Optimizing automated photo identification for population assessments.

Several legal acts mandate that management agencies regularly assess biological populations. For species with distinct markings, these assessments can be conducted noninvasively via capture-recapture and photographic identification (photo-ID), which involves processing considerable quantities of photographic data. To ease this burden, agencies increasingly rely on automated identification (ID) algorithms.

Pulmonary granuloma formation during latent infection in C3HeB/FeJ mice involves progression through three immunological phases.

is a fungal pathogen that can cause lethal disease in immunocompromised patients. Immunocompetent host immune responses, such as formation of pulmonary granulomas, control the infection and prevent disseminated disease. Little is known about the immunological conditions establishing the latent infection granuloma in the lungs.

Advancing Principled Pharmacoepidemiologic Research to Support Regulatory and Healthcare Decision Making: The Era of Real-World Evidence.

A compilation of factors over the past decade-including the availability of increasingly large and rich healthcare datasets, advanced technologies to extract unstructured information from health records and digital sources, advancement of principled study design and analytic methods to emulate clinical trials, and frameworks to support transparent study conduct-has ushered in a new era of real-world evidence (RWE). This review article describes the evolution of the RWE era, including pharmacoepidemiologic methods designed to support causal inferences regarding treatment effects, the role of regulators and other health authorities in establishing distributed real-world data networks enabling analytics at scale, and the many global guidance documents on principled methods of producing RWE. This article also highlights the growing opportunity for RWE to support decision making by regulators, health technology assessment groups, clinicians, patients, and other stakeholders and provides examples of influential RWE studies.

AAPM Truth-based CT (TrueCT) reconstruction grand challenge.

Background: This Special Report summarizes the 2022, AAPM grand challenge on Truth-based CT image reconstruction.

Purpose: To provide an objective framework for evaluating CT reconstruction methods using virtual imaging resources consisting of a library of simulated CT projection images of a population of human models with various diseases.

Methods: Two hundred unique anthropomorphic, computational models were created with varied diseases consisting of 67 emphysema, 67 lung lesions, and 66 liver lesions.

All-Electron BSE@GW Method with Numeric Atom-Centered Orbitals for Extended Periodic Systems.

Green's function theory has emerged as a powerful many-body approach not only in condensed matter physics but also in quantum chemistry in recent years. We have developed a new all-electron implementation of the BSE@GW formalism using numeric atom-centered orbital basis sets (Liu, C. 2020, 152, 044105).

De Novo Atherosclerotic Renal Artery Stenosis Covered Stent Treatment for Resistant Hypertension (ARTISAN) Results.

Background: Atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (ARAS) may provoke hypertension and/or impaired kidney function. Some patients develop uncontrolled hypertension and deteriorating kidney function despite optimal medical therapy. In these patients, endovascular treatment is an important therapeutic option.

Root Development of Tomato Plants Infected by the Cacao Pathogen Moniliophthora perniciosa Is Affected by Limited Sugar Availability.

Moniliophthora perniciosa is the causal agent of the witches' broom disease of cacao (Theobroma cacao), and it can infect the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) 'Micro-Tom' (MT) cultivar. Typical symptoms of infection are stem swelling and axillary shoot outgrowth, whereas reduction in root biomass is another side effect. Using infected MT, we investigated whether impaired root growth derives from hormonal imbalance or sink competition.

Dissecting SNARE-Mediated Exocytosis in RBL-2H3 Mast Cells.

SNARE-dependent mast cell (MC) exocytosis causes the release of a wide variety of mediators with important physiological/pathological consequences. Unlike synaptic transmission in the brain, which relies primarily on one set of exocytic SNAREs (i.e.

E3 ubiquitin ligase CHIP facilitates cAMP and cGMP signalling cross-talk by polyubiquitinating PDE9A.

The carboxyl terminus of Hsc70-interacting protein (CHIP) is pivotal for managing misfolded and aggregated proteins via chaperone networks and degradation pathways. In a preclinical rodent model of CHIP-related ataxia, we observed that CHIP mutations lead to increased levels of phosphodiesterase 9A (PDE9A), whose role in this context remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying the role of PDE9A in CHIP-related ataxia and demonstrated that CHIP binds to PDE9A, facilitating its polyubiquitination and autophagic degradation.

Long-Term Opioid Therapy and Risk of Opioid Overdose by Derived Clinical Indication in North Carolina, 2006-2018.

Purpose: Long-term opioid therapy (LTOT) has been shown to be associated with opioid overdose, but the definition of LTOT varies widely across studies. We use a rigorous LTOT definition to examine risk of opioid overdose by duration of treatment.

Methods: Data were from a large private health insurance provider in North Carolina linked to mortality records from 2006-2018.

Maternal Supplementation of Dietary Choline and Docosahexaenoic Acid during Gestational Nutrition Restriction Alters Hepatic mRNA and miRNA Expression Patterns in Full-Term Fetal Pigs.

Background: Supplementing choline and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to pregnant gilts modified fetal pig hepatic global DNA methylation induced by gestational malnutrition, suggesting that gene expression and regulation and its associated metabolic pathways are affected in the liver of offspring during growth and development.

Objective: To investigate the effect of maternal supplementation of choline, DHA and their interaction on hepatic mRNA expression, miRNA regulation and metabolic pathways in the fetal pigs born to malnourished mothers.

Methods: The abundance of mRNA and miRNA was profiled in fetal liver from sows with undernutrition supplemented with choline and DHA in a 2 × 2 factorial design.

Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small and medium businesses in North Carolina: Results from the Carolina PROSPER COVID-19 Worksite Impact Survey.

Objective: As the COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges for businesses and worker safety and health, an interdisciplinary team launched the COVID-19 Worksite Impact Survey to assess COVID-19-related impacts and responses at small and medium businesses in 10 North Carolina counties.

Methods: We collected data from October 2 to December 1, 2020, and analyzed survey results to evaluate businesses' operational changes, concerns, needs, pandemic preparedness, workplace health promotion programming, and infection control practices.

Results: Most businesses, including essential ones, were inadequately prepared for the pandemic and did not implement the most effective COVID-19 infection control practices.

Work-related Fatigue: Relationship between Perceived and Performance Fatigability in Career Firefighters.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to 1) examine the relationship between perceived work-related fatigue and performance fatigability, and 2) assess the impact of percent body fat (%BF) on perceived fatigue constructs in career firefighters.

Methods: Thirty-nine career firefighters completed body composition testing, the Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery (OFER15) scale assessing three subscales of work-related fatigue (acute fatigue, chronic fatigue, and inter-shift recovery), and maximal leg extensor isometric strength testing prior to and following an isotonic fatiguing protocol.

Results: Performance fatigability was not associated with any of the OFER15 perceived work-related fatigue variables ( P ≥ 0.

Effectiveness of Synchronous Postdischarge Contacts on Health Care Use and Patient Satisfaction : A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Background: Postdischarge contacts (PDCs) after hospitalization are common practice, but their effectiveness in reducing use of acute care after discharge remains unclear.

Purpose: To assess the effects of PDC on 30-day emergency department (ED) visits, 30-day hospital readmissions, and patient satisfaction.

Data Sources: MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL searched from 2012 to 25 May 2023.

Exploring the Frontiers of Nanopore Sequencing in Food Safety and Food Microbiology.

Foodborne illnesses are a significant global public health challenge, with an estimated 600 million cases annually. Conventional food microbiology methods tend to be laborious and time consuming, pose difficulties in real-time utilization, and can display subpar accuracy or typing capabilities. With the recent advancements in third-generation sequencing and microbial omics, nanopore sequencing technology and its long-read sequencing capabilities have emerged as a promising platform.

A discrete choice experiment with health professions trainees to improve the urban-rural health care access disparity in Appalachia: Study protocol.

Globally, those who live in rural areas experience significant barriers to accessing health care due to a maldistribution of health care providers. Those who live in rural areas in the Appalachian region of the United States face one of the worst shortages of health care providers despite experiencing more complex health needs compared to Americans in more affluent, urban areas. Prior research has failed to identify effective solutions to narrow the provider maldistribution, despite it being a policy focus for decades.

Genome-Wide Association Study and Genomic Predictions for Hydroxycinnamate Concentrations in Maize Stover.

Hydroxycinnamates, like ferulate (FA) and -coumarate (CA), are important components of maize cell walls, which influence pest resistance, ruminal digestibility, and biofuel production. Increasing their concentration has been linked to increased pest resistance, but also may lead to a decrease in nutritional value or bioethanol production efficiency. Therefore, improving forage quality or biofuel production without compromising plant resistance and a thorough understanding of the biosynthesis and deposition of these compounds is necessary, especially in stover, which is the feedstock for second-generation biofuel production and determines animal forage quality.

Long-term climate establishes functional legacies by altering microbial traits.

Long-term climate history can influence rates of soil carbon cycling but the microbial traits underlying these legacy effects are not well understood. Legacies may result if historical climate differences alter the traits of soil microbial communities, particularly those associated with carbon cycling and stress tolerance. However, it is also possible that contemporary conditions can overcome the influence of historical climate, particularly under extreme conditions.

Six-Month Outcomes in the Long-Term Outcomes After the Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children Study.

Importance: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a life-threatening complication of COVID-19 infection. Data on midterm outcomes are limited.

Objective: To characterize the frequency and time course of cardiac dysfunction (left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF] <55%), coronary artery aneurysms (z score ≥2.