Continuing Medical Education Questions: August 2024.

Article Title: Machine Learning Models for Pancreatic Cancer Risk Prediction Using Electronic Health Record Data-A Systematic Review and Assessment.

Enhancing Clinical Trial Efficiency: The Impact of a Dual Digital Alert System on Quantitative Imaging Report Turnaround Time.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a dual digital alert system and automatic radiologist reassignment in improving the efficiency of quantitative imaging report delivery for clinical trials.

Materials And Methods: Assessing tumor metrics is critical to oncologic disease management, informed treatment planning, and for monitoring therapeutic response and even more so in cancer clinical research trials. A collaborative effort with the Institutional Research Information Systems division led to developing a web-based system with a Java backend, tested using Agile methodology to improve patient care with improved turnaround time (TAT) of quantitative reports.

Intestinal oxygen utilisation and cellular adaptation during intestinal ischaemia-reperfusion injury.

The gastrointestinal tract can be deranged by ailments including sepsis, trauma and haemorrhage. Ischaemic injury provokes a common constellation of microscopic and macroscopic changes that, together with the paradoxical exacerbation of cellular dysfunction and death following restoration of blood flow, are collectively known as ischaemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). Although much of the gastrointestinal tract is normally hypoxemic, intestinal IRI results when there is inadequate oxygen availability due to poor supply (pathological hypoxia) or abnormal tissue oxygen use and metabolism (dysoxia).

Environmental influences on Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) population densities across 2 urban communities on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The mosquito species Aedes aegypti (Linneaus) is the vector of multiple arboviruses, including dengue, Chikungunya, Zika, and yellow fever. Risk of infections associated with these arboviruses continues to expand as the geographical range of Ae. aegypti extends into temperate regions.

Private-Sector Readmissions for Inpatient Surgery in Veterans Health Administration Hospitals.

Importance: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) reports multiple indicators of hospital surgical performance, including hospital risk-standardized 30-day readmission rates (RSRRs). Currently, most routinely reported measures do not include readmissions that occur outside VHA hospitals. The impact of readmissions outside the VHA on hospital RSRR is not known.

Assessing intrinsic capacity for person-centred HIV care: a cross-sectional study in ageing populations in Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Introduction: WHO's Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) proposes we measure the functional construct of intrinsic capacity (IC) to monitor and identify individuals with age-associated vulnerabilities. Assessments of IC may be useful to address the evolving, non-HV care needs of ageing people with HIV (PWH). However, to date, its utility within the context of HIV has not been assessed.

Molecular Testing for the World Health Organization Classification of Central Nervous System Tumors: A Review.

Importance: Molecular techniques, including next-generation sequencing, genomic copy number profiling, fusion transcript detection, and genomic DNA methylation arrays, are now indispensable tools for the workup of central nervous system (CNS) tumors. Yet there remains a great deal of heterogeneity in using such biomarker testing across institutions and hospital systems. This is in large part because there is a persistent reluctance among third-party payers to cover molecular testing.

First report of watermelon mosaic virus infecting faba bean ( L.) in China.

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is the fourth most cultivated temperate legume (Lyu et al., 2021).

Midterm Results of the STABILISE Technique in the Treatment of Aortic Dissection.

: Contemporary treatments of acute aortic dissection, including medical, surgical, and endovascular options, are remarkably effective at the management of malperfusion and rupture. Unfortunately, long-term studies indicate that 30%-50% of patients need secondary procedures to treat progressive aneurysmal enlargement of the untreated aorta. The Stent-assisted balloon-induced intimal disruption and relamination in aortic dissection repair (STABILISE) technique was introduced to improve long-term outcomes.

Cardiovascular-Liver-Metabolic Health: Recommendations in Screening, Diagnosis, and Management of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease in Cardiovascular Disease via Modified Delphi Approach.

There is a new awareness of the widespread nature of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and its connection to cardiovascular disease (CVD). This has catalyzed collaboration between cardiologists, hepatologists, endocrinologists, and the wider multidisciplinary team to address the need for earlier identification of those with MASLD who are at increased risk for CVD. The overlap in the pathophysiologic processes and parallel prevalence of CVD, metabolic syndrome, and MASLD highlight the multisystem consequences of poor cardiovascular-liver-metabolic health.

Over 100 Fontan Patients on Systemic Ventricular Assist Device Support: An ACTION Update.

As the Fontan population grows, understanding successful strategies for ventricular assist device (VAD) support of the failing Fontan circulation is needed. We performed a retrospective analysis of patients with Fontan circulation and systemic VAD support in the Advanced Cardiac Therapies Improving Outcomes Network (ACTION) registry. Competing outcomes and Kaplan-Meier estimated survival methods were used.

Covert perioperative strokes in older patients having non-cardiac surgery (PRECISION): a prospective cohort analysis.

Background: Perioperative strokes may promote postoperative neurocognitive dysfunction. We thus evaluated the incidence of postoperative strokes and the association between strokes and postoperative neurocognitive outcomes in older patients recovering from non-cardiac surgery.

Methods: PRECISION was a two-center prospective cohort study.

Ultrasound-Guided Percutaneous Cryoneurolysis for the Treatment of Pain following Traumatic Rib Fracture: A Randomized, Active-Controlled, Participant- and Observer-Masked Study.

Background: Traumatic rib fractures are associated with pain lasting weeks to months and a decreased ability to inspire deeply or cough to clear secretions. Ultrasound-guided percutaneous cryoneurolysis involves reversibly ablating peripheral nerve(s) using exceptionally low temperature with a transdermal probe, resulting in a prolonged nerve block with a duration measured in months. We hypothesized that cryoneurolysis would improve analgesia and inspired volume following rib fracture.

An in silico framework to visualize how cancer-associated mutations influence structural plasticity of the chemokine receptor CCR3.

G protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) are the largest family of cell surface receptors in humans. Somatic mutations in GPCRs are implicated in cancer progression and metastasis, but mechanisms are poorly understood. Emerging evidence implicates perturbation of intra-receptor activation pathway motifs whereby extracellular signals are transmitted intracellularly.

Travel Health Nursing.

These nurses provide care for people embarking on travel.

Influence of Ligand Complexity on the Spectroscopic Properties of Type 1 Copper Sites: A Theoretical Study.

Multi-copper oxidases (MCOs) are enzymes of significant interest in biotechnology due to their efficient catalysis of oxygen reduction to water, making them valuable in sustainable energy production and bio-electrochemical applications. This study employs time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) to investigate the electronic structure and spectroscopic properties of the Type 1 (T1) copper site in Azurin, which serves as a model for similar sites in MCOs. Four model complexes of varying complexity were derived from the T1 site, including 3 three-coordinate models and 1 four-coordinate model with axial methionine ligation, to explore the impact of molecular branches and axial coordination.

Impact of social determinants of health on the outcomes of Latin American children with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C).

Importance: There is growing understanding that Social Determinants of Health (SDH) impact on the outcomes of different pediatric conditions. We aimed to determine whether SDH affect the severity of MIS-C.

Design: Retrospective cohort study, 2021-2023.

Machine Learning Prediction of Physicochemical Properties in Lithium-Ion Battery Electrolytes With Active Learning Applied to Graph Neural Networks.

Accurate prediction of physicochemical properties, such as electronic energy, enthalpy, free energy, and average vibrational frequencies, is critical for optimizing lithium-ion battery (LIB) performance. Traditional methods like density functional theory (DFT) are computationally expensive and inefficient for large-scale screening. In this study, we apply active learning on top of graph neural networks (GNNs) to efficiently predict these properties.

Research hotspots and frontiers of vagus nerve stimulation in stroke: a bibliometric analysis.

Background: Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has emerged as a promising therapeutic approach for stroke treatment, drawing significant attention due to its potential benefits. However, despite this growing interest, a systematic bibliometric analysis of the research landscape is yet to be conducted.

Methods: We performed a comprehensive search of the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database for literature published between January 1, 2005, and August 31, 2024.

A fusion analytic framework for investigating functional brain connectivity differences using resting-state fMRI.

Introduction: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data is highly complex and high-dimensional, capturing signals from regions of interest (ROIs) with intricate correlations. Analyzing such data is particularly challenging, especially in resting-state fMRI, where patterns are less identifiable without task-specific contexts. Nonetheless, interconnections among ROIs provide essential insights into brain activity and exhibit unique characteristics across groups.

Unveiling Neolithic Economic Behavior: A Novel Approach to Chert Procurement at Çukuriçi Höyük, Western Anatolia.

Unlabelled: The expansion of the Neolithic way of life triggered the most profound changes in peoples' socioeconomic behaviors, including how critical resources for everyday life were managed. Recent research spearheaded by ancient DNA analysis has greatly contributed to our understanding of the main direction of Neolithisation spreading from western Anatolia into central Europe. Due to the diverse processes involved in Neolithisation, which resulted in a high diversity of regional and local phenomena, the underlying mechanisms of these developments are still largely unexplored.