Global urban temporal trends in fine particulate matter (PM) and attributable health burdens: estimates from global datasets.

Background: With much of the world's population residing in urban areas, an understanding of air pollution exposures at the city level can inform mitigation approaches. Previous studies of global urban air pollution have not considered trends in air pollutant concentrations nor corresponding attributable mortality burdens. We aimed to estimate trends in fine particulate matter (PM) concentrations and associated mortality for cities globally.

Homotopic functional connectivity disruptions in glioma patients are associated with tumor malignancy and overall survival.

Background: Gliomas exhibit widespread bilateral functional connectivity (FC) alterations that may be associated with tumor grade. Limited studies have examined the connection-level mechanisms responsible for these effects. Given the typically strong FC observed between mirroring/homotopic brain regions in healthy subjects, we hypothesized that homotopic connectivity (HC) is altered in low-grade and high-grade glioma patients and the extent of disruption is associated with tumor grade and predictive of overall survival (OS) in a cohort of high-grade glioma (World Health Organization [WHO] grade 4) patients.

How Differing Audiences Were Associated with User Emotional Expression on a Well-Being App.

In the last five years there has been an explosion of mobile apps that aim to impact emotional well-being, yet limited research has examined the ways that users interact, and specifically write to develop a therapeutic alliance within these apps. Writing is a developmental practice in which a narrator transforms amorphous thoughts and emotions into expressions, and according to narrative theory, the linguistic characteristics of writing can be understood as a physical manifestation of a narrator's affect. Informed by literacy theorists who have argued convincingly that narrators address different audiences in different ways, we used IBM Watson's Natural Language Processing software (IBM Watson NLP) to examine how users' expression of emotion on a well-being app differed depending on the audience.

Localization, Assembly, and Activation of the Escherichia coli Cell Division Machinery.

Decades of research, much of it in Escherichia coli, have yielded a wealth of insight into bacterial cell division. Here, we provide an overview of the E. coli division machinery with an emphasis on recent findings.

Comprehensive Assessment of Current Management Strategies for Patients With Diabetes and Chronic Limb-Threatening Ischemia.

Chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) is the most severe form of peripheral artery disease. It is estimated that 60% of all nontraumatic lower-extremity amputations performed annually in the United States are in patients with diabetes and CLTI. The consequences of this condition are extraordinary, with substantial patient morbidity and mortality and high socioeconomic costs.

Interplay of Genotype and Substrate Stiffness in Driving the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Phenotype in iPSC-Micro-Heart Muscle Arrays.

Introduction: In clinical and animal studies, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) shares many similarities with non-inherited cardiac hypertrophy induced by pressure overload (hypertension). This suggests a potential role for mechanical stress in priming tissues with mutation-induced changes in the sarcomere to develop phenotypes associated with HCM, including hypercontractility and aberrant calcium handling. Here, we tested the hypothesis that heterozygous loss of function of Myosin Binding Protein C (MYBCP3 , mutations in which account for almost 50% of inherited HCM) combines with environmental stiffness to drive HCM phenotypes.

Enhancement-constrained acceleration: A robust reconstruction framework in breast DCE-MRI.

In patients with dense breasts or at high risk of breast cancer, dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) is a highly sensitive diagnostic tool. However, its specificity is highly variable and sometimes low; quantitative measurements of contrast uptake parameters may improve specificity and mitigate this issue. To improve diagnostic accuracy, data need to be captured at high spatial and temporal resolution.

Naturally Occurring Genetic Variants in the Oxytocin Receptor Alter Receptor Signaling Profiles.

The hormone oxytocin is commonly administered during childbirth to initiate and strengthen uterine contractions and prevent postpartum hemorrhage. However, patients have wide variation in the oxytocin dose required for a clinical response. To begin to uncover the mechanisms underlying this variability, we screened the 11 most prevalent missense genetic variants in the oxytocin receptor () gene.

Virtual and Augmented Reality in Cardiovascular Care: State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives.

Applications of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) assist both health care providers and patients in cardiovascular education, complementing traditional learning methods. Interventionalists have successfully used VR to plan difficult procedures and AR to facilitate complex interventions. VR/AR has already been used to treat patients, during interventions in rehabilitation programs and in immobilized intensive care patients.

Quantification of volumetric morphometry and optical property in the cortex of human cerebellum at micrometer resolution.

The surface of the human cerebellar cortex is much more tightly folded than the cerebral cortex. Volumetric analysis of cerebellar morphometry in magnetic resonance imaging studies suffers from insufficient resolution, and therefore has had limited impact on disease assessment. Automatic serial polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (as-PSOCT) is an emerging technique that offers the advantages of microscopic resolution and volumetric reconstruction of large-scale samples.

Uncertainty quantification in subject-specific estimation of local vessel mechanical properties.

Quantitative estimation of local mechanical properties remains critically important in the ongoing effort to elucidate how blood vessels establish, maintain, or lose mechanical homeostasis. Recent advances based on panoramic digital image correlation (pDIC) have made high-fidelity 3D reconstructions of small-animal (e.g.

High-performance AEM unitized regenerative fuel cell using Pt-pyrochlore as bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst.

The performance of fixed-gas unitized regenerative fuel cells (FG-URFCs) are limited by the bifunctional activity of the oxygen electrocatalyst. It is essential to have a good bifunctional oxygen electrocatalyst which can exhibit high activity for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this regard, Pt-PbRuO is synthesized by depositing Pt on PbRuO wherein Pt individually exhibits high ORR while PbRuO shows high OER and moderate ORR activity.

Prevalence of elevated serum fatty acid synthase in chronic limb-threatening ischemia.

There are currently no serum-based evaluations that can corroborate the severity of peripheral artery disease (PAD). In this cross-sectional study, we assessed the prevalence of elevated serum fatty acid synthase (cFAS) in patients with chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) and evaluated the accuracy of its use in detecting this condition. Preoperative fasting serum samples from 87 patients undergoing vascular intervention were collected between October 2014 and September 2016.

Nanoparticle T cell engagers for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common type of leukemia and has a 5-year survival rate of 25%. The standard-of-care for AML has not changed in the past few decades. Promising immunotherapy options are being developed for the treatment of AML; yet, these regimens require highly laborious and sophisticated techniques.

Biocompatible and Enzymatically Degradable Gels for 3D Cellular Encapsulation under Extreme Compressive Strain.

Cell encapsulating scaffolds are necessary for the study of cellular mechanosensing of cultured cells. However, conventional scaffolds used for loading cells in bulk generally fail at low compressive strain, while hydrogels designed for high toughness and strain resistance are generally unsuitable for cell encapsulation. Here we describe an alginate/gelatin methacryloyl interpenetrating network with multiple crosslinking modes that is robust to compressive strains greater than 70%, highly biocompatible, enzymatically degradable and able to effectively transfer strain to encapsulated cells.

Accelerating Prediction of Malignant Cerebral Edema After Ischemic Stroke with Automated Image Analysis and Explainable Neural Networks.

Background: Malignant cerebral edema is a devastating complication of stroke, resulting in deterioration and death if hemicraniectomy is not performed prior to herniation. Current approaches for predicting this relatively rare complication often require advanced imaging and still suffer from suboptimal performance. We performed a pilot study to evaluate whether neural networks incorporating data extracted from routine computed tomography (CT) imaging could enhance prediction of edema in a large diverse stroke cohort.

Electrochemical implications of modulating the solvation shell around redox active organic species in aqueous organic redox flow batteries.

Organic and organometallic reactants in aqueous electrolytes, being composed of earth-abundant elements, are promising redox active candidates for cost-effective organic redox flow batteries (ORFBs). Various compounds of ferrocene and methyl viologen have been examined as promising redox actives for this application. Herein, we examined the influence of the electrolyte pH and the salt anion on model redox active organic cations, bis((3-trimethylammonio) propyl)- ferrocene dichloride (BTMAP-Fc) and bis(3-trimethylammonio) propyl viologen tetrachloride (BTMAP-Vi), which have exhibited excellent cycling stability and capacity retention at ≥1.

Recent approaches to study the neural bases of complex insect behavior.

Recent advances in biocompatible materials, miniaturized instrumentation, advanced computational algorithms, and genetic tools have enabled the development of novel methods and approaches to quantify the behavior of individuals or groups of animals. In conjunction with technologies that allow simultaneous monitoring of neural responses, quantitative studies of complex behaviors can reveal tighter links between the external sensory cues in the vicinity of the organism and neural responses they elicit, and how internal neural representations finally get mapped onto the behavior generated. In this review, we examine a few approaches that are beginning to be widely exploited for understanding neural-behavioral response transformations.

Deep Learning Segmentation of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Patient Derived Tumor Xenograft (PDX) and Sensitivity of Radiomic Pipeline to Tumor Probability Boundary.

Preclinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a critical component in a co-clinical research pipeline. Importantly, segmentation of tumors in MRI is a necessary step in tumor phenotyping and assessment of response to therapy. However, manual segmentation is time-intensive and suffers from inter- and intra- observer variability and lack of reproducibility.

Vector Strategies to Actualize B Cell-Based Gene Therapies.

Recent developments in genome editing and delivery systems have opened new possibilities for B cell gene therapy. CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases have been used to introduce transgenes into B cell genomes for subsequent secretion of exogenous therapeutic proteins from plasma cells and to program novel B cell Ag receptor specificities, allowing for the generation of desirable Ab responses that cannot normally be elicited in animal models. Genome modification of B cells or their progenitor, hematopoietic stem cells, could potentially substitute Ab or protein replacement therapies that require multiple injections over the long term.

Elastomer-Grafted iPSC-Derived Micro Heart Muscles to Investigate Effects of Mechanical Loading on Physiology.

Mechanical loading plays a critical role in cardiac pathophysiology. Engineered heart tissues derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) allow rigorous investigations of the molecular and pathophysiological consequences of mechanical cues. However, many engineered heart muscle models have complex fabrication processes and require large cell numbers, making it difficult to use them together with iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes to study the influence of mechanical loading on pharmacology and genotype-phenotype relationships.

Predicting self-intercepted medication ordering errors using machine learning.

Current approaches to understanding medication ordering errors rely on relatively small manually captured error samples. These approaches are resource-intensive, do not scale for computerized provider order entry (CPOE) systems, and are likely to miss important risk factors associated with medication ordering errors. Previously, we described a dataset of CPOE-based medication voiding accompanied by univariable and multivariable regression analyses.