Synthesis and bioactivity of a novel surfactin-based lipopeptide for mRNA delivery.

The effective delivery of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) to specific cell types and target tissues poses a significant challenge in nonviral therapeutic strategies. Lipid-based nanoparticles (LNPs) have emerged as a leading carrier system for delivering mRNA, particularly for infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. This study aimed to describe the synthesis of a novel lipopeptide based on surfactin, a naturally occurring surfactant.

gwid: an R package and Shiny application for Genome-Wide analysis of IBD data.

Summary: Genome-wide identity by descent (gwid) is an R package developed for the analysis of identity-by-descent (IBD) data pertaining to dichotomous traits. This package offers a set of tools to assess differential IBD levels for the two states of a binary trait, yielding informative and meaningful results. Furthermore, it provides convenient functions to visualize the outcomes of these analyses, enhancing the interpretability and accessibility of the results.

Impact of Social Risk Screening on Discharge Care Processes and Postdischarge Outcomes: A Pragmatic Mixed-Methods Clinical Trial During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Social risk screening during inpatient care is required in new CMS regulations, yet its impact on inpatient care and patient outcomes is unknown.

Objectives: To evaluate whether implementing a social risk screening protocol improves discharge processes, patient-reported outcomes, and 30-day service use.

Research Design: Pragmatic mixed-methods clinical trial.

Loss of endogenous circadian clock function in mice alters respiratory cycle timing in a time of day- and sex-specific manner.

Resting breathing and ventilatory chemoreflexes are regulated in a 24-hr manner by the endogenous circadian clock. However, it is unclear how circadian biology influences different phases of the breath-to-breath respiratory cycle which are predominantly controlled by pontomedullary regions of the brainstem. Here, we performed whole-body plethysmography during quiet wakefulness in young adult male and female mice lacking the core clock gene Brain and Muscle Arnt-like 1 (BMAL1) to determine the extent to which the molecular clock affects respiratory cycle timing and ventilatory airflow mechanics.

Expanded Combined Loading Injury Criterion for the Human Lumbar Spine Under Dynamic Compression.

Contemporary injury tolerance of the lumbar spine for under-body blast references axial compression and bending moments in a limited range. Since injuries often occur in a wider range of flexion and extension with increased moment contribution, this study expands a previously proposed combined loading injury criterion for the lumbar spine. Fifteen cadaveric lumbar spine failure tests with greater magnitudes of eccentric loading were incorporated into an existing injury criterion to augment its applicability and a combined loading injury risk model was proposed by means of survival analysis.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on U.S. Latinx mental health: A validation of the Epidemic-Pandemic Impacts Inventory (EPII) scale.

Known and emerging data continue to document the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on traditionally marginalized communities living in the United States, particularly Latinx. However, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, no validated measures were available to assess how this health crisis affected Latinx communities. The present study sought to assess the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of Latinx adults living in the United States ( = 2,300).

Influence of metal oxides on biocompatibility of additively manufactured NiTi.

In order to properly satisfy biomedical constraints for cardiovascular applications, additively manufactured NiTi scaffolds required further process and metallurgical engineering. Additively manufactured NiTi materials for cardiovascular use will have to undergo surface finishing in order to minimize negative surface interactions within the artery. In this study, we sought to understand biocompatibility from chemically etched additively manufactured NiTi scaffolds by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF).

Reframing Burnout: Measuring "Altruistic Execution" to Understand Nurse Burnout.

Background: Many nurses join the profession because they have altruistic intentions, but some nurses experience barriers to acting on altruistic intentions which may be a source of job dissatisfaction or burnout.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate construct validity, internal consistency, and convergence reliability of the Nursing Altruistic Execution Scale (NAES), a novel instrument assessing the perceived ability to help others through work.

Methods: The NAES was developed based upon a literature review examining altruistic behavior as a motivator for nursing work, with expert feedback for instrument refinement.

Embodied Empowerment: Somatic Approaches to Gender Violence and Trauma.

This special issue brings together recent research on embodiment and practitioner-based somatic approaches to examine trauma and healing from violence. Contributors address the long-term somatic impact of oppression and the effects of structural inequalities enacted and perpetuated through bodies and in interaction with other bodies. Somatic practices and embodiment are addressed through the lens of intergenerational trauma, gendered, racialized, political, and colonial violence, and interpersonal and collective trauma.

Clearing the JUNQ: the molecular machinery for sequestration, localization, and degradation of the JUNQ compartment.

Cellular protein homeostasis (proteostasis) plays an essential role in regulating the folding, sequestration, and turnover of misfolded proteins via a network of chaperones and clearance factors. Previous work has shown that misfolded proteins are spatially sequestered into membrane-less compartments in the cell as part of the proteostasis process. Soluble misfolded proteins in the cytoplasm are trafficked into the juxtanuclear quality control compartment (JUNQ), and nuclear proteins are sequestered into the intranuclear quality control compartment (INQ).

Yoga for Veterans with PTSD: Intervention Feasibility, Changes in PTSD Symptom Severity, and Psychological and Physiological Health-Related Fitness Outcomes.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a burdensome disorder associated with lower quality of life and increased morbidity and mortality. Veterans are particularly at risk for PTSD resulting from experiencing traumatic events during military service. Current treatments for PTSD often fail to remediate symptoms and are associated with high dropout rates; therefore, complementary and integrative health approaches, such as yoga, are being considered to treat PTSD-related symptoms.

Stabilizing microtubules aids neurite structure and disrupts syncytia formation in human cytomegalovirus-infected human forebrain neurons.

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a prolific human herpesvirus that infects most individuals by adulthood. While typically asymptomatic in adults, congenital infection can induce serious neurological symptoms including hearing loss, visual deficits, cognitive impairment, and microcephaly in 10-15% of cases. HCMV has been shown to infect most neural cells with our group recently demonstrating this capacity in stem cell-derived forebrain neurons.

Evaluation of synthetic clear gelatin as an acceptable surrogate for low-velocity penetrating impacts using the depth of penetration calibration standard.

Ballistic gelatin has been extensively used in ballistics research for decades, but calibration standards were established on limited datasets, and only few studies have attempted to recreate these experiments with biological tissues. Recent studies have demonstrated better biofidelity with 20% ordnance ballistic gelatin, but researchers have discredited the use of synthetic gelatin claiming different behavior than ordnance gelatin. To investigate the use of synthetic clear gelatin as an acceptable surrogate of biological tissue, depth of penetration was compared between low-velocity impacts of various projectiles into porcine tissue (n = 192), post-mortem human subjects (n = 29), and Clear Ballistics synthetic gelatin (n = 39).

Emboldened in the rap "game": How severely stigmatized video models navigate disrespect and vulnerability to workplace mistreatment.

Moral stigma attached to an occupation can scar workers through discrediting, shaming, and denying respect. It can also open the door to interpersonal mistreatment, but little is known about how morally stigmatized workers navigate anticipated disrespect to potentially avoid harm. We explore this issue in a study of an occupation carrying severe moral stigma and where disrespect and workplace mistreatment are pervasive: models in hip-hop and rap music videos.

Tailoring adsorbents for levodopa detection: a DFT study on Pt-encapsulated fullerene systems.

Despite its effectiveness in managing the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease, levodopa therapy is often accompanied by adverse effects that can significantly reduce patients' quality of life. Hence, the need to detect levodopa has escalated among researchers and health experts. Herein, the intricacies of levodopa adsorption were studied using newly tailored fullerene-based adsorbents.

Neural and muscular contributions to the age-related differences in peak power of the knee extensors in men and women.

The mechanisms for the loss in limb muscle power output in old (60-79 yr) and very old (≥80 yr) adults and whether the mechanisms differ between men and women are not well understood. We compared maximal peak power of the knee extensor muscles between young, old, and very old men and women and identified the neural and muscular factors contributing to the age-related differences in power. Thirty-one young (22.

Tuning viscoelasticity and stiffness in bioprinted hydrogels for enhanced 3D cell culture: A multi-scale mechanical analysis.

Bioprinted hydrogels are extensively studied to provide an artificial matrix for 3D cell culture. The success of bioprinting hydrogels relies on fine-tuning their rheology and composition to achieve shear-thinning behavior. However, a challenge arises from the limited viscoelastic and stiffness range accessible from a single hydrogel formulation.

Bayesian Rare Variant Analysis Identifies Novel Schizophrenia Putative Risk Genes.

The genetics of schizophrenia is so complex that it involves both common variants and rare variants. Rare variant association studies of schizophrenia are challenging because statistical methods for rare variant analysis are under-powered due to the rarity of rare variants. The recent Schizophrenia Exome meta-analysis (SCHEMA) consortium, the largest consortium in this field to date, has successfully identified 10 schizophrenia risk genes from ultra-rare variants by burden test, while more risk genes remain to be discovered by more powerful rare variant association test methods.

Asymptomatic Rectal Bacterial Pathogens Show Large Prospective Relationships With HIV Incidence in a Cohort of Young Sexual and Gender Minorities: Implications for STI Screening and HIV Prevention.

Background: We estimated the predictive value of rectal (bacterial sexually transmitted infection [bSTI]) pathogen detection for future HIV seroconversion among young adult sexual and gender minorities (YSGMs) assigned male at birth (AMAB).

Methods: Data were collected between March 2018 and August 2022 from RADAR, a longitudinal cohort study of YSGMs AMAB living in the Chicago metropolitan area (n = 1022). Rates of rectal bSTIs and the proportion of self-reported rectal bSTI symptoms are reported.