Autistic Adults Experience Higher PTSD Symptoms Relating to Motor Vehicle Accidents than Non-Autistic Adults.

Purpose: Autistic adults experience high rates of traumatic events and PTSD. However, little work has evaluated motor vehicle accident (MVA) related trauma symptoms. The goal of this brief report was to provide pilot data characterizing MVA-related peritraumatic reactions, trauma symptoms, and rates of PTSD diagnosis and mental health service use among Autistic compared to non-autistic adults.

An Exploratory Analysis of Child Characteristics Predicting Clinical Outcomes in Parent-Led Cognitive Behavioral Teletherapy for Anxiety in Autistic Children.

Parent-led cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an efficient, promising form of therapy that may be well suited for autistic youth with anxiety disorders. A recent clinical trial found that parent-led CBT - in which parents led their child through a guided CBT workbook with varying degrees of therapist support - was efficacious for reducing anxiety and associated functional impairment. While such findings demonstrate promise for future intervention development and dissemination efforts with this population, more work is needed to elucidate clinical factors that impact response to treatment as well as drop-out.

Outcomes Associated With Blastomycosis in Solid Organ and Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Recipients.

Introduction: With reports of expanding epidemiology of blastomycosis across the United States, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence and outcomes associated with blastomycosis in solid organ transplant (SOT) and hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) recipients.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective case series of adult SOT and HCT recipients at a tertiary care medical center between January 1, 2005 and September 30, 2023. Cases were defined as culture-proven blastomycosis.

Assessing the impact of clerkships on the growth of clinical knowledge.

Purpose: This study quantified the impact of clinical clerkships on medical students' disciplinary knowledge using the Comprehensive Clinical Science Examination (CCSE) as a formative assessment tool.

Methods: This study involved 155 third-year medical students in the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University who matriculated in 2016. Disciplinary scores on their individual Comprehensive Clinical Science Examination reports were extracted by digitizing the bar charts using image processing techniques.

The Utility of Interferon-γ Release Assays in the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis in Patients With Cancer.

Background: Patients with cancer are at elevated risk for tuberculosis (TB) reactivation. Diagnosis of latent TB infection and TB disease remains challenging in this patient population despite the advent of interferon-γ release assays (IGRA).

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medical records of all patients with cancer who had IGRA testing (QuantiFERON-TB [QFT-TB] or T-SPOT.

Long-term forced-use therapy after sensorimotor cortex lesions restores contralesional hand function and promotes its preference in Macaca mulatta.

Injury to one cerebral hemisphere can result in paresis of the contralesional hand and subsequent preference of the ipsilesional hand in daily activities. However, forced use therapy in humans can improve function of the contralesional paretic hand and increase its use in daily activities, although the ipsilesional hand may remain preferred for fine motor activities. Studies in monkeys have shown that minimal forced use of the contralesional hand, which was the preferred hand prior to brain injury, can produce remarkable recovery of function.

Dietary and lifestyle oxidative balance score was negatively associated with the risk of diabetic kidney disease: NHANES 2005-2020.

Aims: There is a potential association between oxidative stress and the development of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). The Oxidative Balance Score (OBS), derived from dietary and lifestyle factors, acts as a comprehensive marker of oxidative stress. Research examining the relationship between OBS and DKD is scarce.

Discriminative stimulus properties of α-ethyltryptamine (α-ET) in rats: α-ET-like effects of MDMA, MDA and aryl-monomethoxy substituted derivatives of α-ET.

Rationale α-ET (α-ethyltryptamine), a homolog of the classical hallucinogen α-methyltryptamine, was once prescribed clinically as an antidepressant. Classical psychedelic drugs are currently of interest as potential pharmacotherapy for psychiatric disorders. Objectives Drug discrimination was used to (a) determine if α-ET-like stimulus effects could be engendered by the prototypical phenylalkylamines MDMA ("Ecstasy") or MDA ("Love Drug") and (b) evaluate the α-ET-like stimulus effects of four synthesized aryl-substituted monomethoxy analogs of α-ET (4-OMe-, 5-OMe-, 6-OMe- and 7-OMe-α-ET).

Automated Nanoliter Volume Assay Optimization on a Cost-Effective Microfluidic Disc.

Optimizing multireagent assays often requires successive titration of individual components until the optimal combination of conditions is achieved. This process is time-consuming, laborious, and often expensive since parallelized experimentation requires bulk consumption of reagents. Microfluidics presents a solution through miniaturization of standard processes by reducing reaction volume, executing multiple parallel workflows, and enabling automation.

Improved Control of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Tumor and Metastasis with a pH-Sensitive Hyaluronic Acid Nanocarrier for Doxorubicin Delivery.

Polymer based nanoformulations offer substantial prospects for efficacious chemotherapy delivery. Here, we developed a pH-responsive polymeric nanoparticle based on acidosis-triggered breakdown of boronic ester linkers. A biocompatible hyaluronic acid (HA) matrix served as a substrate for carrying a doxorubicin (DOX) prodrug which also possesses natural affinity for CD44 cells.

Enhanced Electrochemical Detection of Valganciclovir Using a Hierarchically Structured Lisianthus Flower-Inspired Bimetallic Ni-Ce Organic Framework.

This study reports the development of an innovative electrochemical sensor based on organometallic framework nanostructures for detecting valganciclovir (VLCV). VLCV is employed in the treatment of cytomegalovirus retinitis in AIDS patients. Rational design of nanoarchitectures for electroactive materials is a crucial approach for boosting their electrocatalytic performance.

A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase 17 Disrupts Bovine Macrophage MER Proto-Oncogene Tyrosine Kinase Integrity to Impede Apoptotic Cell Clearance and Promote Inflammation in Clinical Mastitis.

In clinical mastitis of dairy cows, the abnormal accumulation of apoptotic cells (ACs) and subsequent secondary necrosis and inflammation pose significant concerns, with macrophage-mediated efferocytosis, crucial for ACs clearance, remaining unexplored in this context. In nonruminants, MER proto-oncogene tyrosine kinase (MERTK) receptors are essential for efferocytosis and A Disintegrin and Metalloproteinase 17 (ADAM17) is thought to play a role in regulating MERTK integrity. This study aimed to delineate the in situ role of efferocytosis in clinical mastitis, with a particular focus on the interaction between MERTK and ADAM17 in bovine macrophages.

Machine Learning Boosted Entropy-Engineered Synthesis of CuCo Nanometric Solid Solution Alloys for Near-100% Nitrate-to-Ammonia Selectivity.

Nanometric solid solution alloys are utilized in a broad range of fields, including catalysis, energy storage, medical application, and sensor technology. Unfortunately, the synthesis of these alloys becomes increasingly challenging as the disparity between the metal elements grows, due to differences in atomic sizes, melting points, and chemical affinities. This study utilized a data-driven approach incorporating sample balancing enhancement techniques and multilayer perceptron (MLP) algorithms to improve the model's ability to handle imbalanced data, significantly boosting the efficiency of experimental parameter optimization.

Discovery of a Chimeric Polyketide Family as Cancer Immunogenic Chemotherapeutic Leads.

Discovery of cancer immunogenic chemotherapeutics represents an emerging, highly promising direction for cancer treatment that uses a chemical drug to achieve the efficacy of both chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Herein, we report a high-throughput screening platform and the subsequent discovery of a new class of cancer immunogenic chemotherapeutic leads. Our platform integrates informatics-based activity metabolomics for the rapid identification of microbial natural products with both novel structures and potent activities.

Psychosocial correlates of alcohol and substance use in college youth with type 1 diabetes.

Objective: Adolescents and young adults with chronic diseases face unique challenges during the college years and may consume alcohol and other substances to cope with stressors. This study aimed to assess the patterns of substance use and to determine psychosocial correlates of these behaviors among college youth with type 1 diabetes (T1D).

Methods: College youth with T1D were recruited via social media and direct outreach into a web-based study.

A novel generative multi-task representation learning approach for predicting postoperative complications in cardiac surgery patients.

Objective: Early detection of surgical complications allows for timely therapy and proactive risk mitigation. Machine learning (ML) can be leveraged to identify and predict patient risks for postoperative complications. We developed and validated the effectiveness of predicting postoperative complications using a novel surgical Variational Autoencoder (surgVAE) that uncovers intrinsic patterns via cross-task and cross-cohort presentation learning.

De-biasing the bias: methods for improving disparity assessments with noisy group measurements.

Health care decisions are increasingly informed by clinical decision support algorithms, but these algorithms may perpetuate or increase racial and ethnic disparities in access to and quality of health care. Further complicating the problem, clinical data often have missing or poor quality racial and ethnic information, which can lead to misleading assessments of algorithmic bias. We present novel statistical methods that allow for the use of probabilities of racial/ethnic group membership in assessments of algorithm performance and quantify the statistical bias that results from error in these imputed group probabilities.

Model-Informed Once-Daily Dosing Strategy for Bedaquiline and Delamanid in Children, Adolescents and Adults with Tuberculosis.

The complexity of the currently registered dosing schedules for bedaquiline and delamanid is a barrier to uptake in drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment across all ages. A simpler once-daily dosing schedule is critical to ensure patient-friendly regimens with good adherence. We assessed expected drug exposures with proposed once-daily doses for adults and compared novel model-informed once-daily dosing strategies for children with current World Health Organization (WHO) recommended dosing.

Evaluation of bone loss in implants adjacent to a tooth or edentulous area in peri-implantitis and control murine models.

Unlabelled: Peri-implantitis (PI) is an inflammatory disease that affects supportive tissues around dental implants, and its progression eventually leads to bone loss and implant failure. However, PI effects may be different based on the presence or absence of adjacent teeth.

Objective: To investigate the differences in bone loss and inflammation between implants placed adjacent to a tooth or edentulous area in a ligature-induced PI model.

Medicare Advantage and rural hospital profitability.

Purpose: This study compares 2018-2023 Medicare Advantage (MA) days as a percentage of total Medicare days in rural and urban hospitals, describes 2022-2023 operating profitability of rural and urban hospitals by quartiles of MA days as a percentage of total Medicare days, and explores hospital characteristics that may be important for understanding the relationship between MA and profitability of rural hospitals.

Methods: Financial and hospital data were obtained from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Healthcare Cost Report Information System (HCRIS) for the years 2018 to 2023. Hospitals were assigned to quartiles based on MA days as a percentage of total Medicare days.

A descriptive examination of rurality in the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes Cohort: Implications, illustrations, and future directions.

Purpose: The Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Cohort has enrolled over 60,000 children to examine how early environmental factors (broadly defined) are associated with key child health outcomes. The ECHO Cohort may be well-positioned to contribute to our understanding of rural environments and contexts, which has implications for rural health disparities research. The present study examined the outcome of child obesity to not only illustrate the suitability of ECHO Cohort data for these purposes but also determine how various definitions of rural and urban populations impact the presentation of findings and their interpretation.

Rural-urban divide in risk perception of LSD: Implications for psychedelic-assisted therapy.

Background: Recent legislative initiatives in the United States have focused on the medical and legal status of psychedelics, prompting interest in understanding public perceptions of their risks. This study investigates rural-urban differences in the perception of LSD and cannabis risks using national survey data.

Methods: Data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) between 2015 and 2021 were analyzed.

From spastic paraplegia to infantile neurodegenerative disorder: Expanding the phenotypic spectrum associated with biallelic SPAST variants.

Purpose: Heterozygous pathogenic variants in SPAST are known to cause Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia 4 (SPG4), the most common form of HSP, characterized by progressive bilateral lower limbs spasticity with frequent sphincter disorders. However, there are very few descriptions in the literature of patients carrying biallelic variants in SPAST.

Methods: Targeted Sanger sequencing, panel sequencing and exome sequencing were used to identify the genetic causes in 9 patients from 6 unrelated families with symptoms of HSP or infantile neurodegenerative disorder.