Cancer-related health behaviors during the COVID 19 pandemic in geographically diverse samples across the US.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic involved business closures (e.g., gyms), social distancing policies, and prolonged stressful situations that may have impacted engagement in health behaviors.

A case of cutaneous melanoma metastatic to the ciliary body and choroid with complete regression via systemic dual checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Background: Cutaneous melanoma is the leading cause of death from cutaneous malignancy and tends to metastasize lymphatically and hematogenously to the lung, liver, brain, and bone; it is a rare source of metastatic disease to the eye. Herein we provide a case report of cutaneous melanoma metastatic to the ciliary body and choroid involving clinical examination, slit lamp photography, and B-scan ultrasonography.

Result: A 55-year-old female with known metastatic cutaneous melanoma presented with pain, a large ciliochoroidal mass, visual decline, and diffuse intraocular inflammation.

A sweeping view of avian mycoplasmas biology drawn from comparative genomic analyses.

Background: Avian mycoplasmas are small bacteria associated with several pathogenic conditions in many wild and poultry bird species. Extensive genomic data are available for many avian mycoplasmas, yet no comparative studies focusing on this group of mycoplasmas have been undertaken so far.

Results: Here, based on the comparison of forty avian mycoplasma genomes belonging to ten different species, we provide insightful information on the phylogeny, pan/core genome, energetic metabolism, and virulence of these avian pathogens.

Effectiveness of shared decision making strategies for stroke prevention among patients with atrial fibrillation: cluster randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of multiple decision aid strategies in promoting high quality shared decision making for prevention of stroke in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.

Design: Cluster randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Six academic medical centers in the United States.

Dysregulation of Airway and Systemic Interferon Responses Promote Asthma Exacerbations in Urban Children.

Background: Determining why some upper respiratory illnesses provoke asthma exacerbations remains an unmet need.

Objective: To identify transcriptome-wide gene expression changes associated with colds that progress to exacerbation.

Methods: 208 urban children (6-17 years) with exacerbation-prone asthma were prospectively monitored for up to two cold illnesses.

Overfeeding and overweight rapidly reprogram inflammatory signaling.

Epidemiologic studies have shown a continuous increase in mortality risk associated with overweight, thus highlighting the health risks beginning before the onset of obesity. However, early changes in inflammatory signaling induced by an obesogenic diet remain largely unknown since studies of obesity typically utilize models induced by months of continuous exposure to a high-fat diet. Here, we investigated how short-term overfeeding remodels inflammatory signaling.

CSI-GEP: A GPU-based unsupervised machine learning approach for recovering gene expression programs in atlas-scale single-cell RNA-seq data.

Exploratory analysis of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) typically relies on hard clustering over two-dimensional projections like uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP). However, such methods can severely distort the data and have many arbitrary parameter choices. Methods that can model scRNA-seq data as non-discrete "gene expression programs" (GEPs) can better preserve the data's structure, but currently, they are often not scalable, not consistent across repeated runs, and lack an established method for choosing key parameters.

The pathobiology of neurovascular aging.

As global life expectancy increases, age-related brain diseases such as stroke and dementia have become leading causes of death and disability. The aging of the neurovasculature is a critical determinant of brain aging and disease risk. Neurovascular cells are particularly vulnerable to aging, which induces significant structural and functional changes in arterial, venous, and lymphatic vessels.

Acidic pH can attenuate immune killing through inactivation of perforin.

Cytotoxic lymphocytes are crucial to our immune system, primarily eliminating virus-infected or cancerous cells via perforin/granzyme killing. Perforin forms transmembrane pores in the plasma membrane, allowing granzymes to enter the target cell cytosol and trigger apoptosis. The prowess of cytotoxic lymphocytes to efficiently eradicate target cells has been widely harnessed in immunotherapies against haematological cancers.

Understanding the Medical Education Experiences of Low-Income Students Through a Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Lens: An Exploratory Qualitative Study.

Background: Diversity in the physician workforce is critical for quality patient care. Students from low-income backgrounds represent an increasing proportion of medical school matriculants, yet little research has addressed their medical school experiences.

Objective: To explore the medical school experiences of students from low-income backgrounds using a modified version of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (physiologic, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization) as a theoretical framework.

An accurately supervised motion-aware deep network for non-contact pain assessment of trigeminal neuralgia mouse model.

Pain assessment in trigeminal neuralgia (TN) mouse models is essential for exploring its pathophysiology and developing effective analgesics. However, pain assessment methods for TN mouse models have not been widely studied, resulting in a critical gap in our understanding of TN. With the rapid advancement of deep learning, numerous pain assessment methods based on deep learning have emerged.

Phase I-II study of prone hypofractionated accelerated breast and nodal intensity modulated radiation therapy.

Background: In patients with breast cancer, prone radiation therapy (RT) has been shown to reduce heart and lung dose. Though prone positioning is routinely used for whole breast RT, its use when treating the regional lymph nodes (RLNs) is not widespread.

Methods: In this phase I-II trial for stage IB-IIA breast cancer treated with lumpectomy or mastectomy, patients received 40.

Determination of Westcott g-factors for the assay of non-1/v nuclides using k-NAA.

This study examines the impact of the Westcott g-factor on the concentration of elements like In, Ir, Re, Yb, Eu and Lu, measured using neutron capture reactions (n,γ), specifically focusing on those reactions, whose thermal neutron capture cross-sections (σ ) deviate from the conventional '1/v' behaviour. These measurements are quantified using k₀-based neutron activation analysis. The Westcott g-factor for the non-1/v nuclides was calculated using the characterized neutron temperature (T) at PFTS irradiation channel of KAMINI reactor.

Association of Opioid Use Disorder-Related Service Trajectories during Pregnancy and Postpartum Health Service Use: A Group-Based Multitrajectory Modeling Study.

Objective: The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between opioid use disorder (OUD)-related service trajectories during pregnancy and postpartum emergency department (ED) and hospitalizations.

Methods: We used the Merative MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database (2013-2021) to identify a cohort of pregnant individuals with OUD. We used group-based multitrajectory modeling to identify opioid-related treatment and service trajectories during pregnancy and examined their association with postpartum ED and hospital utilization.

Examining the risk of delirium in patients hospitalized with COVID-19: Insights from the homeless population.

For patients hospitalized with COVID-19, delirium is a serious and under-recognized complication, and people experiencing homelessness (PEH) may be at greater risk. This retrospective cohort study compared delirium-associated risk factors and clinical outcomes between PEH and non-PEH. This study used patient records from 154 hospitals discharged from 2020-2021 from the Texas Inpatient Public Use Data file.

Reproducibility and repeatability of 18F-(2S, 4R)-4-fluoroglutamine PET imaging in preclinical oncology models.

Introduction: Measurement of repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) is necessary to realize the full potential of positron emission tomography (PET). Several studies have evaluated the reproducibility of PET using 18F-FDG, the most common PET tracer used in oncology, but similar studies using other PET tracers are scarce. Even fewer assess agreement and R&R with statistical methods designed explicitly for the task.

Impact of Apixaban Lead-In Therapy Duration After Parenteral Anticoagulation on Bleeding in Patients Treated for Venous Thromboembolism.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) treatment with apixaban uses a higher 10 mg twice daily regimen for 7 days (lead-in therapy). But, in patients with initial parenteral anticoagulation treatment or those with higher bleeding risk, clinicians may not always adhere to the full 7-day lead-in duration. This retrospective cohort study included adult patients admitted to the Veterans Affairs Health care System from January 2011 to April 2022, who received at least 24 hours of parenteral anticoagulation followed by lead-in apixaban therapy for VTE.

Children's executive functioning and health behaviors across pediatric life stages and ecological contexts.

Executive functioning (EF) has been linked to chronic disease risk in children. Health behaviors are thought to partially explain this association. The current cross-sectional study evaluated specific domains of EF and varied health behaviors in three pediatric life stages.

Circulating metabolomic biomarkers of 5-year body weight and composition change in a biracial cohort of community-dwelling older adults.

Unintentional weight loss in older populations is linked to greater mortality and morbidity risks. This study aims to understand the metabolic mechanisms of unintentional weight loss and their relationship with body composition changes in older adults. We investigated plasma metabolite associations with weight and body composition changes over 5 years in 1335 participants (mean age 73.

'Nomadic' Hematopoietic Stem Cells Navigate the Embryonic Landscape.

Hematopoietic stem cells are a unique population of tissue-resident multipotent cells with an extensive ability to self-renew and regenerate the entire lineage of differentiated blood cells. Stem cells reside in a highly specialized microenvironment with surrounding supporting cells, forming a complex and dynamic network to preserve and maintain their function. The survival, activation, and quiescence of stem cells are largely influenced by niche-derived signals, with aging niche contributing to a decline in stem cell function.

Biomarkers.

Background: This study aims at applying the AT(N) classification to a cohort of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorders, and to investigate how many cases would be eligible for the emerging disease-modifying treatments.

Method: We conducted a retrospective evaluation of 429 patients referred to the Memory Center of IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. Patients underwent clinical/neuropsychological assessments, lumbar puncture, structural brain imaging, and positron emission tomography (FDG-PET).

Biomarkers.

Background: Existing biomarkers including cerebrospinal fluid and positron emission tomography for Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis are relatively invasive and expensive. Application of exhaled breath collection and volatile organic compound (VOC) detection for AD diagnosis remains unclear.

Method: In this cross-sectional study, high-pressure photon ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPPI-ToF-MS) was used to detect VOCs from breath in three datasets and patients diagnosed as Parkinson's disease (PD).

Biomarkers.

Background: Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a fluid biomarker of axonal damage reported to be elevated in cases with dementia, and particularly in FTD. In this study we evaluate the performance of a recently developed NfL assay to be analyzed through the Lumipulse chemiluminescent platform, which is frequently available in clinical settings for the study of AD core biomarkers.

Method: We evaluated CSF NfL levels using the Lumipulse G600II platform (Fujirebio, Iberia) in 70 cases, including 33 patients with AD (supported by CSF biomarkers consistent with an A+T+(N)+ classification scheme), 26 with confirmed FTD (typical phenotype and CSF with a A-T- profile), and 11 controls.

Biomarkers.

Background: This study investigated microstructural features of the locus coeruleus to entorhinal cortex pathway (LC-EC) in relation to amyloid (A), tau (T), neurodegeneration (N) markers and cognitive impairment in memory clinic patients.

Method: 124 participants were recruited from the Geneva Memory Clinic (n=30 cognitively unimpaired - CU; n=80 MCI and n=14 dementia - CI) and underwent clinical assessment, 3T MRI scan including diffusion weighted imaging, amyloid PET, and tau PET. Diffusivity indices (fractional anisotropy - FA, mean, axial and radial diffusivities - MD, AxD, RD) were assessed in the LC-EC pathway using a probabilistic atlas.