Building a growing genomic repository for maternal and fetal health through the PING Consortium.

Background: Prenatally transmitted viruses can cause severe damage to the developing brain. There is unexplained variability in prenatal brain injury and postnatal neurodevelopmental outcomes, suggesting disease modifiers. Of note, prenatal Zika infection can cause a spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders, including congenital Zika syndrome.

Group-Based Trajectory Modeling Identifies Distinct Patterns of Sympathetic Hyperactivity Following Traumatic Brain Injury.

Background: Paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity (PSH) occurs with high prevalence among critically ill patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and is associated with worse outcomes. The PSH-Assessment Measure (PSH-AM) consists of a Clinical Features Scale and a diagnosis likelihood tool (DLT) intended to quantify the severity of sympathetically mediated symptoms and the likelihood that they are due to PSH, respectively, on a daily basis. Here, we aim to identify and explore the value of dynamic trends in the evolution of sympathetic hyperactivity following acute TBI using elements of the PSH-AM.

Governance Considerations for Point-of-Care Ultrasound: a HIMSS-SIIM Enterprise Imaging Community Whitepaper in Collaboration with AIUM.

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has emerged as a standard of care across a variety of healthcare settings due to its ability to provide critical clinical information and as well as procedural guidance to clinicians directly at the bedside. Implementation of enterprise imaging (EI) strategies is needed such that POCUS images can be appropriately captured, indexed, managed, stored, distributed, viewed, and analyzed. Because of its unique workflow and educational requirements, reliance on traditional order-based workflow solutions may be insufficient.

Generating distant analogies increases metaphor production.

Although a large body of work has explored the mechanisms underlying metaphor comprehension, less research has focused on spontaneous metaphor production. Previous research suggests that reasoning about analogies can induce a relational mindset, which causes a greater focus on underlying abstract similarities. We explored how inducing a relational mindset may increase the tendency to use metaphors to describe topics.

Use of Remote Regulatory Assessment (RRA) for Site Evaluations during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The USFDA's Office of Study Integrity and Surveillance (OSIS) Perspective.

Travel restrictions during the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) public health emergency affected the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) ability to conduct on-site bioavailability/bioequivalence (BA/BE) and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) nonclinical inspections.

High-density multielectrode arrays bring cellular resolution to neuronal activity and network analyses of corticospinal motor neurons.

Corticospinal motor neurons (CSMN), located in the motor cortex of the brain, are one of the key components of the motor neuron circuitry. They are in part responsible for the initiation and modulation of voluntary movement, and their degeneration is the hallmark for numerous diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), hereditary spastic paraplegia, and primary lateral sclerosis. Cortical hyperexcitation followed by in-excitability suggests the early involvement of cortical dysfunction in ALS pathology.

Mathematic Modeling of Tumor Growth During [Lu]Lu-PSMA Therapy: Insights into Treatment Optimization.

The treatment regimen for [Lu]Lu-prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) 617 therapy follows that of chemotherapy: 6 administrations of a fixed activity, each separated by 6 wk. Mathematic modeling can be used to test the hypothesis that the current treatment regimen for a radiopharmaceutical modality is suboptimal. A mathematic model was developed to describe tumor growth during [Lu]Lu-PSMA therapy.

Neural correlates of perceptual plasticity in the auditory midbrain and thalamus.

Hearing is an active process in which listeners must detect and identify sounds, segregate and discriminate stimulus features, and extract their behavioral relevance. Adaptive changes in sound detection can emerge rapidly, during sudden shifts in acoustic or environmental context, or more slowly as a result of practice. Although we know that context- and learning-dependent changes in the sensitivity of auditory cortical (ACX) neurons support many aspects of perceptual plasticity, the contribution of subcortical auditory regions to this process is less understood.

Patellar Instability After Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Patellar instability following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is a rare, yet serious complication, potentially requiring revision surgery or resulting in chronic dysfunction. When encountered, it is paramount to understand the etiologies, diagnostic approaches, treatment options, and outcomes of the selected treatment. The most common cause of patella instability is improper positioning of components, leading to lateral maltracking of the patella.

Matched Guiding and Controlled Injection in Dark-Current-Free, 10-GeV-Class, Channel-Guided Laser-Plasma Accelerators.

We measure the high-intensity laser propagation throughout meter-scale, channel-guided laser-plasma accelerators by adjusting the length of the plasma channel on a shot-by-shot basis, showing high-quality guiding of 500 TW laser pulses over 30 cm in a hydrogen plasma of density n_{0}≈1×10^{17}  cm^{-3}. We observed transverse energy transport of higher-order modes in the first ≈12  cm of the plasma channel, followed by quasimatched propagation, and the gradual, dark-current-free depletion of laser energy to the wake. We quantify the laser-to-wake transfer efficiency limitations of currently available petawatt-class lasers and demonstrate via simulation how control over the laser mode can significantly improve beam parameters.

Quantum Thermodynamics of Nonequilibrium Processes in Lattice Gauge Theories.

A key objective in nuclear and high-energy physics is to describe nonequilibrium dynamics of matter, e.g., in the early Universe and in particle colliders, starting from the standard model of particle physics.

Measurement of CP Violation Observables in D^{+}→K^{-}K^{+}π^{+} Decays.

A search for violation of the charge-parity (CP) symmetry in the D^{+}→K^{-}K^{+}π^{+} decay is presented, with proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4  fb^{-1}, collected at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the LHCb detector. A novel model-independent technique is used to compare the D^{+} and D^{-} phase-space distributions, with instrumental asymmetries subtracted using the D_{s}^{+}→K^{-}K^{+}π^{+} decay as a control channel.

The gap between surgeon goal and achieved sagittal alignment in adult cervical spine deformity surgery.

Objective: Malalignment following cervical spine deformity (CSD) surgery can negatively impact outcomes and increase complications. Despite the growing ability to plan alignment, it remains unclear whether preoperative goals are achieved with surgery. The objective of this study was to assess how good surgeons are at achieving their preoperative goal alignment following CSD surgery.

Investigation of Natural Dyes and Taxonomic Identification of Fibers Used in Chancay Textiles by Vibrational Spectroscopy and Mass Spectrometry.

Textiles provide a valuable source of information regarding past cultures and their artistic practices. Understanding ancient textiles requires identifying the raw materials used, since the origin of dyes and fibers may be from plants or animals, with the specific species used varying based on geography, trade routes and cultural significance. A selection of nine Chancay textile fragments attributed to 800-1200 CE were studied with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) to identify the chemical compounds in extracts of natural dyes used to create green, blue, red, yellow and black colors.

NIST Mass Spectral Libraries in the Context of the Circular Economy of Plastics.

The Mass Spectrometry Data Center (MSDC) has recently started improving existing libraries and creating new ones for identifying and analyzing plastics-related compounds (PRC) and materials (PRM) as part of the NIST circular economy program. PRC are small molecules of dissimilar chemical nature; hence, to increase coverage, we have used three types of ionizations: EI, ESI, and APCI. PRM are solids that include polymers, polymer mixtures, and commercial plastics, so we have used pyrolysis-gas chromatography (py-GC-MS) to create a new searchable library.

Metagenomic Sequencing of Tomato Plants with Wilt Symptoms Allows for Strain-Level Pathogen Identification and Genome-Based Characterization.

Diseases that affect the vascular system or the pith are of great economic impact since they can rapidly destroy the affected plants, leading to complete loss in production. Fast and precise identification is thus important to inform containment and management, but many identification methods are slow because they are culture-dependent and they do not reach strain resolution. Here we used culture-independent long-read metagenomic sequencing of DNA extracted directly from stems of two tomato samples that displayed wilt symptoms.

Technical and management coaching for government institutions: Lessons learned and health systems transformations across 8 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and India.

Traditional engagement with local governments often relies on financial and human resources from international or local partners, leading to direct implementation by organizations, which can hinder sustainability. While some organizations include sustainability indicators, few focus on transferring technical and financial ownership to governments. The Challenge Initiative (TCI) uses a phased coaching model-lead, assist, observe, and monitor-to build local government capacity for scaling family planning (FP) and adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) programs.

Symbolic dynamics of joint brain states during dyadic coordination.

We propose a novel approach to investigate the brain mechanisms that support coordination of behavior between individuals. Brain states in single individuals defined by the patterns of functional connectivity between brain regions are used to create joint symbolic representations of brain states in two or more individuals to investigate symbolic dynamics that are related to interactive behaviors. We apply this approach to electroencephalographic data from pairs of subjects engaged in two different modes of finger-tapping coordination tasks (synchronization and syncopation) under different interaction conditions (uncoupled, leader-follower, and mutual) to explore the neural mechanisms of multi-person motor coordination.

Social Risks and Nonadherence to Recommended Cancer Screening Among US Adults.

Importance: Research indicates that social drivers of health are associated with cancer screening adherence, although the exact magnitude of these associations remains unclear.

Objective: To investigate the associations between individual-level social risks and nonadherence to guideline-recommended cancer screenings.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cross-sectional study used 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data from 39 US states and Washington, DC.

Digital Health Technology Research Funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Importance: Digital health in biomedical research and its expanding list of potential clinical applications are rapidly evolving. A combination of new digital health technologies (DHTs), novel uses of existing DHTs through artificial intelligence- and machine learning-based algorithms, and improved integration and analysis of data from multiple sources has enabled broader use and delivery of these tools for research and health care purposes. The aim of this study was to assess the growth and overall trajectory of DHT funding through a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-wide grant portfolio analysis.

Prevalence Estimation Methods for Time-Dependent Antibody Kinetics of Infected and Vaccinated Individuals: A Markov Chain Approach.

Immune events such as infection, vaccination, and a combination of the two result in distinct time-dependent antibody responses in affected individuals. These responses and event prevalence combine non-trivially to govern antibody levels sampled from a population. Time-dependence and disease prevalence pose considerable modeling challenges that need to be addressed to provide a rigorous mathematical underpinning of the underlying biology.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Age, sex, and APOE genotype are well-established risk factors for late-onset Alzheimer's Disease (LOAD). Previous findings demonstrate that neuroinflammatory profiles of the human midlife female brain closely resemble the human AD brain. Given APOE's role in LOAD pathogenesis, here we investigate the contribution of this risk factor on targeted AD relevant transcriptional pathways.