Decoding brain structure to stage Alzheimer's disease pathology in Down syndrome.

Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) in Down syndrome (DS) is associated with changes in brain structure. It is unknown if thickness and volumetric changes can identify AD stages and if they are similar to other genetic forms of AD.

Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging scans were collected for 178 DS adults (106 nonclinical, 45 preclinical, and 27 symptomatic).

Shape-Dependent Structural Order of Red Blood Cells.

In this work, we show how shape matters for the ordering of red blood cells (RBCs) at a water-air interface for both artificially rigidified and sphered cells as a model system for hereditary spherocytosis. We report enhanced long-range order for spherical RBCs over disk-shaped RBCs arising from the increased local ordering of spheres relative to disks. We show that rigidity has a greater effect on the radial distribution of spherical vs disk-shaped RBCs by slightly increasing the average distance between cells.

Exposure Contrasts of Women Aged 40-79 Years during the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network Randomized Controlled Trial.

Exposure to household air pollution has been linked to adverse health outcomes among women aged 40-79. Little is known about how shifting from biomass cooking to a cleaner fuel like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) could impact exposures for this population. We report 24-h exposures to particulate matter (PM), black carbon (BC), and carbon monoxide (CO) among women aged 40 to <80 years participating in the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network trial.

The Environmental and Public Health Benefits of Offshore Wind Power Deployment in China.

With the rapid decline in the levelized cost, offshore wind power offers a new option for the clean energy transition of the power sector in China's coastal areas. Here, we develop a power system capacity expansion and operation optimization model to simulate the penetration of offshore wind power in China and quantify the associated health effects. We find that offshore wind power has great potential in mitigating the negative impacts of existing coal-fired power emissions.

Environmental Exposures Associated with Enteropathogen Infection in Six-Month-Old Children Enrolled in the ECoMiD Cohort along a Rural-Urban Gradient in Northern Ecuador†.

Enteropathogens are major contributors to mortality and morbidity, particularly in settings with limited access to water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure. To assess transmission pathways associated with enteropathogen infection, we measured household environmental conditions and assayed 22 enteropathogens using TaqMan Array Cards in stool samples from 276 six-month-old children living in communities along a rural-urban gradient in Northern Ecuador. We utilized multivariable models, risk factor importance, and distance-based statistical methods to test factors associated with infection.

Advance care planning readiness, barriers, and facilitators among seriously ill Black older adults and their surrogates: A mixed methods study.

Objectives: Advance care planning (ACP) supports communication and medical decision-making and is best conceptualized as part of the care planning continuum. Black older adults have lower ACP engagement and poorer quality of care in serious illness. Surrogates are essential to effective ACP but are rarely integrated in care planning.

Discovery of Peptidic Siderophore Degradation by Screening Natural Product Profiles in Marine-Derived Bacterial Mono- and Cocultures.

Coral reefs are hotspots of marine biodiversity, which results in the synthesis of a wide variety of compounds with unique molecular scaffolds, and bioactivities, rendering reefs an ecosystem of interest. The chemodiversity stems from the intricate relationships between inhabitants of the reef, as the chemistry produced partakes in intra- and interspecies communication, settlement, nutrient acquisition, and defense. However, the coral reefs are declining at an unprecedented rate due to climate change, pollution, and increased incidence of pathogenic diseases.

Ni-Catalyzed Enantioselective Desymmetrization: Development of Divergent Acyl and Decarbonylative Cross-Coupling Reactions.

Ni-catalyzed asymmetric reductive cross-coupling reactions provide rapid and modular access to enantioenriched building blocks from simple electrophile precursors. Reductive coupling reactions that can diverge through a common organometallic intermediate to two distinct families of enantioenriched products are particularly versatile but underdeveloped. Here, we describe the development of a bis(oxazoline) ligand that enables the desymmetrization of -anhydrides.

SAHD-10: Development and initial validation of a short version of the Schedule of Attitudes Toward Hastened Death based on a large multinational sample.

Objectives: Wishes to hasten death (WTHDs) are common in patients with serious illness. The Schedule of Attitudes Toward Hastened Death (SAHD) is a validated 20-item instrument for measuring WTHD. Two short versions have also been developed based on statistical item selection.

Plasmon Dynamics in Nanoclusters: Dephasing Revealed by Excited States Evaluation.

The photocatalytic efficiency of materials such as graphene and noble metal nanoclusters depends on their plasmon lifetimes. Plasmon dephasing and decay in these materials is thought to occur on ultrafast time scales, ranging from a few femtoseconds to hundreds of femtoseconds and longer. Here we focus on understanding the dephasing and decay pathways of excited states in small lithium and silver clusters and in plasmonic states of the π-conjugated molecule anthracene, providing insights that are crucial for interpreting optical properties and photophysics.

All-Electron BSE@GW Method with Numeric Atom-Centered Orbitals for Extended Periodic Systems.

Green's function theory has emerged as a powerful many-body approach not only in condensed matter physics but also in quantum chemistry in recent years. We have developed a new all-electron implementation of the BSE@GW formalism using numeric atom-centered orbital basis sets (Liu, C. 2020, 152, 044105).

The potential impact of climate change on medication access and quality deserves far more attention.

Notwithstanding the obvious interconnection between humans and the world that they share with non-human inhabitants, the impact of our changing climate on certain aspects of the public health ecosystem has been under-investigated. We briefly describe some of the possible climate-induced changes in the procurement, distribution, access and use of medications, including those for animals generally and livestock specifically. A fuller understanding of the effect of climate change on medicine supply, access, use and quality, including how these affect antimicrobial resistance, would contribute to the further development of the "One Health" and "One Health Systems" concepts.

Multidimensional perspectives of geo-epidemiology: from interdisciplinary learning and research to cost-benefit oriented decision-making.

Research typically promotes two types of outcomes (inventions and discoveries), which induce a virtuous cycle: something suspected or desired (not previously demonstrated) may become known or feasible once a new tool or procedure is invented and, later, the use of this invention may discover new knowledge. Research also promotes the opposite sequence-from new knowledge to new inventions. This bidirectional process is observed in geo-referenced epidemiology-a field that relates to but may also differ from spatial epidemiology.

Disentangling emotional source memory: a mega-analysis on the effects of emotion on item-context binding in episodic long-term memory.

Introduction: It has long been known that highly arousing emotional single items are better recollected than low arousing neutral items. Despite the robustness of this memory advantage, emotional arousing events may not always promote the retrieval of source details (i.e.

Clinical validity of IntelliSpace Cognition digital assessment platform in mild cognitive impairment.

We evaluated a digital cognitive assessment platform, Philips IntelliSpace Cognition, in a case-control study of patients diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and cognitively normal (CN) older adults. Performance on individual neuropsychological tests, cognitive -scores, and Alzheimer's disease (AD)-specific composite scores was compared between the CN and MCI groups. These groups were matched for age, sex, and education.

Comparison of Lower Limb Mass, Thigh Circumference, and Balance Ability after Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction and in Control Participants.

Injury of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the knee is common, with up to 250,000 cases annually in the United States. Such injuries can lead to muscle atrophy, impaired balance, and limited movement. This study aimed to compare the lower limbs of individuals with ACL reconstruction to a Control group.

Physiological and Psychological Differences Between 20% Grade Incline Walking and Level-Grade Jogging at Isocaloric Intensity.

High-incline walking is a relatively new trend with little comparative information. This study compared physiological and psychological differences between high-incline walking at 20% grade (HIW) and level-grade jogging (LGJ) at isocaloric intensities in young adults. Twenty-two participants (M = 11, F = 11) aged 19-31 years completed the study.

International trends in the implementation of assessment for learning : Implications for policy and practice in a post-COVID world.

This paper discusses the evolution of assessment for learning (AfL) across the globe with particular attention given to Western educational jurisdictions. Scholars from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, and the United States discuss prominent assessment reforms within their respective countries over the last decade. Particular attention is given to the impact of the pandemic as well as technological developments for classroom assessment policies and practices.

Outcomes following resective and disconnective strategies in the treatment of epileptic spasms: a systematic review of the literature and individual patient data meta-analysis.

Epileptic spasms (ES) are a unique seizure type typically presenting in the form of infantile epileptic spasms syndrome (IESS) with characteristic hypsarrhythmia on scalp EEG and a preponderance with developmental delay or regression. While pharmacotherapy is the mainstay of treatment, surgical options, including disconnective or resective procedures, are increasingly recognized as viable therapeutic options for recurrent or persistent ES. However, limited data on safety, effectiveness, and prognostic factors hinder informed decision-making regarding surgery indications, timing, and intervention type.

Caste, wealth and geographic equity in program reach and expected outcomes: an exploratory analyses of in Nepal.

Introduction: Monitoring and evaluation of maternal and child nutrition programs typically concentrates on overall population-level results. There is limited understanding, however, of how intervention reach and expected outcomes differ among sub-populations, necessary insight for addressing inequalities. These analyses aim to determine if maternal exposure to social and behavior change (SBC) interventions is associated with scales of maternal practices (antenatal care, iron and folic acid in pregnancy, diet in pregnancy, postnatal care, iron and folic acid postpartum, and maternal dietary diversity) and child practices (institutional birth, health mothers' group participation, growth monitoring and promotion, early initiation of breastfeeding and infant and young child feeding) in Nepal, overall and by wealth, caste, and geography.

Joint association of physical activity and the geriatric nutritional risk index with survival outcomes among cancer survivors in the United States: a population-based cohort study.

Introduction: The relationship between physical activity (PA) and nutritional status on the prognosis of cancer survivors remains underexplored. We aimed to investigate the combined effects of PA and Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) on prognostic assessment of survival outcomes in US cancer survivors.

Methods: 2,619 subjects were screened from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database from 1999 to 2018.

The Risk for Violence Screening Tool: a psychometric validation and reliability study.

Background: There is a lack of high-quality evidence to support the recommendation of an instrument to screen emergency department patients for their risk for violence.

Objective: To demonstrate the content and predictive validity and reliability of the novel Risk for Violence Screening Tool to identify patients at risk for violence.

Design And Setting: This retrospective risk screening study was conducted at a 100-bed emergency department in an urban, academic, safety net trauma center in Southern California.

Michigan tobacco cessation champions: A rapid qualitative analysis.

Background: Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. We interviewed Tobacco Cessation Champions, multi-sector decision makers, across the state of Michigan to assess and identify barriers and facilitators of smoking cessation and the current smoking cessation landscape.

Methods: Twenty Tobacco Cessation Champion interviews ( = 20) were completed with multi-sector decision makers to assess implementation barriers and facilitators from May 2022 to September 2023.

Enhancing Disaster Preparedness Through Tabletop Disaster Exercises: A Scoping Review of Benefits for Health Workers and Students.

Background: Tabletop Disaster Exercise (TDE) is a unique learning method through simulation designed to improve disaster preparedness. It is used every year to train health workers and students in disaster preparedness. However, no review has summarized the potential of TDE.

Supplementary motor area in speech initiation: A large-scale intracranial EEG evaluation of stereotyped word articulation.

Speech production engages a distributed network of cortical and subcortical brain regions. The supplementary motor area (SMA) has long been thought to be a key hub in coordinating across these regions to initiate voluntary movements, including speech. We analyzed direct intracranial recordings from 115 patients with epilepsy as they articulated a single word in a subset of trials from a picture-naming task.