An Exploratory Analysis of Early Care Differences and Risk of Post-Maxillary Advancement VPI in Individuals With Cleft Palate.

Objective: To investigate whether differences in early cleft care increase risk of velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) after maxillary advancement.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Large pediatric tertiary care hospital.

Nurse Perspectives on Labor Union Participation Prior to Implementation of a Collective Bargaining Agreement: A Qualitative Study.

Patient advocacy is a duty for professional nurses; however, not all nurses are empowered to advocate for meeting patients' needs. Participation in labor unions may serve as a venue for nurses with limited institutional decision-making authority to advocate for patient needs; however, unionization can be a time-intensive and fraught process. This study examined how nurses participating in a new union in an urban United States hospital described their reasons for participating in a labor union during collective bargaining.

Family Connections: The Impact of an Education Program for Carers of Individuals With Borderline Personality Disorder in Italian Mental Health Services.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) has a strong impact not only on patients' lives but also on their families. The presence of an invalidating environment is one of the key factors in the etiology of BPD. This study evaluated the impact of the Family connections (FC) program on burden, grief, and other clinical variables in 202 caregivers and identified the profiles of participants who improved/deteriorated their levels of burden and grief.

TP53 Mutations in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms: Context-Dependent Evaluation of Prognostic Relevance.

The clinical relevance of TP53 mutations (TP53) in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) and their prognostic interaction with MPN subtype designation has not been systematically studied. In the current study, 114 patients with MPN harboring TP53 (VAF ≥ 2%) were evaluated for overall survival (OS), calculated from the time of TP53 detection: chronic phase myelofibrosis (MF-CP; N = 61); blast-phase (MPN-BP; N = 31) or accelerated-phase (MPN-AP; N = 16) MPN, and polycythemia vera/essential thrombocythemia (PV/ET; N = 6). Sixty-five (57%) patients harbored International Consensus Classification (ICC)-defined multihit TP53 and 56 (49%) monosomal/complex karyotype (MK/CK).

Association of Hospital Consolidation with Cancer Outcomes.

Hospital mergers have increased significantly since 2010, driven by factors such as healthcare policy changes, reimbursement, economies of scale, and quality improvement goals. However, limited evidence exists about how these mergers affect the quality of care and cancer outcomes. We conducted a difference-in-differences analysis to assess the impact of hospital consolidation on cancer outcomes.

The talk and walk in Black families: Exploring racial socialization content and competency in the context of parental worries about racial profiling and adolescents' internalizing outcomes.

Although many parents worry that their child will be the target of racial profiling, there is a dearth of literature on how parental worries about children facing racism are linked to racial socialization (RS) practices and youth internalizing symptoms. Additionally, it is unclear how RS content relative to competency may uniquely influence whether and how parental worries influence youth internalizing outcomes. Using data from 203 Black parents (M = 44.

A Natural Autophagy Activator Castanea crenata Flower Alleviates Skeletal Muscle Ageing.

Background: Sarcopenia, characterized by a gradual decline in skeletal muscle mass and function with age, significantly impacts both quality of life and mortality. Autophagy plays a crucial role in maintaining muscle health. There is growing interest in leveraging autophagy to mitigate muscle ageing effects.

Review of Associations of Diabetes and Insulin Resistance With Brain Health in Three Harmonised Cohort Studies of Ageing and Dementia.

Diabetes increases the risk of dementia, and insulin resistance (IR) has emerged as a potential unifying feature. Here, we review published findings over the past 2 decades on the relation of diabetes and IR to brain health, including those related to cognition and neuropathology, in the Religious Orders Study, the Rush Memory and Aging Project, and the Minority Aging Research Study (ROS/MAP/MARS), three harmonised cohort studies of ageing and dementia at the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center (RADC). A wide range of participant data, including information on medical conditions such as diabetes and neuropsychological tests, as well as other clinical and laboratory-based data collected annually.

How to educate patients and caregivers on end-of-life nutrition care and support.

Background: There are numerous articles, book chapters, and published guidelines on the topic of clinical ethics in the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration, which often incorporates end-of-life (EOL) nutrition care and support. Components of clinical ethics involve the importance of ethical principles, patient-centered care, and shared decision-making. However, there is sparse information on how to educate patients and caregivers on this subject.

PrP Glycoprotein Is Indispensable for Maintenance of Skeletal Muscle Homeostasis During Aging.

Background: The cellular prion protein (PrP), a glycoprotein encoded by the PRNP gene, is known to modulate muscle mass and exercise capacity. However, the role of PrP in the maintenance and regeneration of skeletal muscle during ageing remains unclear.

Methods: This study investigated the change in PrP expression during muscle formation using C2C12 cells and evaluated muscle function in Prnp wild-type (WT) and knock-out (KO) mice at different ages (1, 9 and 15 months).

Using Community Composition and Successional Theory to Guide Site-Specific Coral Reef Management.

High spatial or temporal variability in community composition makes it challenging for natural resource managers to predict ecosystem trajectories at scales relevant to management. This is commonly the case in nearshore marine environments, where the frequency and intensity of disturbance events vary at the sub-kilometer to meter scale, creating a patchwork of successional stages within a single ecosystem. The successional stage of a community impacts its stability, recovery potential, and trajectory over time in predictable ways.

Generalized Stomatal Optimization of Evolutionary Fitness Proxies for Predicting Plant Gas Exchange Under Drought, Heatwaves, and Elevated CO.

Stomata control plant water loss and photosynthetic carbon gain. Developing more generalized and accurate stomatal models is essential for earth system models and predicting responses under novel environmental conditions associated with global change. Plant optimality theories offer one promising approach, but most such theories assume that stomatal conductance maximizes photosynthetic net carbon assimilation subject to some cost or constraint of water.

COVID-19 vaccination patterns among oral cancer patients: A comprehensive analysis in a medical center in Taiwan.

Background/purpose: COVID-19 vaccines are supplied at no-cost to residents as a measure to prevent comorbidities, fatalities, and the increased risk of community transmission, thus protecting public health systems. However, vaccine acceptance among cancer patients remained uncertain. This study aimed to elucidate the vaccination rates among oral cancer patients at a medical center in Taiwan.

investigation of human salivary microbial growth with lysogeny broth for translational research-A pilot study.

Background/purpose: Salivary microbiome has become a surrogate indicator of oral disease due to its collective reservoirs and convenience in sampling. However, failed clinical trials often lead to wastes of resources, indicating a need for preclinical models. In this pilot study, we aimed to compare the salivary microbiome by metagenomics analysis before and after lysogeny broth culture for prospective translational studies.

Advancing osseointegration research: A dynamic three-dimensional (3D) culture model for dental implants.

Background/purpose: studies are essential for understanding cellular responses, but traditional culture systems often neglect the three-dimensional (3D) structure of real implants, leading to limitations in cellular recruitment and behavior largely governed by gravity. The objective of this study was to pioneer a novel 3D dynamic osteoblastic culture system for assessing the biological capabilities of dental implants in a more clinically and physiologically relevant manner.

Materials And Methods: Rat bone marrow-derived osteoblasts were cultured in a 24-well dish with a vertically positioned dental implant.

Novel early vertical ridge augmentation technique.

Background/purpose: Multiple augmentation protocols are documented in the literature to rebuild the deficient alveolar ridge after tooth extraction; however, achieving adequate vertical augmentation remains the most challenging goal. This study demonstrated a novel surgical technique of early vertical ridge augmentation for post-dental extraction. This technique offers several biological and technical advantages regarding the timing of the procedure and its relative simplicity compared to other complex techniques.

Specialty education and scope of oral and maxillofacial surgery in the United States.

In the United States, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) is a specialty of dentistry that focuses on the management of injuries, diseases, and defects of the head, neck, face, and jaws. The present manuscript is an article on education and training of OMS residents in the United States. It a lso briefly describes the scope of practice of the specialty.

Automatic classification of temporomandibular joint disorders by magnetic resonance imaging and convolutional neural networks.

Background/purpose: In this study, we utilized magnetic resonance imaging data of the temporomandibular joint, collected from the Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. Our research focuses on the classification and severity analysis of temporomandibular joint disease using convolutional neural networks.

Materials And Methods: In gray-scale image series, the most critical features often lie within the articular disc cartilage, situated at the junction of the temporal bone and the condyles.

Review of Challenges in Performing Real-World Evidence Studies for Nonprescription Products.

In recent years, regulatory authorities have signaled a willingness to consider real-world evidence (RWE) data to support applications for new claims and indications for pharmaceuticals. Historically, RWE studies have been the domain of prescription drugs, driven by the fact that clinical data on patients are routinely captured in medical records, claims databases, registries, etc. However, RWE reports of nonprescription drugs and supplements are relatively sparse due to methodological gaps in this area.

Nanomanufacturing Concerns about Measurements Made in the SEM Part V: Dealing with Noise.

Scanning electron microscopes (SEM) are used extensively in research and advanced manufacturing for materials characterization, metrology and process control. Unfortunately, noise can limit the specimen-specific detail and the information that can be acquired in any SEM micrograph, or measurement made from those data. The majority of SEM measurements are done at low primary electron beam currents and fast imaging mode resulting in rather noisy signals - often too noisy.

A Graph-based Framework for ABAC Policy Enforcement and Analysis.

In the realm of access control mechanisms, Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) stands out for its dynamic and fine-grained approach, enabling permissions to be allocated based on attributes of subjects, objects, and the environment. This paper introduces a graph model for ABAC, named . The leverages directional flow capacities to enforce access control policies, mapping the potential pathways between a subject and an object to ascertain access rights.

Establishing freshwater sediment sample pretreatment methods for monitoring microplastics and its challenges.

Microplastics (MPs) have been detected in various environmental matrices, drinking water, and food, and their presence is an ecological and human health concern. Most research on MPs has focused solely on their detection and analysis. However, sample pretreatment methods are critical for accurate MP analysis and must be properly established.

Ex vivo evaluation of blood coagulation on endothelial glycocalyx-inspired surfaces using thromboelastography.

Purpose: Present blood-contacting materials have not yet demonstrated to be effective in reducing blood coagulation without causing additional side effects clinically. We have developed an endothelial glycocalyx-inspired biomimetic surface that combines nanotopography, heparin presentation, and nitric oxide (NO)-releasing features. The resulting modified surfaces have already shown promise in reducing unfavorable blood-material interactions using platelet-rich plasma.

A vascularized bone-on-a-chip model development via exploring mechanical stimulation for evaluation of fracture healing therapeutics.

Unlabelled: Bone is the major connective tissue maintaining the structural integrity of the human body. However, fracture and many skeletal degenerative diseases can compromise this function. Thus, therapeutics related to bone degeneration are of significant research interest and require good in vitro models for such therapeutic evaluation.