Selective Neurectomy with Regenerative Peripheral Nerve Interface Surgery for Facial Synkinesis.

Selective neurectomy (SN) typically leaves cut nerve endings to be either free-floating or buried in facial muscles. Regenerative peripheral nerve interfaces (RPNIs) use autologous skeletal muscle grafts to provide a nonfacial muscle target for reinnervation. To evaluate the effectiveness of RPNI surgery with SN for improving postoperative facial function through botulinum toxin use and facial movement metrics.

Sickle Cell Trait Does Not Cause "Sickle Cell Crisis" Leading to Exertion-Related Death: A Systematic Review.

Globally, an estimated 300 million individuals have sickle cell trait (SCT), the carrier state for sickle cell disease. While sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with increased morbidity and shortened lifespan, SCT has a lifespan comparable to that of the general population. However, "sickle cell crisis" has been used as a cause of death for decedents with SCT in reports of exertion-related death in athletes, military personnel, and individuals in police custody.

clustur: an R package for clustering features using sparse distance matrices.

The clustur R package implements the clustering algorithms found in the mothur software package for assigning 16S rRNA gene sequences to operational taxonomic units (OTUs). Making these algorithms accessible through the R ecosystem will foster their further development, broader application, and integration within other R packages.

Distribution of early-branching Cyanobacteriia and the potential habitats that gave rise to the earliest oxygenic phototrophs.

The evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis in the Cyanobacteria was one of the most transformative events in Earth history, eventually leading to the oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere. However, it is difficult to understand how the earliest Cyanobacteria functioned or evolved on early Earth in part because we do not understand their ecology, including the environments in which they lived. Here, we use a cutting-edge bioinformatics tool to survey nearly 500,000 metagenomes for relatives of the taxa that likely bookended the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis to identify the modern environments in which these organisms live.

Mentorship in Plastic Surgery: A Systematic Review of the Current Literature and Elucidation of Recurring Themes.

Background: Mentorship is an integral part of developing competent, passionate, and successful plastic surgeons and is an important element of surgeons' wellness. Although mentorship programs have been described in the literature, this study aimed to elucidate the specific qualities of an effective mentor in plastic surgery.

Methods: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses methodology was utilized to conduct a systematic review of the literature.

Associations of neighbourhood food retail with disability and death in older adults: Cardiovascular Health Study.

Background: A healthier diet is associated with lower chronic disease burden, but the impact of neighbourhood food environments on disability and death in older adults is not known.

Methods: In the Cardiovascular Health Study, a cohort study of adults aged 65+, we calculated study years until death (years of life (YOL)), study years without activities of daily living (ADL) difficulty (years of able life; YoAL) and percent of study years without ADL difficulty (compression of disability). Linear regression quantified associations of food establishments within 5 km of baseline home address (as a z-score) with each outcome, adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics.

Mineralized tissue loss at the femoral ACL enthesis in young male ACL-injured patients.

Purpose: Primary anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction graft failure remains a significant health concern in young patients. Despite the high incidence of poor graft integration in these patients and the resulting high failure rate, little consideration has been given to the quality of the bone into which the graft is anchored at reconstruction. Therefore, we investigated post ACL injury mineralized tissue changes in the ACL femoral entheses of young males and compared them to changes previously reported for young females.

Challenges and Recommendations for Proxy Reporting in Aging Research: A Brief Commentary.

The US has an aging population that is under-represented in research. Many older adults face barriers to research participation, such as mobility issues, comorbidities, and declining physical and cognitive health, which make it harder for them to understand study processes and give informed consent. Proxies can be family members, paid or unpaid caregivers, or healthcare providers who provide health information for older adults.

Comparative main effects, mediators, and moderators of cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and emotional awareness and expression therapy for chronic spinal pain: Randomized controlled trial rationale and protocol.

Background: Chronic spinal (back/neck) pain is common and costly. Psychosocial treatments are available but have modest effects. Knowledge of treatment mechanisms (mediators and moderators) can be used to enhance efficacy.

Assessing the Impact of Patient-Specific Instrumentation and Fixation on Accuracy and Radiation Exposure in a Cadaveric Model of Medial Opening-Wedge High Tibial Osteotomy.

Background: Traditional freehand techniques in high tibial osteotomy (HTO) have been shown to lack precision and accuracy. Patient-specific instrumentation (PSI) and fixation created from cross-sectional imaging have recently been introduced to address this problem.

Purpose/hypothesis: The purpose of the study was to compare traditional freehand techniques versus PSI in a human cadaveric model of HTO.

Ipsilateral Nasoseptal Flaps in a Transpterygoid Approach: Technical Pearls and Reconstruction Outcomes.

 Transpterygoid approaches to the skull base require dissection of the sphenopalatine artery, potentially compromising the option to harvest an ipsilateral nasoseptal flap (NSF) for reconstruction. In cases where other reconstructive options are limited, it may be necessary to utilize a NSF ipsilateral to the transpterygoid approach. Here, we describe the technique of NSF pedicle preservation with reconstruction outcomes.

Trends in Formulary Restrictions for Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotic Medications Among Medicare Drug Plans, 2019-2023.

Objective: Long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIAPs) enable safe and effective long-term management of chronic psychotic disorders but are underused in clinical practice. The authors examined whether Medicare formulary restrictions (prior authorization [PA] or step therapy) impose barriers to LAIAP uptake.

Methods: The authors analyzed formulary restrictions and patient cost-sharing for several LAIAPs and estimated the percentage of plans (N=2,494 were available per year) applying formulary restrictions.

Use of a Continuum-Based Framework to Advance General Health Integration in Community Behavioral Health Clinics.

Objective: This study assessed the utility and effectiveness of the new general health integration (GHI) framework among community behavioral health organizations designated as certified community behavioral health clinics (CCBHCs) or in the process of applying to become a CCBHC.

Methods: Nineteen licensed community behavioral health clinics, 18 of which had CCBHC status, participated in a 12-month learning collaborative. They used the GHI framework to assess their integration stage for 15 subdomains within eight domains of evidence-based practice.

Youth Inpatient and Residential Treatment Psychiatric Beds: National Trends and Potential Causal Factors, 2010-2022.

Objective: Youth inpatient and residential treatment psychiatric services are essential components of the continuum of care. Concern has grown about the diminished availability of these services and the increasing need for them. This study aimed to examine the number of youths treated at inpatient and residential psychiatric facilities over a 12-year period and to assess the perceptions of state mental health authorities (SMHAs) about the reasons for changes in availability.

Scientific and Regulatory Policy Committee Points to Consider: Proposal and Recommendations to Reduce Euthanasia of Control Nonhuman Primates in Nonclinical Toxicity Studies.

Nonhuman primates (NHPs) have been and remain a highly valuable animal model with an essential role in translational research and pharmaceutical drug development. Based on current regulatory guidelines, the nonclinical safety of novel therapeutics should be evaluated in relevant nonclinical species, which commonly includes NHPs for biotherapeutics. Given the practical and ethical limitations on availability and/or use of NHPs and in line with the widely accepted guiding "3Rs" (replace, reduce, and refine) principles, many approaches have been considered to optimize toxicity study designs to meaningfully reduce the number of NHPs used.

High-impact Chronic Pain in a Cohort of Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome Patients: A Retrospective MAPP Research Network Study.

Objectives: An emerging concept in the chronic pain literature, high-impact chronic pain (HICP), refers to pain that occurs very frequently and results in major disruption of daily life. Previous epidemiologic investigations have noted that lower educational attainment, age, and race appear to be associated with the frequency of HICP, but condition-specific investigations of HICP have been less common.

Methods: Here we investigate HICP status and its clinical/demographic correlates in the Multidisciplinary Approach to the study of chronic Pelvic Pain research network Symptom Pattern Study.

The effects of age, fitness, and health on the passive stiffness of the intact low back and its impact on seated work in a healthy, working, female population.

Age is associated with increased tissue stiffness and a higher risk of low back pain, particularly in older, sedentary workers who spend long periods sitting. This study explored how trunk stiffness changes with age and its relationship with posture during prolonged sitting in a sample of 37 women aged 20-65 years. Age was assessed as both Chronological Age and Fitness Age, with trunk stiffness measured using a passive trunk flexion apparatus.

Institutional, neighborhood, and life stressors on loneliness among older adults.

Background: Loneliness is a public health epidemic in the United States (US), with older adults being vulnerable to experiencing loneliness. Predictors of loneliness are less understood among racial/ethnic groups of US older adults, and few studies have included perceived institutional discrimination (PID), stressful life events (SLE), and perceived neighborhood characteristics (PNC) as antecedent stressors of loneliness in diverse older adult samples. Our study assessed the relationship between these stressors and loneliness among specific racial/ethnic groups of older adults.

Mortality in the families of children during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from a repeated cross-sectional study of children in the United States.

Background: Modeling studies suggest that hundreds of thousands of U.S. children have lost caregivers since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Intricacies of human-AI interaction in dynamic decision-making for precision oncology.

AI decision support systems can assist clinicians in planning adaptive treatment strategies that can dynamically react to individuals' cancer progression for effective personalized care. However, AI's imperfections can lead to suboptimal therapeutics if clinicians over or under rely on AI. To investigate such collaborative decision-making process, we conducted a Human-AI interaction study on response-adaptive radiotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Medical management pathways for Cushing's disease in pituitary tumors centers of excellence (PTCOEs).

Purpose: A recent update of consensus guidelines for the management of Cushing's disease (CD) included indications for medical therapy. However, there is limited evidence regarding their implementation in clinical practice. This study aimed to evaluate current medical therapy approaches by expert pituitary centers through an audit conducted to validate the criteria of Pituitary Tumors Centers of Excellence (PTCOEs) and provide an initial standard of medical care for CD.

Large exciton binding energy in a bulk van der Waals magnet from quasi-1D electronic localization.

Excitons, bound electron-hole pairs, influence the optical properties in strongly interacting solid-state systems and are typically most stable and pronounced in monolayer materials. Bulk systems with large exciton binding energies, on the other hand, are rare and the mechanisms driving their stability are still relatively unexplored. Here, we report an exceptionally large exciton binding energy in single crystals of the bulk van der Waals antiferromagnet CrSBr.

Subcellular mitochondrial heterogeneity enables opposing metabolic demands.

Mitochondria perform essential metabolic processes that sustain cellular bioenergetics and biosynthesis. In a recent article, Ryu et al. explored how mitochondria coordinate biochemical reactions with opposing redox demands within the same cell.

Sporadic and Recurrent Exertional Rhabdomyolysis.

Horses are particularly susceptible to developing exertional rhabdomyolysis (ER) characterized by muscle stiffness, pain, and reluctance to move. Diagnosis requires establishing abnormal increases in serum creatine kinase activity when horses exhibit clinical signs. The 2 main categories of ER include sporadic ER arising from extrinsic causes and chronic ER that arises from intrinsic continuous or episodic abnormalities in muscle function.