MAL2 and rab17 selectively redistribute invadopodia proteins to laterally-induced protrusions in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

MAL2 (myelin and lymphocyte protein 2) and rab17 have been identified as hepatocellular carcinoma tumor suppressors. However, little is known how their functions in hepatic polarized protein sorting/trafficking translates into how they function in the epithelial to mesenchymal transition and/or the mesenchymal to epithelial transition in metastases. To investigate this, we expressed MAL2 and rab17 alone or together in hepatoma-derived Clone 9 cells (that lack endogenous MAL2 and rab17).

Restorative Neurostimulation Therapy Compared to Optimal Medical Management: A Randomized Evaluation (RESTORE) for the Treatment of Chronic Mechanical Low Back Pain due to Multifidus Dysfunction.

Introduction: Many interventional strategies are commonly used to treat chronic low back pain (CLBP), though few are specifically intended to target the distinct underlying pathomechanisms causing low back pain. Restorative neurostimulation has been suggested as a specific treatment for mechanical CLBP resulting from multifidus dysfunction. In this randomized controlled trial, we report outcomes from a cohort of patients with CLBP associated with multifidus dysfunction treated with restorative neurostimulation compared to those randomized to a control group receiving optimal medical management (OMM) over 1 year.

Quantification of Particle-Associated Viruses in Secondary Treated Wastewater Effluent.

Viruses can interact with a broad range of inorganic and organic particles in water and wastewater. These associations can protect viruses from inactivation by quenching chemical disinfectants or blocking ultraviolet light transmission, and a much higher dosage of disinfectants is required to inactivate particle-associated viruses than free viruses. There have been only few studies of the association of viruses with particles in wastewater, particularly in secondary treated effluent.

Explaining cognitive function in multiple sclerosis through networks of grey and white matter features: a joint independent component analysis.

Cognitive impairment (CI) in multiple sclerosis (MS) is only partially explained by whole-brain volume measures, but independent component analysis (ICA) can extract regional patterns of damage in grey matter (GM) or white matter (WM) that have proven more closely associated with CI. Pathology in GM and WM occurs in parallel, and so patterns can span both. This study assessed whether joint-ICA of GM and WM features better explained cognitive function compared to single-tissue ICA.

Trends in screening and treatment of osteoporosis after periprosthetic fractures from 2010 to 2020.

Unlabelled: Osteoporosis is often underrecognized and undertreated following periprosthetic fractures (PPF). Our study found that between 2010 and 2020, there has been no significant change in the rates of osteoporosis screening or treatment within 1 year following PPF. Orthopedic surgeons can play an integral role in helping to curtail the osteoporosis epidemic.

NNFit: A Self-Supervised Deep Learning Method for Accelerated Quantification of High- Resolution Short Echo Time MR Spectroscopy Datasets.

Purpose To develop and evaluate the performance of NNFit, a self-supervised deep-learning method for quantification of high-resolution short echo-time (TE) echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) datasets, with the goal of addressing the computational bottleneck of conventional spectral quantification methods in the clinical workflow. Materials and Methods This retrospective study included 89 short-TE whole-brain EPSI/GRAPPA scans from clinical trials for glioblastoma (Trial 1, May 2014-October 2018) and major-depressive-disorder (Trial 2, 2022- 2023). The training dataset included 685k spectra from 20 participants (60 scans) in Trial 1.

Transcriptomic and functional characterization of megakaryocytic-derived platelet-like particles: impaired aggregation and prominent anti-tumor effects.

Platelet-like particles (PLPs), derived from megakaryocytic cell lines MEG-01 and K-562, are widely used as a surrogate to study platelet formation and function. We demonstrate by RNA-Seq that PLPs are transcriptionally distinct from platelets. Expression of key genes in signaling pathways promoting platelet activation/aggregation, such as the PI3K/AKT, protein kinase A, phospholipase C, and α-adrenergic and GP6 receptor pathways, was missing or under-expressed in PLPs.

Managing Expectations: Understanding Parents' Perceptions of Their Child's Serious Illness.

Parenting a seriously ill child is complex and emotionally intense. To further develop Hinds and colleagues' Good Parent themes: "Keeping a Positive Outlook" and "Keeping a Realistic Outlook," we reviewed grounded theories published in English language journals from January 2006 to April 2021 identifying 18 studies with relevant results. Parents' efforts to keep a positive outlook included cognitive (e.

Building a Fast Response Capability for Emerging Infectious Diseases Within the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

From influenza to COVID-19, emerging infectious diseases have taken a heavy toll on lives and resources. Emerging infectious diseases represent one of the largest threats to national security. The primary mission of the Center for Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), within the US Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, is to support the advanced development of medical countermeasures (MCMs) for public health security threats, including select infectious diseases.

Effectiveness of interventions to prevent drowning among children under age 20 years: a global scoping review.

Background: Drowning is a leading cause of death among young children. The United Nations Resolution on global drowning prevention (2021) and World Health Assembly Resolution in 2023 have drawn attention to the issue. This scoping review synthesizes the current evidence on the effectiveness of child drowning prevention interventions since the 2008 World Report on Child Injury Prevention and implications for their implementation.

Patient Perspective on Robotic-Assisted Total Joint Arthroplasty.

Background: Robotic-assisted total joint arthroplasty (TJA) has gained popularity in recent years. Despite mixed patient and surgeon perceptions, conflicting evidence regarding efficacy and cost-effectiveness in comparison to manual TJA exists. Patients' beliefs surrounding robotic-assisted TJA remain unclear.

The impact of task-sharing scalable mental health interventions on non-specialist providers: a scoping review.

Task-sharing approaches that train non-specialist providers (NSPs), people without specialized clinical training, are increasingly utilized to address the global mental health treatment gap. This review consolidates findings from peer reviewed articles on the impact of task-sharing mental health interventions on NSPs at the individual, family and community level. Studies that highlighted facilitators, barriers and recommendations for improving the experiences of NSPs were also included in the review.

Pay talk in contemporary workplaces.

Drawing on a unique survey of US workers with information about their employers' policies on pay discussions and whether workers engage in such talk with their coworkers, we provide the most comprehensive investigation into pay talk in workplaces to date. Unlike existing treatments, we focus on core organizational and relational factors that influence whether workers talk about pay. We theorize pay talk as a challenge to managerial discretion, and we hypothesize that organizational attributes related to pay-setting influence workers' willingness to discuss wages and salaries with colleagues.

Robust RNA secondary structure prediction with a mixture of deep learning and physics-based experts.

A mixture-of-experts (MoE) approach has been developed to mitigate the poor out-of-distribution (OOD) generalization of deep learning (DL) models for single-sequence-based prediction of RNA secondary structure. The main idea behind this approach is to use DL models for in-distribution (ID) test sequences to leverage their superior ID performances, while relying on physics-based models for OOD sequences to ensure robust predictions. One key ingredient of the pipeline, named MoEFold2D, is automated ID/OOD detection via consensus analysis of an ensemble of DL model predictions without requiring access to training data during inference.

Iron management and exercise training in individuals with chronic kidney disease: lived experiences.

Background: Non-anaemic iron deficiency is highly prevalent in people living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) but is underdiagnosed and undertreated, especially in earlier stages of CKD. A multicentre trial assessing the effect of intravenous iron supplementation in iron-deficiency but not anaemic people with CKD included a qualitative sub-study that aimed to explore the patient experience and psychosocial impact of living with CKD and iron deficiency, and the experience of the therapeutic intervention (intravenous iron and exercise).

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 trial participants blinded to treatment.

The Impact of Contemporary Glucagon-like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists on the Onset, Severity, and Conversion to Arthroplasty in Hip and Knee Osteoarthritis.

Background: The growing popularity of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1-RAs) for weight loss could significantly impact joint preservation and arthroplasty. While this will in part be driven by the association between obesity, osteoarthritis (OA), and total joint arthroplasty (TJA), recent evidence also indicates that GLP-1-RAs may have direct joint-protective, anti-inflammatory effects.

Purpose: To evaluate the association between GLP-1-RA use and the onset and progression of hip and knee OA in an obese population.

Family physicians' perspectives on outcomes, processes, and policies in dementia care.

The rapid rise in numbers of people living with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders (ADRD) poses major challenges to health systems and policy. Although primary care clinicians provide ongoing medical care for 80% of affected individuals, they face persistent barriers to providing high-quality dementia care. We conducted qualitative interviews with family physicians ( = 20) to understand what core outcomes they consider most important and what care processes and systems and policy strategies they propose to achieve them.

Medicaid billing for community health worker services growing, but remains low, 2016-2020.

Despite the recognized value of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in improving health outcomes, the integration of CHWs into Medicaid continues to be a challenge. This study examines the trends in CHW billing for Medicaid services across states from 2016 to 2020. We conducted an exploratory descriptive analysis of the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) Analytic Files (TAF) 2016-2020 to identify trends in direct billing for CHW services, including beneficiaries served, total services rendered, payment type, place of service, and procedure codes used for services billed by CHWs.

Development of an agenda for research and action on climate change and health in the Caribbean.

This paper delineates the development of the Caribbean Research for Action Agenda which aims to empower Caribbean Small Island Developing States to reduce their vulnerabilities to the effects of climate change on health. The Caribbean Research for Action Agenda emerged from collaboration between nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions, and multilateral agencies that organized a conference on climate change and health in the Caribbean. This Agenda was formulated by prioritizing research areas, synthesizing evidence from conference presentations and scientific literature, and holding consultations with stakeholders and experts.

Hospital-based health technology assessment (HTA) in Latin America and the Caribbean: a scoping review.

Objective: To provide an overview of hospital-based health technology assessment (HB-HTA) activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, including the technologies assessed, resources utilized, evaluation methods employed, and challenges encountered.

Methods: A scoping review focused on HB-HTA using frameworks from the Joanna Briggs Institute was conducted across databases and gray literature.

Results: Seventeen studies were identified, and another two documents were retrieved manually at a conference, totaling 19 files.

Patterns of Care in Adjuvant Radiation Therapy for Stage II Endometrioid Endometrial Adenocarcinoma: A National Cancer Database Analysis.

Purpose: Treating stage II endometrial cancer involves total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and risk-adapted adjuvant therapy. Professional guidelines support various adjuvant treatments, but high-level data supporting specific options are conflicting. We sought to evaluate adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) trends for these patients, hypothesizing increased utilization of pelvic external beam RT (EBRT) over time.

Shaping Treatment Expectation to Optimize Efficacy of Interleukin 17A Antagonist Secukinumab in Psoriasis Patients.

Purpose: Patients' treatment expectations significantly influence the effectiveness of medical and pharmacological treatments. This clinical proof-of-concept study aimed to enhance treatment outcomes by targeting positive treatment expectations of psoriasis patients beginning systemic anti-psoriatic therapy with secukinumab, an interleukin (IL)-17A antagonist.

Patients And Methods: We randomly assigned patients to three groups: a treatment as usual (TAU) group receiving the standard 300mg dose of secukinumab, a dose-control (DC) group with 75% dose reduction and an experimental (EXP) group receiving the same reduced dose along with a "cover story" designed to positively influence treatment expectations.