for an optimized synthesis of titanium carbide (Ti C T ) MXene using a mixture of hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acids for the selective etching of the stoichimetric-Ti AlC MAX phase and delamination of the etched multilayered Ti C T MXene using lithium chloride at 65 °C for 1 h with argon bubbling. The effect of different synthesis variables is investigated, including the stoichiometry of the mixed powders to synthesize Ti AlC , pre-etch impurity removal conditions, selective etching, storage, and drying of MXene multilayer powder, and the subsequent delamination conditions.

MXene Free Standing Films: Unlocking the Impact of Flake Sizes in Microwave Resonant Structures in Humid Environments.

Microwave communication devices necessitate elements with high electrical conductivity, a property which was traditionally found in metals (e.g., copper).

Environmental exposures are important risk factors for advanced liver fibrosis in African American adults.

Background & Aims: The prevalence and aetiology of liver fibrosis vary over time and impact racial/ethnic groups unevenly. This study measured time trends and identified factors associated with advanced liver fibrosis in the United States.

Methods: Standardised methods were used to analyse data on 47,422 participants (≥20 years old) in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2018).

Double-Transition-Metal MXene Films Promoting Deeply Rechargeable Magnesium Metal Batteries.

Magnesium metal batteries are promising candidates for next-generation high-energy-density and low-cost energy storage systems. Their application, however, is precluded by infinite relative volume changes and inevitable side reactions of Mg metal anodes. These issues become more pronounced at large areal capacities that are required for practical batteries.

Design of Atomic Ordering in MoNbCT MXenes for Hydrogen Evolution Electrocatalysis.

The need for novel materials for energy storage and generation calls for chemical control at the atomic scale in nanomaterials. Ordered double-transition-metal MXenes expanded the chemical diversity of the family of atomically layered 2D materials since their discovery in 2015. However, atomistic tunability of ordered MXenes to achieve ideal composition-property relationships has not been yet possible.