Diabetic Kidney Disease.

Diabetic kidney disease is a leading cause of kidney failure worldwide and is easily detectable with screening examination. Diabetes causes hyperfiltration and activation of the renin-angiotensin aldosterone system by hemodynamic changes within the nephron, which perpetuates damaging physiology. Diagnosis is often clinical after detection of heavy proteinuria in a patient with diabetes,but can be confirmed by observation of histologic stages on kidney biopsy.

Bariatric surgery targeting opioid prescribing: a national model for effectively reducing opioid use after bariatric surgery.

Background: Prescription opioids are responsible for a significant proportion of opioid-related deaths in the United States. Approximately 6% of opioid-naïve patients who receive opioid prescriptions after surgery become chronic opioid users. However, chronic opioid use after bariatric surgery may be twice as common.

Influence of referral type and sociodemographic factors on completion of bariatric surgery.

Background: The impact of referral type and socioeconomic status on completion of the bariatric surgery process is not well understood.

Objectives: This study aims to 1) describe how sociodemographic characteristics influence referral type and 2) identify predictors of completion of surgery.

Setting: Large multihospital health care system, including a large academic medical center.

Statistical principles in neurointervention part 2. Multivariable analysis: generalized linear models, modification, confounding, and mediation.

This two part series on statistical principles in neurointervention offers a comprehensive foundation for neurointerventionalists to engage with both fundamental and advanced statistical principles. This series aims to equip neurointerventionalists with essential statistical knowledge for critically reviewing literature and conducting methodologically sound research. Part one of this series covered fundamental concepts such as frequentism, study types, data types, summarization, visualization, hypothesis testing, and univariable analysis.

Liver Fibrosis and Cardiovascular Events.

Objectives: Liver fibrosis represents a common sequela of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and other chronic liver diseases. Noninvasive liver fibrosis scores (LFSs) aim to evaluate the severity of liver fibrosis. Whether LFSs can predict the risk of future cardiovascular events (CVEs) remains unclear.

Neutrophil extracellular traps promote pre-metastatic niche formation in the omentum by expanding innate-like B cells that express IL-10.

Disseminated cancer cells in the peritoneal fluid often colonize omental fat-associated lymphoid clusters but the mechanisms are unclear. Here, we identify that innate-like B cells accumulate in the omentum of mice and women with early-stage ovarian cancer concomitantly with the extrusion of chromatin fibers by neutrophils called neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Studies using genetically modified NET-deficient mice, pharmacologic inhibition of NETs, and adoptive B cell transfer show that NETs induce expression of the chemoattractant CXCL13 in the pre-metastatic omentum, stimulating recruitment of peritoneal innate-like B cells that in turn promote expansion of regulatory T cells and omental metastasis through producing interleukin (IL)-10.

Chromatin hubs drive key regulatory networks in leukemia.

In this issue of Molecular Cell, Gambi, Boccalatte, Hernaez, et al. apply multiomics followed by genetic engineering to define then characterize epigenetic hubs that regulate processes crucial for T-ALL and use this insight to offer new avenues for therapeutic targeting.

A valid novel ground reaction force distribution algorithm to determine midfoot kinetics of gait with a single force plate.

Background: Understanding midfoot joint kinetics is valuable for improved treatment of foot pathologies. Segmental foot kinetics cannot currently be obtained in a standard gait lab without the use of multiple force plates or a pedobarographic plate overlaid with a force plate due to the single ground reaction force (GRF) vector.

Research Question: Can an algorithm be created to distribute the GRF into multiple segmental vectors that will allow for calculation of accurate midfoot and ankle moments?

Methods: 20 pediatric subjects (10 typically developing, 10 with foot pathology) underwent multi-segment foot gait analysis using the Milwaukee Foot Model.

An Activation Failure: Factors Associated With Undertriage of Pediatric Major Trauma Victims.

Introduction: Undertriage of children contributes to poorer clinical outcomes. The objective of this study was to determine factors associated with undertriage of pediatric major trauma victims.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study of children (aged < 16 ys) using the 2021 American College of Surgeons National Trauma Data Bank.

Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (FLT1) interactions with amyloid-beta in Alzheimer's disease: A putative biomarker of amyloid-induced vascular damage.

We have identified FLT1 as a protein that changes during Alzheimer's disease (AD) whereby higher brain protein levels are associated with more amyloid, more tau, and faster longitudinal cognitive decline. Given FLT1's role in angiogenesis and immune activation, we hypothesized that FLT1 is upregulated in response to amyloid pathology, driving a vascular-immune cascade resulting in neurodegeneration and cognitive decline. We sought to determine (1) if in vivo FLT1 levels (CSF and plasma) associate with biomarkers of AD neuropathology or differ between diagnostic staging in an aged cohort enriched for early disease, and (2) whether FLT1 expression interacts with amyloid on downstream outcomes, such as phosphorylated tau levels and cognitive performance.

On the emergence of machine-learning methods in bottom-up coarse-graining.

Machine-learning methods have gained significant attention in the computational chemistry community as a viable approach to molecular modeling and analysis. Recent successes in utilizing neural networks to learn atomistic force-fields which 'coarse-grain' electronic structure have inspired similar applications to the thermodynamic coarse-graining of chemical and biological systems. In this review, we discuss the current viability and challenges in using machine-learning methods to represent coarse-grained force-fields, as well as the utility of machine-learning in various aspects of coarse-grained modeling.

Disentangling Sources of Momentum Fluctuations in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb Collisions with the ATLAS Detector.

High-energy nuclear collisions create a quark-gluon plasma, whose initial condition and subsequent expansion vary from event to event, impacting the distribution of the eventwise average transverse momentum [P([p_{T}])]. Disentangling the contributions from fluctuations in the nuclear overlap size (geometrical component) and other sources at a fixed size (intrinsic component) remains a challenge. This problem is addressed by measuring the mean, variance, and skewness of P([p_{T}]) in ^{208}Pb+^{208}Pb and ^{129}Xe+^{129}Xe collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.

The Pelvic Floor Disorders Network: Evolution Over Two Decades of Female Pelvic Floor Research.

Importance: This review aimed to describe research initiatives, evolution, and processes of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-supported Pelvic Floor Disorders Network (PFDN). This may be of interest and inform researchers wishing to conduct multisite coordinated research initiatives as well as to provide perspective to all urogynecologists regarding how the PFDN has evolved and functions.

Study Design: Principal investigators of several PFDN clinical sites and Data Coordinating Center describe more than 20 years of development and maturation of the PFDN.

Innate Immune Activation with Multifunctional Nanoparticles for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has revolutionized the treatment of many cancers by leveraging the immune system to combat malignancies. However, its efficacy is limited by the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and other regulatory mechanisms of the immune system. Innate immune modulators (IIMs) provide potent immune activation to complement adaptive immune responses and help overcome resistance to ICB.

Effect of sign language learning on temporal resolution of visual attention.

The visual environment of sign language users is markedly distinct in its spatiotemporal parameters compared to that of non-signers. Although the importance of temporal and spectral resolution in the auditory modality for language development is well established, the spectrotemporal parameters of visual attention necessary for sign language comprehension remain less understood. This study investigates visual temporal resolution in learners of American Sign Language (ASL) at various stages of acquisition to determine how experience with sign language affects perceptual sampling.

Exposure to School Racial Segregation and Late-Life Cognitive Outcomes.

Importance: Disparities in cognition, including dementia occurrence, persist between non-Hispanic Black (hereinafter, Black) and non-Hispanic White (hereinafter, White) older adults, and are possibly influenced by early educational differences stemming from structural racism. However, the association between school racial segregation and later-life cognition remains underexplored.

Objective: To investigate the association between childhood contextual exposure to school racial segregation and cognitive outcomes in later life.

Multi-institutional development and testing of attention-enhanced deep learning segmentation of thyroid nodules on ultrasound.

Purpose: Thyroid nodules are common, and ultrasound-based risk stratification using ACR's TIRADS classification is a key step in predicting nodule pathology. Determining thyroid nodule contours is necessary for the calculation of TIRADS scores and can also be used in the development of machine learning nodule diagnosis systems. This paper presents the development, validation, and multi-institutional independent testing of a machine learning system for the automatic segmentation of thyroid nodules on ultrasound.

Health state utilities associated with invasive pneumococcal disease, pneumonia, and recurrent acute otitis media in young children.

Purpose: Cost-utility analyses examining the value of new vaccines for pneumococcal disease will require health state utilities as inputs. Existing utilities for pneumococcal infections in young children are limited. The purpose of this study was to estimate health state utilities associated with pneumococcal infections in young children.

The economic burden of diabetes in spinal fusion surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Purpose: This study aimed at comparing the costs of spinal fusion surgery between patients with and without diabetes.

Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, a systematic search of four databases was conducted. A meta-analysis was performed on comparative studies examining diabetic versus non-diabetic adults undergoing cervical/lumbar fusion in terms of cost.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: The recent approval of two anti-amyloid antibodies, Aducanamab and Lecanamab, have set the stage for the next generation of anti-amyloid treatments. Despite the capability of these treatments to lower Aβ brain levels, there is thus far limited clinical efficacy on cognitive outcomes. Because eligibility for treatment includes individuals with MCI or mild dementia, that often harbor mixed pathologies, the cognitive impact of other brain pathologies may be important.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: The transfer of mitochondrial DNA into the nuclear genomes of eukaryotes (Numts) has been linked to lifespan in non-human species and recently demonstrated to occur in rare instances from one human generation to the next.

Method: Here we investigated numtogenesis dynamics in humans in two ways. First, we quantified Numts in 1,187 post-mortem brain and blood samples from different individuals.