Screening high-risk Veterans for cirrhosis: taking a stepwise population health approach.

Background: Because cirrhosis is often unrecognized, we aimed to develop a stepwise screening algorithm for cirrhosis in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and assess this approach's feasibility and acceptability.

Methods: VHA hepatology clinicians ("champions") were invited to participate in a pilot program from June 2020 to October 2022. The VHA Corporate Data Warehouse was queried to identify Veterans with possible undiagnosed cirrhosis using Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) ≥ 3.

Addressing racial and ethnic disparities in premature exits from permanent supportive housing among residents with substance use disorders.

Background: Permanent supportive housing (PSH) is an evidence-based practice for reducing homelessness that subsidizes permanent, independent housing and provides case management-including linkages to health services. Substance use disorders (SUDs) are common contributing factors towards premature, unwanted ("negative") PSH exits; little is known about racial/ethnic differences in negative PSH exits among residents with SUDs. Within the nation's largest PSH program at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), we examined relationships among SUDs and negative PSH exits (for up to five years post-PSH move-in) across racial/ethnic subgroups.

Correcting scale distortion in RNA sequencing data.

RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is the conventional genome-scale approach used to capture the expression levels of all detectable genes in a biological sample. This is now regularly used for population-based studies designed to identify genetic determinants of various diseases. Naturally, the accuracy of these tests should be verified and improved if possible.

Cardiovascular disease, bone fracture, and all-cause mortality risks among postmenopausal women by arthritis and veteran status: A multistate Markov transition analysis.

Arthritis, a chronic inflammatory condition linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and bone fracture, is more frequent among military veterans and postmenopausal women. This study examined correlates of arthritis and relationships of arthritis with risks of developing CVD, bone fractures, and mortality among postmenopausal veteran and non-veteran women. We analyzed longitudinal data on 135,790 (3,436 veteran and 132,354 non-veteran) postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative who were followed-up for an average of 16 years between enrollment (1993-1998) and February 17, 2024.

Trends in Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia Diagnosis and Upgrade: A 20-Year Experience and Impact of MRI Use on Upgrade Rates.

Background: Atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH) is a benign proliferative breast lesion. Surgical excision of ADH is often recommended to rule out underlying malignant disease.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the trends in ADH upgrade rates over time and identify the impact of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) use on upgrade rates.

Description of STRIVE-ON Study Protocol: Safety and Tolerability of GTX-104 (Nimodipine Injection for IV Infusion) Compared with Oral Nimodipine in Patients Hospitalized for Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (aSAH): A Prospective, Randomized, Phase III Trial (STRIVE-ON).

Oral nimodipine is the only drug approved in North America for patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). However, bioavailability is variable and frequently poor, leading to fluctuations in peak plasma concentrations that cause dose-limiting hypotension. Furthermore, administration is problematic in patients who cannot swallow.

Associations between common genetic variants and income provide insights about the socio-economic health gradient.

We conducted a genome-wide association study on income among individuals of European descent (N = 668,288) to investigate the relationship between socio-economic status and health disparities. We identified 162 genomic loci associated with a common genetic factor underlying various income measures, all with small effect sizes (the Income Factor). Our polygenic index captures 1-5% of income variance, with only one fourth due to direct genetic effects.

Biomolecular condensates in immune cell fate.

Fate decisions during immune cell development require temporally precise changes in gene expression. Evidence suggests that the dynamic modulation of these changes is associated with the formation of diverse, membrane-less nucleoprotein assemblies that are termed biomolecular condensates. These condensates are thought to orchestrate fate-determining transcriptional and post-transcriptional processes by locally and transiently concentrating DNA or RNA molecules alongside their regulatory proteins.

A morphometric signature to identify ductal carcinoma in situ with a low risk of progression.

Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) may progress to ipsilateral invasive breast cancer (iIBC), but often never will. Because DCIS is treated as early breast cancer, many women with harmless DCIS face overtreatment. To identify features associated with progression, we developed an artificial intelligence-based DCIS morphometric analysis pipeline (AIDmap) on hematoxylin-eosin-stained (H&E) tissue sections.

OCT-based diagnosis of glaucoma and glaucoma stages using explainable machine learning.

Glaucoma poses a growing health challenge projected to escalate in the coming decades. However, current automated diagnostic approaches on Glaucoma diagnosis solely rely on black-box deep learning models, lacking explainability and trustworthiness. To address the issue, this study uses optical coherence tomography (OCT) images to develop an explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) tool for diagnosing and staging glaucoma, with a focus on its clinical applicability.

Naltriben promotes tumor growth by activating the TRPM7-mediated development of the anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype.

Macrophage plasticity is critical for maintaining immune function and developing solid tumors; however, the macrophage polarization mechanism remains incompletely understood. Our findings reveal that Mg entry through distinct plasma membrane channels is critical to macrophage plasticity. Naïve macrophages displayed a previously unidentified Mg dependent current, and TRPM7-like activity, which modulates its survival.

Adapting a style based generative adversarial network to create images depicting cleft lip deformity.

Training a machine learning system to evaluate any type of facial deformity is impeded by the scarcity of large datasets of high-quality, ethics board-approved patient images. We have built a deep learning-based cleft lip generator called CleftGAN designed to produce an almost unlimited number of high-fidelity facsimiles of cleft lip facial images with wide variation. A transfer learning protocol testing different versions of StyleGAN as the base model was undertaken.

Anisotropic hydrogel microelectrodes for intraspinal neural recordings in vivo.

Creating durable, motion-compliant neural interfaces is crucial for accessing dynamic tissues under in vivo conditions and linking neural activity with behaviors. Utilizing the self-alignment of nano-fillers in a polymeric matrix under repetitive tension, here, we introduce conductive carbon nanotubes with high aspect ratios into semi-crystalline polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels, and create electrically anisotropic percolation pathways through cyclic stretching. The resulting anisotropic hydrogel fibers (diameter of 187 ± 13 µm) exhibit fatigue resistance (up to 20,000 cycles at 20% strain) with a stretchability of 64.

Vaccine effectiveness against influenza-associated hospitalizations in adults with liver disease, 2015-2020: US Hospitalized Adult Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Network (HAIVEN).

Influenza causes 100,000-710,000 hospitalizations annually in the U.S. Patients with liver disease are at higher risk of severe outcomes following influenza infection.

Ischemic ulcers do not significantly impact endoscopic recurrence score in Crohn's disease: A multicenter comparative study after right-side colectomy.

Background: Postoperative recurrence (POR) occurs in up to 70% of patients with Crohn's disease (CD). The Rutgeerts score (RS) system may overestimate the prevalence of "real" anastomotic recurrence. Hence, we aimed to compare the prevalence of anastomotic POR in CD and the presence of ulcers at anastomotic sites in patients with right-side resection for colonic cancer (CC).

Interobserver agreement and practice patterns for grading of colorectal carcinoma: World Health Organization (WHO) classification of tumours 5th edition versus American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 8th edition staging manual.

Aims: The current American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging manual and the College of American Pathologists (CAP) colorectal carcinoma (CRC) protocol specify use of a four-tiered grading system (i.e. grades 1-4; well-differentiated-undifferentiated) for CRC, based on percentage of gland formation.

Robotic Nipple Sparing Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction with Profunda Artery Perforator Flaps.

The single port robotic nipple sparing mastectomy (SPrNSM) was recently introduced. This approach is safe and has led to favorable outcomes in relation to cosmetic result, patient satisfaction, and breast sensation. The typical reconstruction with all robotic nipple sparing mastectomies is implant based; however, this is not always what a patient desires.

Microbial synthesis of m-tyrosine via whole-cell biocatalysis.

Meta-tyrosine (m-tyrosine), a nonproteinogenic amino acid, has shown significant potential for applications as an herbicide in agriculture and for various medical uses. However, the natural abundance of m-tyrosine is very low, limiting its widespread use. In this study, we successfully achieved microbial production of m-tyrosine by establishing the in vivo enzyme activity of phenylalanine 3-hydroxylase (PacX from Streptomyces coeruleoribudus) in E.

FIGG at 5: An update on U.S. public perspectives on forensic investigative genetic genealogy five years after its introduction to criminal investigations.

In 2018, after law enforcement announced it had used a technique called forensic investigative genetic genealogy (FIGG) to identify the Golden State Killer, we conducted a U.S. general population survey and found most respondents supported using FIGG to solve violent crimes.

Cerebrotendinous Xanthomatosis occurs at high frequency in Ashkenazi Jews.

Cerebrotendinous Xanthomatosis (CTX) is a treatable, inborn error of bile acids metabolism caused by pathogenic variants in CYP27A1. CTX is a multi-organ system disorder that progresses over decades. Clinical features include cerebellar dysfunction, pyramidal tract dysfunction, cognitive deficits and decline, peripheral neuropathy, chronic diarrhea, bilateral cataracts, and tendon xanthomas.

On spectral bias reduction of multi-scale neural networks for regression problems.

In this paper, we derive diffusion equation models in the spectral domain to study the evolution of the training error of two-layer multiscale deep neural networks (MscaleDNN) (Cai and Xu, 2019; Liu et al., 2020), which is designed to reduce the spectral bias of fully connected deep neural networks in approximating oscillatory functions. The diffusion models are obtained from the spectral form of the error equation of the MscaleDNN, derived with a neural tangent kernel approach and gradient descent training and a sine activation function, assuming a vanishing learning rate and infinite network width and domain size.