Investigating the potential of diffusion tensor atlases to generate anisotropic clinical tumor volumes in glioblastoma patients.

Background And Purpose: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been proposed to guide the anisotropic expansion from gross tumor volume to clinical target volume (CTV), aiming to integrate known tumor spread patterns into the CTV. This study investigate the potential of using a DTI atlas as an alternative to patient-specific DTI for generating anisotropic CTVs.

Materials And Methods: The dataset consisted of twenty-eight newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients from a Danish national DTI protocol with post-operative T1-contrast and DTI imaging.

Evaluating Federal Policies Using Bayesian Time Series Models: Estimating the Causal Impact of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program.

Researchers are often faced with evaluating the effect of a policy or program that was simultaneously initiated across an entire population of units at a single point in time, and its effects over the targeted population can manifest at any time period afterwards. In the presence of data measured over time, Bayesian time series models have been used to impute what would have happened after the policy was initiated, had the policy not taken place, in order to estimate causal effects. However, the considerations regarding the definition of the target estimands, the underlying assumptions, the plausibility of such assumptions, and the choice of an appropriate model have not been thoroughly investigated.

FOXR2 in cancer development: emerging player and therapeutic opportunities.

Cancer, a leading cause of global mortality, remains a significant challenge to increasing life expectancy worldwide. Forkhead Box R2 (FOXR2), identified as an oncogene within the FOX gene family, plays a crucial role in developing various endoderm-derived organs. Recent studies have elucidated FOXR2-related pathways and their involvement in both tumor and non-tumor diseases.

Deployment and combat experiences and their impact on partner substance use.

Despite burgeoning evidence of the negative effects of service experiences on service members' spouses/partners, limited research has examined these effects in the context of substance use. Additionally, a strong literature demonstrates the protective role relationship satisfaction can play for health-related outcomes. The goal of the present research is to examine relations between service experiences (i.

"Having providers who are trained and have empathy is life-saving": Improving primary care communication through thematic analysis with ChatGPT and human expertise.

In the rapidly evolving field of healthcare research, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and conversational models like ChatGPT (Conversational Generative Pre-trained Transformer) offer promising tools for data analysis. The aim of this study was to: 1) apply ChatGPT methodology alongside human coding to analyze qualitative health services feedback, and 2) examine healthcare experiences among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) patients ( = 41) to inform future intervention. The hybrid approach facilitated the identification of themes related to affirming care practices, provider education, communicative challenges and successes, and environmental cues.

Your Brain's "Save" Button: The Amygdala.

Do you ever wonder why you remember some experiences better than others? Why you remember that funny joke your friend told at lunch a few months ago or the scary snake you saw in your backyard, but not that time you went to the post office with your parents? Just like a computer has a save button, our brains do, too! When something scary, exciting, or strange happens, a small part of the brain, the amygdala, helps us click save on that event so we can remember it later. Decades of research have helped scientists understand what parts of the brain are important for memory and how the amygdala works with other brain regions to tag experiences as worth remembering. This research is important for understanding how memories are formed and can help us create new therapies for people with memory problems, who have trouble forming new memories and remembering past experiences.

A single entomopathogenic nematode infection assay for larvae.

The entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) Steinernema carpocapsae and Steinernema hermaphroditum can efficiently infect the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. The EPN infective juvenile (IJ) stage is the free-living and non-feeding stage that seeks out suitable insects to infect. While previous studies have described successful infection of melanogaster larvae with a standard amount of 100 IJs, the pathogenicity of a single IJ nematode towards insects remains poorly understood.

Use of optimal fluoroscopic angulation to facilitate effective pulsed field ablation in a patient with atrial fibrillation.

The circular-shaped PulseSelect™ PFA catheter has demonstrated comparable efficacy to traditional thermal catheter ablation in achieving pulmonary vein isolation (PVI), while preventing thermally mediated complications. However, this catheter does not have any objective parameters to confirm real-time tissue-catheter contact. We report a case in which PVI was achieved through PFA using optimal biplane fluoroscopic angulations which were more useful for accurately assessing and adjusting the position and rotation of the circular catheter electrodes than the conventional fluoroscopic angulations.

CompLex: Legal systems through the lens of complexity science.

While "complexity science" has achieved significant successes in several interdisciplinary fields such as economics and biology, it is only a very recent observation that legal systems -from the way legal texts are drafted and connected to the rest of the corpus, up to the level of how judges and courts reach decisions under a variety of conflicting inputs- share several features with standard Complex Adaptive Systems. This review is meant as a gentle introduction to the use of quantitative tools and techniques of complexity science to describe, analyse, and tame the complex web of human interactions that the Law is supposed to regulate. We offer an overview of the main directions of research undertaken so far as well as an outlook for future research, and we argue that statistical physicists and complexity scientists should not ignore the opportunities offered by the cross-fertilisation between legal scholarship and complex-systems modelling.

Educational interventions to improve emotional intelligence of health professions students.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is an asset in health professionals supporting resilience, job satisfaction, interprofessional collaboration, and improved health outcomes for patients. Emerging research in health professions education shows that self-reflection and peer feedback, simulation, and experiential learning may contribute to the development of EI. The evidence indicates that training should be incorporated longitudinally throughout the educational process with increasing complexity and challenge.

A 5-year single-center review of seropositivity in kidney transplant candidates in Central Texas.

Introduction: is a soil-transmitted helminth that can lead to life-threatening hyperinfection in transplant recipients. Targeted screening based on social history alone may preclude a large proportion of seropositive patients. Our institution implemented universal screening for kidney transplant candidates.

Fabrication of a micropatterned shape-memory polymer patch with L-DOPA for tendon regeneration.

A scaffold design for tendon regeneration has been proposed, which mimics the microstructural features of tendons and provides appropriate mechanical properties. We synthesized a temperature-triggered shape-memory polymer (SMP) using the ring-opening polymerization of polycaprolactone (PCL) with polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a macroinitiator. We fabricated a micropatterned patch using SMP capillary force lithography, which mimicked a native tendon, for providing physical cues and guiding effects.

Adaptive changes in balance control strategies under continuous exposure to visual-somatosensory conflicts.

Human postural control system has the capacity to adapt to balance-challenging perturbations. However, the characteristics and mechanisms of postural adaptation to continuous perturbation under the sensory conflicting environments remain unclear. We aimed to investigate the functional role of oscillatory coupling drive to lower-limb muscles with changes in balance control during postural adaptation under multisensory congruent and incongruent environments.

A Sequential Mixed-Methods Study of Factors Associated with Low High-Resolution Anoscopy Completion in Transgender Women with Abnormal Anal Cytology.

In a cohort of transgender women (TGW) with abnormal anal cytology (AAC) in Washington, DC, we determined the rates of and factors associated with completion of high-resolution anoscopy (HRA). This mixed-methods study used a sequential study design. In an academic-community clinic, we recruited TGW who provided blood samples, anal swabs for anal cytology, and completed surveys.

Sorting Out the SOCS Genes and Their Role in Macrophage Activation.

The suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) genes were first described in a group of articles published in 1997. Since that time, much has been learned about the functional activities mediated by the corresponding proteins encoded by the SOCS genes. The SOCS gene family contains eight members: through and a highly related gene known as (cytokine-inducible SH2-containing protein).

Comparing Outcomes and Infection Risk in Medical, Surgical, and Trauma Intensive Care Patients with Alcohol Use Disorder.

Alcohol is the most frequently abused drug in the United States, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a common comorbidity in intensive care units (ICUs). We performed a retrospective chart review of patients admitted to an ICU between January 2017 and March 2019 at a tertiary hospital serving a large rural population. Patients with diagnoses of AUDs were included.

Using Appreciative Inquiry in Correctional Health Care: An Integrative Review.

This integrative review examines the use of appreciative inquiry in correctional health care settings, following the guidelines of Whittemore and Knafl. Using the Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Research Evidence Appraisal Tool, it assessed the level and quality of the evidence. Search terms included , , and .

Office-Based Endoscopic Urological Procedures Under Local Anesthesia: Prospective Evaluation of Feasibility, Pain, and Patient Preference.

Several diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic urological procedures, such as stent placement, ureteroscopy, and bladder stone lithotripsy, can be performed in a hospital, an ambulatory surgery center, in the office with IV sedation, or in the office using only topical anesthesia. The potential benefits of performing procedures in the office setting using topical anesthesia include efficiency and cost reduction. The potential harms are failure to achieve the desired outcome and patient pain.

Pro-inflammatory dietary pattern and the risk of female gout: sex-specific findings from three prospective cohort studies.

Objective: We aimed to determine whether a pro-inflammatory dietary pattern (mechanism-based diet) is associated with incident female gout among two large cohorts of US women.

Methods: We prospectively followed 79,104 women from Nurses' Health Study (NHS; 1984-2016) and 93,454 women from NHSII (1991-2017); 45,445 men from Health Professionals Follow-up Study (1986-2016) served as a comparison cohort. Validated food frequency questionnaires were used to calculate Empirical Dietary Inflammatory Pattern (EDIP; food-based index predictive of circulating inflammatory biomarkers) scores every 4-years.

Is 'me-time' selfish?: Daily vitality crossover in dual-earner couples.

This multisource daily diary study examined the recovery outcomes of working mothers' time spent for the self (i.e. me-time) and whether the benefits crossover to their husbands.

Resident Experiences at a Community Hospital Caring for Patients Who Are Incarcerated.

There is no standardized curriculum that teaches medical residents to navigate the ethical and logistical complexities of bedside care delivery to patients who are incarcerated. In this article, we describe resident physician bedside experiences at a community teaching hospital caring for patients who are incarcerated. From 2022 to 2023, residents in emergency medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology were offered an anonymous survey, self-administered via REDCap software, to explore their experiences caring for this patient population.