Assessing psychosocial risk factors in children with Sickle Cell Disease.

Background: Individuals with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) are a minoritized and marginalized community that have disparate health outcomes as a result of systemic racism and disease-related stigma. The purpose of this study was to determine the psychosocial risk factors for families caring for children with SCD at a pediatric SCD center through use of the Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT), a validated caregiver-report screener.

Methods: The PAT was administered annually during routine clinical visits and scored by the SCD Social Worker to provide tailored resources to families.

"We don't Get Drugs Targeted for Us:" Applying the Integrated Behavioral Model to Understand Why Black Women Chose to Participate in a Breast Cancer Clinical Trial.

Guided by the integrated behavioral model, the authors interviewed 14 Black breast cancer survivors ( = 14) who had participated in a breast cancer clinical trial. This study aimed to better understand what may motivate Black women to engage in medical research and decide to participate in medical research. Findings revealed that Black women's altruistic desires to serve others and their communities are greatly influenced by the need to leave a "legacy" of better treatment for other Black women.

Ref-1 is overexpressed in neovascular eye disease and targetable with a novel inhibitor.

Reduction-oxidation factor-1 or apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (Ref-1/APE1) is a crucial redox-sensitive activator of transcription factors such as NF-κB, HIF-1α, STAT-3 and others. It could contribute to key features of ocular neovascularization including inflammation and angiogenesis; these underlie diseases like neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD). We previously revealed a role for Ref-1 in the growth of ocular endothelial cells and in choroidal neovascularization (CNV).

Using a Social Network Approach to Characterize Oral Health Behavior Social Support Among Mexican-Origin Young Adults.

Using a social network approach, we characterize who Mexican-origin young adults perceive as social support sources for oral health behaviors and provide additional validity evidence for Oral Health Behavior Social Support Scales (OHBSS). From April to September 2022, we gathered social network data from 62 Mexican-origin adults (21-40 years old) through Zoom interviews about their perceived received social support for three oral health behaviors (toothbrushing, flossing, and obtaining dental care) from three potential sources of support (family, health providers, and others/friends). Overall, we found similar results across all three oral health behaviors.

Low Melting Temperature Gallium-Indium Liquid Metal Anode for Solid-State Li-Ion Batteries.

Solid-state Li-ion batteries are attracting attention for their enhanced safety features, higher energy density, and broader operational temperature range compared to systems based on liquid electrolytes. However, current solid-state Li-ion batteries face performance challenges, such as suboptimal cycling and poor rate capabilities, often due to inadequate interfacial contact between the solid electrolyte and electrodes. To address this issue, we incorporated a gallium-indium (Ga-In) liquid metal as the anode in a solid-state Li-ion battery setup, employing LiPSCl as the solid electrolyte.

Sex hormone deficiency in male and female mice expressing the Alzheimer's disease-associated risk-factor TREM2 R47H variant impacts the musculoskeletal system in a sex- and genotype-dependent manner.

The R47H variant of the triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease in humans and leads to lower bone mass accrual in female but not male 12-mo-old mice. To determine whether, as with aging, gonadectomy results in sex-specific musculoskeletal effects, gonad removal or SHAM surgery was performed in 4-mo-old TREM2 mice and WT male and female littermates ( = 10-12/group), with sexes analyzed separately. Body weight was lower in males, but higher in females after gonadectomy, independently of their genotype.

TopDIA: A Software Tool for Top-Down Data-Independent Acquisition Proteomics.

Top-down mass spectrometry is widely used for proteoform identification, characterization, and quantification owing to its ability to analyze intact proteoforms. In the past decade, top-down proteomics has been dominated by top-down data-dependent acquisition mass spectrometry (TD-DDA-MS), and top-down data-independent acquisition mass spectrometry (TD-DIA-MS) has not been well studied. While TD-DIA-MS produces complex multiplexed tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) spectra, which are challenging to confidently identify, it selects more precursor ions for MS/MS analysis and has the potential to increase proteoform identifications compared with TD-DDA-MS.

Syndrome-informed phenotyping identifies a polygenic background for achondroplasia-like facial variation in the general population.

Human craniofacial shape is highly variable yet highly heritable with numerous genetic variants interacting through multiple layers of development. Here, we hypothesize that Mendelian phenotypes represent the extremes of a phenotypic spectrum and, using achondroplasia as an example, we introduce a syndrome-informed phenotyping approach to identify genomic loci associated with achondroplasia-like facial variation in the general population. We compare three-dimensional facial scans from 43 individuals with achondroplasia and 8246 controls to calculate achondroplasia-like facial scores.

Ancestral differences in anti-cancer treatment efficacy and their underlying genomic and molecular alterations.

Systematic multi-omics analysis revealed ancestry-dependent molecular alterations, but their impact on the efficacy of anti-cancer treatment is yet largely unknown. Here, we analyzed clinical trials from ClinicalTrials.gov and found that only 8,779/102,721 (8.

Day-to-day variations and effects of urinary and fecal incontinence among adults with spina bifida: An ecological momentary assessment diary pilot study.

Background: No studies have evaluated the day-to-day variations in urinary incontinence (UI) and fecal incontinence (FI) among adults with spina bifida (SB). We aimed to 1) describe variations in UI/FI over 30 days, 2) assess factors associated with anxiety about incontinence, and 3) correlate anxiety about incontinence and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among adults with SB (exploratory).

Methods: Adults with SB participated in a larger 30-day smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study of well-being and incontinence.

Exploring dysfunctional barrier phenotypes associated with glaucoma using a human pluripotent stem cell-based model of the neurovascular unit.

Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the degeneration of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and subsequent loss of vision. While RGCs are the primary cell type affected in glaucoma, neighboring cell types selectively modulate RGCs to maintain overall homeostasis. Among these neighboring cell types, astrocytes, microvascular endothelial cells (MVECs), and pericytes coordinate with neurons to form the neurovascular unit that provides a physical barrier to limit the passage of toxic materials from the blood into neural tissue.

Photo-responsive decellularized small intestine submucosa hydrogels.

Decellularized small intestine submucosa (dSIS) is a promising biomaterial for promoting tissue regeneration. Isolated from the submucosal layer of animal jejunum, SIS is rich in extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins, including collagen, laminin, and fibronectin. Following mild decellularization, dSIS becomes an acellular matrix that supports cell adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation.

Acquisition of neurodegenerative features in isogenic OPTN(E50K) human stem cell-derived retinal ganglion cells associated with autophagy disruption and mTORC1 signaling reduction.

The ability to derive retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) has led to numerous advances in the field of retinal research, with great potential for the use of hPSC-derived RGCs for studies of human retinal development, in vitro disease modeling, drug discovery, as well as their potential use for cell replacement therapeutics. Of all these possibilities, the use of hPSC-derived RGCs as a human-relevant platform for in vitro disease modeling has received the greatest attention, due to the translational relevance as well as the immediacy with which results may be obtained compared to more complex applications like cell replacement. While several studies to date have focused upon the use of hPSC-derived RGCs with genetic variants associated with glaucoma or other optic neuropathies, many of these have largely described cellular phenotypes with only limited advancement into exploring dysfunctional cellular pathways as a consequence of the disease-associated gene variants.

Mechanotransduction pathways regulating YAP nuclear translocation under Yoda1 and vibration in osteocytes.

Yes-associated protein (YAP) is a mechanosensitive protein crucial for bone remodeling. Although research has identified pathways and components involved in YAP regulation, the precise mechanisms of its localization during Piezo1 activation or vibration remain unclear. Piezo1, a mechanosensitive ion channel, allows calcium ions to flow into cells upon activation.

A multiscale inflammatory map: linking individual stress to societal dysfunction.

As populations worldwide show increasing levels of stress, understanding emerging links among stress, inflammation, cognition, and behavior is vital to human and planetary health. We hypothesize that inflammation is a multiscale driver connecting stressors that affect individuals to large-scale societal dysfunction and, ultimately, to planetary-scale environmental impacts. We propose a 'central inflammation map' hypothesis to explain how the brain regulates inflammation and how inflammation impairs cognition, emotion, and action.

Conductance fluctuations in cobalt valence tautomer molecular thin films.

The conductivity changes associated with optical excitations and changing temperature in cobalt valence tautomer molecular thin films were investigated. Conductance switching in the presence of illumination is observed, with occasional locking in a higher conductance state, depending on the temperature, the photon energy of the illumination, and the bias voltage. Light of sufficiently short wavelengths is needed to ensure the light enhanced conductance switching, consistent with the optical absorption, but bias voltage clearly plays a role as well.

Dementia risk prediction using decision-focused content selection from medical notes.

Several general-purpose language model (LM) architectures have been proposed with demonstrated improvement in text summarization and classification. Adapting these architectures to the medical domain requires additional considerations. For instance, the medical history of the patient is documented in the Electronic Health Record (EHR) which includes many medical notes drafted by healthcare providers.

Examining how a documentary film can serve as an intervention to shift attitudes and behaviours around sexism in STEM.

"Picture a Scientist," a documentary featuring stories and research about bias in STEM, reached a large international audience. Yet, the extent to which this type of engaging media can impact gender bias remains unclear. In a unique collaboration between film creators and researchers, the current large-scale field studies explored whether "Picture a Scientist" functioned as an intervention and persuasive message targeting sexism in STEM.

RAD51 regulates eukaryotic chromatin motions in the absence of DNA damage.

In yeasts and higher eukaryotes, chromatin motions may be tuned to genomic functions, with transcriptional activation and the DNA damage response both leading to profound changes in chromatin dynamics. The RAD51 recombinase is a key mediator of chromatin mobility following DNA damage. As functions of RAD51 beyond DNA repair are being discovered, we asked whether RAD51 modulates chromatin dynamics in the absence of DNA damage and found that inhibition or depletion of RAD51 alters chromatin motions in undamaged cells.