Cultural Authority and (Non)Compliance with Public Health Directives: The Effect of Legitimacy and Values on Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the success of public health authorities' strategies to curb the spread of the virus hinged on individuals' voluntary compliance with their directives. This study considers how two components of the cultural authority of public health influenced compliance with health guidelines during the pandemic: (1) individuals' views of public health officials as legitimate and (2) the shared value of health. I also examine the influence of other basic values, alongside health, on pandemic behavior.

Insights into Chemical and Structural Order at Planar Defects in PbMgWO Using Multislice Electron Ptychography.

Switchable order parameters in ferroic materials are essential for functional electronic devices, yet disruptions of the ordering can take the form of planar boundaries or defects that exhibit distinct properties from the bulk, such as electrical (polar) or magnetic (spin) response. Characterizing the structure of these boundaries is challenging due to their confined size and three-dimensional (3D) nature. Here, a chemical antiphase boundary in the highly ordered double perovskite PbMgWO is investigated using multislice electron ptychography.

Increasing cellular NAD protects hepatocytes against palmitate-induced lipotoxicity by preventing PARP-1 inhibition and the mTORC1-p300 pathway activation.

Hepatic lipotoxicity, resulting from excessive lipid accumulation in hepatocytes, plays a central role in the pathogenesis of various metabolic liver diseases. Despite recent progress, the precise mechanisms remain incompletely understood. Employing excessive exposure to palmitate in hepatocytes as our primary experimental model and mice studies, we aimed to uncover the mechanisms behind hepatic lipotoxicity, thereby developing potential treatments.

Step Edge Defects Have Nanoscale Impact on the Electronic Structure in Semiconducting Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Electrocatalysts.

This work uses MoTe single crystals to address the challenge in heterogeneous catalysis of identifying active sites and determining the electronic factors responsible for catalytic activity. We find that for semiconducting MoTe, spots that fall along step edges show more catalytic activity than spots that fall solely on the basal plane. In contrast, for a semimetallic phase of MoTe, there is no measurable difference between the H evolution activity at the step edges and at the basal plane, indicating that the active sites for H evolution catalysis on transition metal dichalcogenides are phase dependent.

Long-Lasting Auditory and Vestibular Recovery Following Gene Replacement Therapy in a Novel Usher Syndrome Type 1c Mouse Model.

Usher syndrome type 1C (USH1C) is a genetic disorder caused by mutations in the USH1C gene, which encodes harmonin, a key component of the mechanoelectrical transduction complex in auditory and vestibular hair cells. USH1C leads to deafness and vestibular dysfunction in humans. An Ush1c knockout (KO) mouse model displaying these characteristic deficits is generated in our laboratory.

The fungal microbiota modulate neonatal oxygen-induced lung injury.

Background: The immature lungs of very preterm infants are exposed to supraphysiologic oxygen, contributing to bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a chronic lung disease that is the most common morbidity of prematurity. While the microbiota significantly influences neonatal health, the relationship between the intestinal microbiome, particularly micro-eukaryotic members such as fungi and yeast, and lung injury severity in newborns remains unknown.

Results: Here, we show that the fungal microbiota modulates hyperoxia-induced lung injury severity in very low birth weight premature infants and preclinical pseudohumanized and altered fungal colonization mouse models.

CARDIAC-STAR: prevalence of cardiovascular comorbidities in patients with HR + /HER2 - metastatic breast cancer.

Background: Cardiovascular (CV) comorbidities and concurrent medications with risk of heart rate-corrected QT interval (QTc) prolongation can impact treatment decisions and safety discussions for patients with breast cancer. However, limited data are available regarding their prevalence in patients with HR + /HER2- metastatic breast cancer (mBC). We evaluated the prevalence of CV comorbidities, the use of concurrent medications with risk of QTc prolongation, and treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed HR + /HER2 - mBC.

Vision impairment in boys recruited to the iREAD study.

Background: Uncorrected refractive error is reported to be the most common cause globally of vision impairment in school age children. However, little is known about the extent of uncorrected refractive error in Israel. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of vision impairment in schoolchildren recruited for the Israel Refraction, Environment, And Devices (iREAD) Study.

Trends and contributors of complete continuum of maternal healthcare service utilization in Ethiopia: a multivariate decomposition analyses.

Background: Most maternal deaths are preventable by accessing essential maternity healthcare services. However, maternal mortality rates remain high in Ethiopia partly due to only a few women using a complete Continuum of Maternal Healthcare Services (CMHS). This study aims to assess trends and contributors for complete CMHS utilization in Ethiopia.

Lipidome disruption in Alzheimer's disease brain: detection, pathological mechanisms, and therapeutic implications.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is among the most devastating neurodegenerative disorders with limited treatment options. Emerging evidence points to the involvement of lipid dysregulation in the development of AD. Nevertheless, the precise lipidomic landscape and the mechanistic roles of lipids in disease pathology remain poorly understood.

Chemotherapy in synergy with innate immune agonists enhances T cell priming for checkpoint inhibitor treatment in pancreatic cancer.

Background: The combination of conventional chemotherapy and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has been unsuccessful for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Administration of maximum tolerated dose of chemotherapy drugs may have immunosuppressive effects.

Methods: We thus tested, by using the preclinical model of PDACs including the genetically engineered mouse KPC spontaneous pancreatic tumor model and the pancreatic KPC tumor orthotopic implant model, the combinations of synthetic innate immune agonists including STING and NLRP3 agonist, respectively, and ICIs with or without chemotherapy.

Evaluating the impact, implementation experience and political economy of primary care networks in Kenya: protocol for a mixed methods study.

Background: Primary care networks (PCNs) are increasingly being adopted in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to improve the delivery of primary health care (PHC). Kenya has identified PCNs as a key reform to strengthen PHC delivery and has passed a law to guide its implementation. PCNs were piloted in two counties in Kenya in 2020 and implemented nationally in October 2023.

Supporting students through the COVID-19 pandemic: the perspectives of food pantry workers.

Background: College students in the United States are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity, which is associated with diminished health outcomes and poor academic performance. One key resource to support students through periods of food insecurity are on-campus food pantries, which distribute food, personal hygiene products, and other essential items. But as colleges and universities navigated through the COVID-19 pandemic, many campuses closed their food pantries as the demand for their services among students grew.

Heterogeneity of Clostridioides difficile asymptomatic colonization prevalence: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Asymptomatic carriers significantly influence the transmission dynamics of C. difficile. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of toxigenic C.

Critical thinking about health and treatments in the United States: a cross-sectional assessment of parents and undergraduate college students.

Background: There is an urgent need to study and increase the public's ability to think critically about health and treatments. Unfortunately, we do not currently have a clear, in-depth understanding of critical thinking about health in the United States, especially its rates among parents and college students, two particularly important groups. This study assessed and characterized critical thinking about health with U.

Sex-related association between smoke exposure and gallstones in a US population: a cross-sectional study.

Background: Cholelithiasis are a condition that creates an economic and medical burden on society, and women are more susceptible to gallbladder stones. However, the effect of smoking on the development of gallstones remains controversial. No studies, to our knowledge, have discussed the association between smoke exposure and gallstones separately in men and women.

Outpatient chemotherapy drug costs and expensive chemotherapy drug use in 340B and Non-340B hospitals: an observational study.

Background: The 340B Drug Pricing Program has been controversial since its inception in 1992, a major criticism being that 340B hospitals use more outpatient drugs, and more expensive drugs, because of financial incentives to "make money" through the program. The goal of this study was to determine whether characteristics of patients treated at 340B hospitals, and affiliation of hospitals with NCI-designated cancer centers, would explain higher Part B drug costs and use of more expensive chemotherapy drugs.

Methods: This is an observational study using data from SEER-Medicare and 340B entity database.

Comparative analysis of ambient, in-home, and personal exposures reveals associations between breathing zone pollutant levels and asthma exacerbations in high-risk children.

Background: Air pollution is associated with poor asthma outcomes in children. However, most studies focus on ambient or indoor monitor pollution levels. Few studies evaluate breathing zone exposures, which may be more consequential for asthma outcomes.

Protocol for visual-acoustic intervention with service delivery in-person and via telepractice (VISIT) non-inferiority trial for residual speech sound disorder.

Background: Residual speech sound disorder (RSSD) is a high-prevalence condition that negatively impacts social and academic participation. Telepractice service delivery has the potential to expand access to technology-enhanced intervention methods that can help remediate RSSD, but it is not known whether remote service delivery is associated with a reduction in the efficacy of these methods. This project will systematically measure the outcomes of visual-acoustic biofeedback intervention when delivered in-person or online.

ULACNet-301, OPTIMO protocol: optimizing HPV vaccination regimen for cancer prevention in children and adolescents living with HIV.

Background: Persistent infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is associated with most cervical and anal cancer cases and a large fraction of other anogenital and oropharyngeal cancers. The prophylactic HPV vaccines are known to prevent HPV infections and HPV-associated disease, although there is evidence of reduced response to the HPV vaccination among individuals living with HIV. Prior studies among individuals without HIV suggest that a single HPV vaccine dose induces humoral immune responses that, while lower than those induced by two or three doses, still confer protection against HPV infection.

Penalized landmark supermodels (penLM) for dynamic prediction for time-to-event outcomes in high-dimensional data.

Background: To effectively monitor long-term outcomes among cancer patients, it is critical to accurately assess patients' dynamic prognosis, which often involves utilizing multiple data sources (e.g., tumor registries, treatment histories, and patient-reported outcomes).

Association between elevated glycosylated hemoglobin levels and hypertension among US adults: NHANES 2011-2018.

Introduction: Hypertension (HTN) and diabetes frequently coexist. This study aims to elucidate the associations between HTN and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), as well as the connections between distinct forms of HTN and HbA1c.

Methods: We collected data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011-2018 in this study, including anthropometric tests and biochemical measures.

Mechanisms underlying CSD initiation implicated by genetic mouse models of migraine.

A key unanswered question in migraine neurobiology concerns the mechanisms that make the brain of migraineurs susceptible to cortical spreading depression (CSD, a spreading depolarization that underlies migraine aura and may trigger the migraine pain mechanisms). Important insights into this question can be obtained by studying the mechanisms of facilitation of CSD initiation in genetic mouse models of the disease. These models, all generated from families with hereditary migraine, allow the investigation of the functional consequences of disease-causing mutations at the molecular, cellular, synaptic and neural circuit levels.

Activated Cardiac Fibroblasts are a Primary Source High Molecular Weight Hyaluronan Production.

During acute myocardial infarction, the composition of the extracellular matrix changes remarkably. One of the most notable changes in the extracellular matrix is in the accumulation of collagen; however, hyaluronan rivals collagen in its abundance. Yet, the extent to which specific cells and enzymes may contribute to such accumulation has been largely unexplored.

Antifouling Zwitterionic Polymer Coatings for Blood-Bearing Medical Devices.

Blood-bearing medical devices are essential for the delivery of critical care medicine and are often required to function for weeks to months. However, thrombus formation on their surfaces can lead to reduced device function and failure and expose patients to systemic thrombosis risks. While clinical anticoagulants reduce device related thrombosis, they also increase patient bleeding risk.