Incorporating Cooking Emissions To Better Simulate the Impact of Zero-Emission Vehicle Adoption on Ozone Pollution in Los Angeles.

Despite decades of emission control measures aimed at improving air quality, Los Angeles (LA) continues to experience severe ozone pollution during the summertime. We incorporate cooking volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in a chemical transport model and evaluate it against observations in order to improve the model representation of the present-day ozone chemical regime in LA. Using this updated model, we investigate the impact of adopting zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) on ozone pollution with increased confidence.

Epidemiology of Coronary Atherosclerosis Among People Living With HIV in Uganda : A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Data on the prevalence of coronary atherosclerotic disease (CAD) in the African region among people with and without HIV are lacking.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence of CAD in Uganda and determine whether well-controlled HIV infection is associated with increased presence or severity of CAD.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Connecting Underrepresented Medical Students to Resources and Role Models in Orthopaedic Surgery: A Virtual Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Summit.

Introduction: Limited access to resources and stereotypes about orthopaedic surgeons may contribute to the low percentage of women and people of underrepresented in medicine (URiM) backgrounds in orthopaedic surgery. Several organizations have created resources to address these barriers, but medical students are unlikely to be exposed to the initiatives through traditional curricula. The purpose of this study was to (1) evaluate the ability of a 1-day virtual Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) summit to effectively reach URiM medical students, (2) increase medical students' knowledge of DEIA resources, and (3) augment the perception of diverse backgrounds in orthopaedic surgery.

Characterization of diverse Cas9 orthologs for genome and epigenome editing.

CRISPR-Cas9 systems have revolutionized biotechnology, creating diverse new opportunities for biomedical research and therapeutic genome and epigenome editing. Despite the abundance of bacterial CRISPR-Cas9 systems, relatively few are effective in human cells, limiting the overall potential of CRISPR technology. To expand the CRISPR-Cas toolbox, we characterized a set of type II CRISPR-Cas9 systems from select bacterial genera and species encoding diverse Cas9s.

Effect of Metformin Exposure in Gestational Diabetes Mellitus on Infant Mesenchymal Stem Cell Metabolism.

Offspring exposed to metformin treatment for gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) experience altered growth patterns that increase the risk for developing cardiometabolic diseases later in life. The adaptive cellular mechanisms underlying these patterns remain unclear. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine if chronic metformin exposure associated with GDM treatment elicits infant cellular metabolic adaptations.

Diagnosis and Monitoring Pathways Using Non-Invasive Tests in Patients With Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency-Associated Liver Disease: Results From an Expert Delphi Panel.

Background And Aims: The severe alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) genotype Pi*ZZ increases the risk of liver disease (AATD-LD) and lung disease. While non-invasive tests (NITs) are widely used for fibrosis stage and monitoring of all liver diseases, the consensus for use in AATD-LD is limited. A Delphi panel study was conducted to address this need.

Operationalizing Inclusion of Diverse Older Adults in Aging Services Information.

As the United States' population ages, it is also becoming more diverse. The country's Older Americans Act requires county-level offices on aging to be both service and information providers. But it is unclear to what extent offices on aging can identify gaps within the aging services information they provide and improve efforts to meet the information needs of diverse older adults.

Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition of Hybrid Perovskites.

Semiconductor devices often rely on high-purity materials and interfaces achieved through vapor- and vacuum-based fabrication methods, which can enable precise compositional control down to single atomic layers. Compared to groups IV and III-V semiconductors, hybrid perovskites (HPs) are an emergent class of semiconductor materials with remarkable solution processability and compositional variability that have facilitated rapid experimentation to achieve new properties and progress toward efficient devices, particularly for solar cells. Surprisingly, vapor deposition techniques for HPs are substantially less developed, despite the complementary benefits that have secured vapor methods as workhorse tools for semiconductor fabrication.

Impacts of spring freeze events on a perennial tree fruit crop across the central and eastern USA.

This study uses a crop simulation model driven by 40 years (1981-2020) of daily gridded meteorological data from PRISM to assess the impacts of spring freeze events on cherry trees, a representative temperate perennial tree-fruit crop, across six regions of the central and eastern USA: the Northern and Southern Great Plains (NGP, SGP), Upper Midwest (UMW), Ohio Valley (OHV), New York-Pennsylvania (NY-PA), and Virginia-North Carolina (VA-NC). Freeze damage exhibits a clear latitudinal gradient, with damage frequency and severity decreasing from south to north. The most frequent and severe damage occurs in the SGP, followed by VA-NC, while the least is observed in the UMW and NY-PA.

Novel Controlled Metabolic Accelerator for Obesity-Related HFpEF: The HuMAIN-HFpEF Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Excess body fat plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). HU6 is a novel, controlled metabolic accelerator that enhances mitochondrial uncoupling resulting in increased metabolism and fat-specific weight loss.

Objective: To assess efficacy and safety of HU6 in reducing body weight, improving peak volume of oxygen consumption (VO2) and body composition among patients with obesity-related HFpEF.

Polygenic Scores of Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in American Indian Adults.

Importance: Numerous efforts have been made to include diverse populations in genetic studies, but American Indian populations are still severely underrepresented. Polygenic scores derived from genetic data have been proposed in clinical care, but how polygenic scores perform in American Indian individuals and whether they can predict disease risk in this population remains unknown.

Objective: To study the performance of polygenic scores for cardiometabolic risk factors of lipid traits and C-reactive protein in American Indian adults and to determine whether such scores are helpful in clinical prediction for cardiometabolic diseases.

Short-Term Safety and Effectiveness for Tenecteplase and Alteplase in Acute Ischemic Stroke.

Importance: Tenecteplase is an alternative to alteplase for emergency treatment of acute ischemic stroke. However, limited data are available comparing their clinical effectiveness in routine clinical practice.

Objective: To compare short-term effectiveness and safety outcomes for patients with ischemic stroke treated with intravenous tenecteplase vs alteplase.

Frailty Trajectories Following Adjuvant Chemotherapy and Mortality in Older Women With Breast Cancer.

Importance: Frailty assessed at a single time point is associated with mortality in older women with breast cancer. Little is known about how changes in frailty following cancer treatment initiation affect mortality.

Objective: To evaluate the association between claims-based frailty trajectories following adjuvant chemotherapy initiation and 5-year mortality in older women with stage I to III breast cancer.

Estimation and Hypothesis Testing of Strain-Specific Vaccine Efficacy With Missing Strain Types With Application to a COVID-19 Vaccine Trial.

Based on data from a randomized, controlled vaccine efficacy trial, this article develops statistical methods for assessing vaccine efficacy (VE) to prevent COVID-19 infections by a discrete set of genetic strains of SARS-CoV-2. Strain-specific VE adjusting for possibly time-varying covariates is estimated using augmented inverse probability weighting to address missing viral genotypes under a competing risks model that allows separate baseline hazards for different risk groups. Hypothesis tests are developed to assess whether the vaccine provides at least a specified level of VE against some viral genotypes and whether VE varies across genotypes.

Cathodal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Does Not Change Implicit Associations Against Alcohol in Alcohol Use Disorder: A Preregistered Clinical Trial.

Addictive behaviour is shaped by the dynamic interaction of implicit, bottom-up and explicit, top-down cognitive processes. In alcohol use disorder (AUD), implicit alcohol-related associations have been shown to predict increased subsequent alcohol consumption and are linked to the risk of relapse. Explicit cognitive processes, exerting prefrontal top-down control, are particularly significant during the critical period following the decision to abstain.

A Museum Medicine Internship: Program Outline and Participants' Reflections of Its Impact on Their Veterinary Careers.

The Window on Animal Health at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences hosts the VetPAC Museum Medicine Internship, an undergraduate student internship program founded in collaboration with the Veterinary Professions Advising Center at North Carolina State University. It is designed to train pre-veterinary track students for wildlife and exotic animal husbandry and medicine in a unique museum clinical facility surrounded by large windows and a two-way audio system to facilitate public interaction during veterinary casework. The development of veterinary skills for interns is achieved via four competency-based stages: stage 1, veterinary assisting; stage 2, veterinary diagnostics; stage 3, medical case management and presentation; and stage 4, biosecurity and animal welfare.

Deep Learning Estimation of Small Airways Disease from Inspiratory Chest CT: Clinical Validation, Repeatability, and Associations with Adverse Clinical Outcomes in COPD.

Rationale: Quantifying functional small airways disease (fSAD) requires additional expiratory computed tomography (CT) scan, limiting clinical applicability. Artificial intelligence (AI) could enable fSAD quantification from chest CT scan at total lung capacity (TLC) alone (fSAD).

Objectives: To evaluate an AI model for estimating fSAD, compare it with dual-volume parametric response mapping fSAD (fSAD), and assess its clinical associations and repeatability in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Preserving the Biologically Coherent Generic Concept of , 'Plant Destroyer'.

is a long-established, well known and globally important genus of plant pathogens. Phylogenetic evidence has shown that the biologically distinct, obligate biotrophic downy mildews evolved from at least twice. Since, cladistically, this renders 'paraphyletic', it has been proposed that evolutionary clades be split into multiple genera (Runge et al.

Collateral blood vessels in stroke and ischemic disease: Formation, physiology, rarefaction, remodeling.

Collateral blood vessels are unique, naturally occurring endogenous bypass vessels that provide alternative pathways for oxygen delivery in obstructive arterial conditions and diseases. Surprisingly however, the capacity of the collateral circulation to provide protection varies greatly among individuals, resulting in a significant fraction having poor collateral circulation in their tissues. We recently reviewed evidence that the presence of naturally-occurring polymorphisms in genes that determine the number and diameter of collaterals that form during development (ie, genetic background), is a major contributor to this variation.

mir-276a Is Required for Muscle Development in and Regulates the FGF Receptor During the Migration of Nascent Myotubes in the Testis.

MicroRNAs function as post-transcriptional regulators in gene expression and control a broad range of biological processes in metazoans. The formation of multinucleated muscles is essential for locomotion, growth, and muscle repair. microRNAs have also emerged as important regulators for muscle development and function.

Multi-level barriers to equitable postpartum permanent contraception.

Background: There are several barriers to fulfillment of desired postpartum permanent contraception (PC). Prior research has primarily focused on the federal Medicaid sterilization policy as a barrier to PC; however, other barriers need to be examined.

Objectives: To explore the levels and intersections of barriers to postpartum PC that exist external to the Medicaid policy.

Arene and Heteroarene Functionalization Enabled by Organic Photoredox Catalysis.

ConspectusAromatic functionalization reactions are some of the most fundamental transformations in organic chemistry and have been a mainstay of chemical synthesis for over a century. Reactions such as electrophilic and nucleophilic aromatic substitution (EAS and SAr, respectively) represent the two most fundamental reaction classes for arene elaboration and still today typify the most utilized methods for aromatic functionalization. Despite the reliable reactivity accessed by these venerable transformations, the chemical space that can be accessed by EAS and SAr reactions is inherently limited due to the electronic requirements of the substrate.