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.

A positive empathy intervention to improve well-being on Instagram.

With more than half the global population on social media, there is a critical need to understand how to engage it in a way that improves rather than worsens user well-being. Here, we show that positive empathy is a promising tool. Participants who received brief positive empathy instructions before 10 min of browsing their own Instagram feed showed greater affective well-being (Studies 1-4) and life satisfaction (Study 4) at posttest relative to participants who were instructed to browse as usual.

Cross-cultural validity of the Five-Factor Personality Inventory for ICD-11 across nine countries and validation of a French translation.

This study aimed to assess measurement invariance for the Five-Factor Inventory for (Oltmanns & Widiger, 2020) across nine national samples from four continents ( = 6,342), and to validate a French translation in seven French-speaking national samples. All were convenience samples of adults. Exploratory factor analyses supported a four-factor structure in the French-speaking Western samples (Belgium, Canada, France, and Switzerland) while a three-factor structure was preferred in the French-speaking African samples (Burkina Faso and Togo), and no adequate structure was found in the Indian sample.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Healthcare Providers and Healthcare Experiences of Women Regarding Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C): A Scoping Review of Evidence from Canada and the United States.

Healthcare providers (HCPs) play a critical role in the care of women with experience of FGM/C although there is limited research on knowledge about FGM/C among HCPs in Canada and USA. Research evidence suggests that many women with experience of FGM/C have negative care experiences. We sought to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Canadian and USA HCPs regarding FGM/C, along with women's healthcare experiences with FGM/C in both countries.

Genetic diversity and selection signatures in sheep breeds.

Natural and artificial selection in domesticated animals can cause specific changes in genomic regions known as selection signatures. Our study used the integrated haplotype score (iHS) and Tajima's D tests within non-overlapping windows of 100 kb to identify selection signatures, in addition to genetic diversity and linkage disequilibrium estimates in 9498 sheep from breeds in Ireland (Belclare, Charollais, Suffolk, Texel, and Vendeen). The mean observed and expected heterozygosity for all the sheep breeds were 0.

The impact of a secondary, rare, non-pathogenic PKD1 variant on disease progression in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease.

Background: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is caused primarily by pathogenic variants in the PKD1 and PKD2 genes. Although the type of ADPKD variant can influence disease severity, rare, hypomorphic PKD1 variants have also been reported to modify disease severity or cause biallelic ADPKD. This study examines whether rare, additional, potentially protein-altering, non-pathogenic PKD1 variants contribute to ADPKD phenotypic outcomes.

Severity of skin disease strongly correlates with quality of life in people with psoriatic arthritis: a systematic review.

This systematic review aims to summarise the association between skin disease and quality of life (QoL) in people with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and identify areas for future research and management. This review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42024500994). Databases were searched for articles in English published until 7th January 2025.

Amino acid stable carbon isotopes in nail keratin illuminate breastfeeding and weaning practices of mother - infant dyads.

Compound-specific stable carbon isotope analysis of amino acids (CSIA-AA) is widely used in ecological studies to analyze food-webs and is gaining use in archaeology for investigating past diets. However, its use in reconstructing breastfeeding and weaning practices is not fully understood. This study evaluates the efficacy of stable carbon isotope analysis of amino acids in early life diet reconstruction by analyzing keratin from fingernail samples of three mother-infant pairs during late gestation and early postpartum periods.

Clinical applicability of 2023 International Pediatric Nephrology Association recommended limited therapeutic drug monitoring formulae to assess mycophenolic acid exposure.

Background: The 2023 IPNA guidelines recommended a 12-h mycophenolic acid (MPA) area under the curve (AUC) estimation for managing pediatric nephrotic syndrome and MPA AUC > 50 mg * h/L for an optimal therapeutic response to mycophenolate mofetil (MMF). The IPNA guidelines endorsed two limited AUC formulae based on three-point MPA measurements to predict 12-h MPA AUC. The relative performance of these two limited AUC formulae has not been tested.

Moving towards single fraction peripheral lung stereotactic body radiation therapy: patient care during and after the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Single-fraction stereotactic body radiation therapy (SF-SBRT) for peripheral lung tumors was reviewed. Medically inoperable peripheral lung tumors eligible for SF-SBRT 34 Gray were treated. Patient characteristics, treatment and toxicity parameters were retrospectively collected, and toxicities were evaluated.

Generalizability of Randomized Controlled Trials to Routine Clinical Care in Ulcerative Colitis.

Background: Historically, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been criticized for being poorly generalizable to patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) evaluated in routine care. We aimed to evaluate the proportion of patients with UC starting an advanced therapy who would be eligible to participate in phase 3 registrational UC RCTs.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of UC patients starting vedolizumab, ustekinumab, or tofacitinib at 2 IBD clinics at the University of Calgary.

Intense, self-induced sustainable microwave plasma using carbon nanotubes made from CO.

An intense, microwave-driven plasma is triggered and sustained with carbon nanotubes made directly from CO. Purification is one of many prospective energy applications. Self-purification of molten carbonate split CO synthesized CNTs is 100× quicker, consumes 10× less power, and produces higher purity than with conventional plasma treatment.

Validation of a Pretransplant Risk Prediction Model for Early Allograft Dysfunction After Living-donor Liver Transplantation.

Background: Early allograft dysfunction (EAD) affects outcomes in liver transplantation (LT). Existing risk models developed for deceased-donor LT depend on posttransplant factors and fall short in living-donor LT (LDLT), where pretransplant evaluations are crucial for preventing EAD and justifying the donor's risks.

Methods: This retrospective study analyzed data from 2944 adult patients who underwent LDLT at 17 centers between 2016 and 2020.

High-Throughput Quantification and Characterization of Dual Payload mRNA/LNP Cargo via Deformulating Size Exclusion and Ion Pairing Reversed Phase Assays.

Therapeutic drugs and multivalent vaccines based on the delivery of mRNA via lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technologies are expected to dominate the biopharmaceutical industry landscape in the coming years. Many of these innovative therapies include several nucleic acid components (e.g.

Cardiac sarcoidosis; update for the heart failure specialist.

Purpose Of Review: This review presents contemporary data on epidemiology, common presentations, investigations and diagnostic algorithms, treatment and prognosis. It particularly focuses on topics of most relevance to heart failure specialists, including what left ventricle (LV) function changes can be expected after treatment and outcomes to all standard and advanced heart failure therapies.

Recent Findings: Around 5% of sarcoidosis patients have clinically manifest cardiac sarcoidosis (CS), presenting with significant arrhythmias (such as conduction disturbances and ventricular arrhythmias) or newly developed unexplained heart failure.

Sickle Cell Trait Does Not Cause "Sickle Cell Crisis" Leading to Exertion-Related Death: A Systematic Review.

Globally, an estimated 300 million individuals have sickle cell trait (SCT), the carrier state for sickle cell disease. While sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with increased morbidity and shortened lifespan, SCT has a lifespan comparable to that of the general population. However, "sickle cell crisis" has been used as a cause of death for decedents with SCT in reports of exertion-related death in athletes, military personnel, and individuals in police custody.

Development of a novel high-frequency reciprocal structure fiber optical pulsed current sensor.

A novel all-fiber optic current sensor (FOCS) is designed specifically for the measurement of large transient currents based on the Faraday effect. A reciprocal symmetric structure is incorporated into the optical sensing loop, and the current dependent phase demodulation is achieved by using a passive optical fiber coupler and the homodyne detection scheme. This design offers several advantages, including structural simplicity, high voltage insulation, low noise, high linearity, and excellent frequency response, and is highly suitable for use in any system of high-voltage, high-power, and high-frequency in nature.

Increased default mode network activation in depression and social anxiety during upward social comparison.

Social comparisons are a core feature of human life. Theories posit that social comparisons play a critical role in depression and social anxiety triggering negative evaluations about the self, as well as negative emotions. We investigated the neural basis of social comparisons in participants with depression and/or social anxiety (MD-SA, n=56) and healthy controls (n=47) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

A yeast-based reverse genetics system to generate HCoV-OC43 reporter viruses encoding an eighth subgenomic RNA.

Unlabelled: Coronaviruses have large, positive-sense single-stranded RNA genomes that challenge conventional strategies for mutagenesis. Yeast genetics has been used to manipulate large viral genomes, including those of herpesviruses and coronaviruses. This method, known as transformation-associated recombination (TAR), involves assembling complete viral genomes from dsDNA copies of viral genome fragments via homologous recombination in .