The monster in the room University of California Press, 2025. 336 pp.

A historian interrogates the mythical creatures we create to dehumanize and devalue others.

Dynamics of tissue repair regulatory T cells and damage in acute Trypanosoma cruzi infection.

Tissue-repair regulatory T cells (trTregs) comprise a specialized cell subset essential for tissue homeostasis and repair. While well-studied in sterile injury models, their role in infection-induced tissue damage and antimicrobial immunity is less understood. We investigated trTreg dynamics during acute Trypanosoma cruzi infection, marked by extensive tissue damage and strong CD8+ immunity.

An "opinion reproduction number" for infodemics in a bounded-confidence content-spreading process on networks.

We study the spreading dynamics of content on networks. To do this, we use a model in which content spreads through a bounded-confidence mechanism. In a bounded-confidence model (BCM) of opinion dynamics, the agents of a network have continuous-valued opinions, which they adjust when they interact with agents whose opinions are sufficiently close to theirs.

Linking citation and retraction data reveals the demographics of scientific retractions among highly cited authors.

Retractions are becoming increasingly common but still account for a small minority of published papers. It would be useful to generate databases where the presence of retractions can be linked to impact metrics of each scientist. We have thus incorporated retraction data in an updated Scopus-based database of highly cited scientists (top 2% in each scientific subfield according to a composite citation indicator).

Spatial Variation in the Association between Extreme Heat Events and Warm Season Pediatric Acute Care Utilization: A Small-Area Assessment of Multiple Health Conditions and Environmental Justice Implications in California (2005-2019).

Background: The increasing frequency and severity of extreme heat events due to climate change present unique risks to children and adolescents. There is a lack of evidence regarding how heat's impacts on pediatric patients vary spatially and how structural and sociodemographic factors drive this heterogeneity.

Objectives: We examined the association between extreme heat events and pediatric acute care utilization in California for 19 distinct health conditions.

Monocytes and interstitial macrophages contribute to hypoxic pulmonary hypertension.

Hypoxia is a major cause of pulmonary hypertension (PH) worldwide, and it is likely that interstitial pulmonary macrophages contribute to this vascular pathology. We observed in hypoxia-exposed mice an increase in resident interstitial macrophages, which expanded through proliferation and expressed the monocyte recruitment ligand CCL2. We also observed an increase in CCR2+ macrophages through recruitment, which express the protein thrombospondin-1 that functionally activates TGF-beta to cause vascular disease.

Revised Process for ACNS Guidelines Development.

The development of clinical practice guidelines is an evolving field. In response to the need for consistent, evidence-based medical practice, the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society identified the need to update the Society's guideline development process. The American Clinical Neurophysiology Society Guidelines Committee created an action plan with the goal of improving transparency and rigor for future guidelines and bringing existing guidelines to current standards.

Overcoming Hesitancy and Barriers to Care with Integration of Telemedicine in a Free Student-run Health Clinic.

Introduction: Nadezhda Clinic is a free student-run health clinic that provides culturally sensitive primary care services to the underserved Russian-speaking population of the greater Sacramento area. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the clinic suspended in-person services and solely offered telemedicine visits. Most patients were hesitant to utilize telemedicine due to poor technological literacy, privacy concerns, and a preference for in-person care.

Procedural Prescription Denials and Risk of Acute Care Utilization and Spending Among Medicaid Patients.

Importance: Rising prescription medication costs under Medicaid have led to increased procedural prescription denials by health plans. The effect of unresolved denials on chronic condition exacerbation and subsequent acute care utilization remains unclear.

Objective: To examine whether procedural prescription denials are associated with increased net spending through downstream acute care utilization among Medicaid patients not obtaining prescribed medication following a denial.

Community Racial and Ethnic Representation Among Physicians in US Internal Medicine Residency Programs.

Importance: Increasing underrepresented in medicine (URIM) physicians among historically underserved communities helps reduce health disparities. The concordance of URIM physicians with their communities improves access to care, particularly for American Indian and Alaska Native, Black, and Hispanic or Latinx individuals.

Objectives: To explore county-level racial and ethnic representation of US internal medicine (IM) residents, examine racial and ethnic concordance between residents and their communities, and assess whether representation varies by presence of academic institutions or underserved settings.

Transportation Insecurity, Social Support, and Adherence to Cancer Screening.

Importance: Transportation insecurity and lack of social support are 2 understudied social determinants of health that contribute to excess morbidity, mortality, and acute health care utilization. However, whether and how these social determinants of health are associated with cancer screening has not been determined and has implications for preventive care.

Objective: To determine whether transportation insecurity or social support are associated with screening adherence for colorectal, breast, and cervical cancer.

Adjuvant Atezolizumab for Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: The ALEXANDRA/IMpassion030 Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive subtype with a high incidence in young patients, a high incidence in non-Hispanic Black women, and a high risk of progression to metastatic cancer, a devastating sequela with a 12- to 18-month life expectancy. Until recently, one strategy for treating early-stage triple-negative breast cancer was chemotherapy after surgery. However, it was not known whether the addition of immune therapy to postsurgery chemotherapy would be beneficial.

Willingness to Use Long-Acting Injectable Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis among Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Kampala, Uganda.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has proven to be a powerful tool in preventing HIV infection. There is limited information about the factors associated with willingness to use different PrEP modalities among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Africa. We assessed willingness to use long-acting injectable PrEP (LAI-PrEP) among 14-24-year-old AGYW at high risk of HIV in Uganda, and associated factors determined using multivariable complementary log-log regression.

A plasmid with the gene enhances the fitness of strains under laboratory conditions.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major threat to global public health that continues to grow owing to selective pressure caused by the use and overuse of antimicrobial drugs. Resistance spread by plasmids is of special concern, as they can mediate a wide distribution of AMR genes, including those encoding extended-spectrum -lactamases (ESBLs). The CTX-M family of ESBLs has rapidly spread worldwide, playing a large role in the declining effectiveness of third-generation cephalosporins.

Plasmids encode and can mobilize onion pathogenicity in Pantoea agglomerans.

Pantoea agglomerans is one of four Pantoea species reported in the USA to cause bacterial rot of onion bulbs. However, not all P. agglomerans strains are pathogenic to onion.

Differences in Combustible Cigarette Smoking-Related Biomarkers by Hormonal Contraceptive Use: An Exploratory Study.

Introduction: Hormonal contraceptives (HCs), which contain synthetic forms of estrogen (i.e., ethinyl estradiol) and/or progesterone (i.

Tumor cells upregulate neurotransmitter GABA in the choroid plexus through STAT6-Bestrophin1 signaling, promoting leptomeningeal dissemination.

Background: Leptomeningeal dissemination (LMD) occurs when tumor cells interact with choroid plexus epithelium (CPE) to gain access to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain's meninges and ventricular system. This disease is particularly devastating for patients due to our limited understanding and few therapeutic options. The leptomeningeal CSF is a nutritionally deprived microenvironment for tumor cells.

Synthetically Relevant Post-Transition State Bifurcation Leading to Diradical and Zwitterionic Intermediates: Controlling Nonstatistical Kinetic Selectivity through Solvent Effects.

A post-transition state surface intersection (PTSSI) between radical and zwitterionic states that causes a bifurcation in the reaction pathway was discovered through density functional theory calculations on potential energy surfaces and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of cycloadditions between a bicyclobutane and a triazolinedione (BCB-TAD). It was predicted that changes to the solvent polarity would enable control over the dynamic selectivity in this system; indeed, experimental evidence supported this prediction. This work not only provides new insights into an unusual type of post-transition state bifurcation, but also demonstrates how the nonstatistical dynamic effects that control selectivity for such reactions can be manipulated rationally to increase the yields of synthetically useful reactions.