Activating an adaptive immune response from a hydrogel scaffold imparts regenerative wound healing.

Microporous annealed particle (MAP) scaffolds are flowable, in situ crosslinked, microporous scaffolds composed of microgel building blocks and were previously shown to accelerate wound healing. To promote more extensive tissue ingrowth before scaffold degradation, we aimed to slow MAP degradation by switching the chirality of the crosslinking peptides from L- to D-amino acids. Unexpectedly, despite showing the predicted slower enzymatic degradation in vitro, D-peptide crosslinked MAP hydrogel (D-MAP) hastened material degradation in vivo and imparted significant tissue regeneration to healed cutaneous wounds, including increased tensile strength and hair neogenesis.

Three-Dimensionally-Printed Hand Surgical Simulator for Resident Training.

Reduced work hours and funding have fueled an increase in simulation-based training for plastic and orthopedic surgery residency programs. Unfortunately, certain simulation training can fail to enhance surgical skills because of availability, cost, or low fidelity. There is a growing interest among training programs for a cost-effective surgical simulator to improve basic skills and muscle memory of residents.

Carbon nanotube filler enhances incinerated thermoplastics-induced cytotoxicity and metabolic disruption in vitro.

Background: Engineered nanomaterials are increasingly being incorporated into synthetic materials as fillers and additives. The potential pathological effects of end-of-lifecycle recycling and disposal of virgin and nano-enabled composites have not been adequately addressed, particularly following incineration. The current investigation aims to characterize the cytotoxicity of incinerated virgin thermoplastics vs.

#PlasticSurgery: A Comparative Deep Dive Analysis into Social Media and Plastic Surgery.

Background: As social media have become pervasive in contemporary society, plastic surgery content has become commonplace. Two of the most engaging and popular platforms are Instagram and Twitter, and much research has been performed with respect to Twitter. Currently, there are no studies comparing and contrasting the two platforms.

A Perspective on Reversibility of Tendinosis-Induced Multi-Level Adaptations.

Achilles tendinopathy is a well-known pathology that can display interindividual variations in chronicity, symptom presentation, and tendon morphology. Furthermore, symptoms may fluctuate within an individual throughout the stages of the pathology. Although pain is often used as a marker of condition severity, individuals may not consistently report pain due to periods of remission.

A chromosome-level assembly of the cat flea genome uncovers rampant gene duplication and genome size plasticity.

Background: Fleas (Insecta: Siphonaptera) are small flightless parasites of birds and mammals; their blood-feeding can transmit many serious pathogens (i.e., the etiological agents of bubonic plague, endemic and murine typhus).

Closing the Breast Cancer Loop: Barriers and Perceptions of Breast Reconstruction among Rural Women.

Background: Despite policies such as the Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act (WHCRA) and Breast Cancer Patient Education Act, rates for breast reconstruction vary and are especially low for some subpopulations of patients, especially rural women. In order to better understand patient perceptions, qualitative analysis using focus groups is an underutilized tool for obtaining patient perspectives regarding health-related issues and access to care. Our aim was to better understand patient perceptions using qualitative analysis.

The fate of carbon in a mature forest under carbon dioxide enrichment.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide enrichment (eCO) can enhance plant carbon uptake and growth, thereby providing an important negative feedback to climate change by slowing the rate of increase of the atmospheric CO concentration. Although evidence gathered from young aggrading forests has generally indicated a strong CO fertilization effect on biomass growth, it is unclear whether mature forests respond to eCO in a similar way. In mature trees and forest stands, photosynthetic uptake has been found to increase under eCO without any apparent accompanying growth response, leaving the fate of additional carbon fixed under eCO unclear.

The life-cycles of skin replacement technologies.

Introduction: Skin Replacement Technologies (SRTs) emerged as skin alternatives for burns, large excisions or trauma. The original publications represent the available knowledge on a subject and can be modeled as a logistic S-curve which depicts the technology's evolution life-cycle. The Technology Innovation Maturation Evaluation (TIME) model was previously introduced to study the life-cycles of biotechnologies.

Genomic Epidemiology of Complex, Multispecies, Plasmid-Borne Carbapenemase in in the United Kingdom from 2009 to 2014.

Carbapenem resistance in is a public health threat. carbapenemase (encoded by alleles of the family) is one of the most common transmissible carbapenem resistance mechanisms worldwide. The dissemination of historically has been associated with distinct lineages (clonal group 258 [CG258]), a particular plasmid family (pKpQIL), and a composite transposon (Tn).

Core Outcome Set for Actinic Keratosis Clinical Trials.

Importance: Although various treatments have been found in clinical trials to be effective in treating actinic keratosis (AK), researchers often report different outcomes. Heterogeneous outcome reporting precludes the comparison of results across studies and impedes the synthesis of treatment effectiveness in systematic reviews.

Objective: To establish an international core outcome set for all clinical studies on AK treatment using systematic literature review and a Delphi consensus process.

Botulinum Toxin A Salvage of Ischemic Hand Trauma.

Posttraumatic hand injuries from crush injury, infusion, or iatrogenic vascular cannulation can cause ischemic finger damage that can progress to necrosis and digital amputation. Botulinum toxin type A (Botox) improves blood flow in chronic vasospastic disorders of the hand. Botox's efficacy in salvaging ischemic loss in digits in acute traumatic and iatrogenic injury has not been previously reported.

MN1 C-terminal truncation syndrome is a novel neurodevelopmental and craniofacial disorder with partial rhombencephalosynapsis.

MN1 encodes a transcriptional co-regulator without homology to other proteins, previously implicated in acute myeloid leukaemia and development of the palate. Large deletions encompassing MN1 have been reported in individuals with variable neurodevelopmental anomalies and non-specific facial features. We identified a cluster of de novo truncating mutations in MN1 in a cohort of 23 individuals with strikingly similar dysmorphic facial features, especially midface hypoplasia, and intellectual disability with severe expressive language delay.

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate (PC) filaments three-dimensional (3-D) printer emissions-induced cell toxicity.

During extrusion of some polymers, fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3-D printers emit billions of particles per minute and numerous organic compounds. The scope of this study was to evaluate FFF 3-D printer emission-induced toxicity in human small airway epithelial cells (SAEC). Emissions were generated from a commercially available 3-D printer inside a chamber, while operating for 1.

Patient Advocacy in Plastic Surgery: An Underutilized Tool.

Healthcare advocacy is an important tool in the plastic surgeon's arsenal that stands the potential to improve both patient care and the profession. However, many physicians underestimate the importance and influence that healthcare advocacy has on the profession and feel that they lack the leverage and knowledge to advocate on behalf of themselves, their practices, their patients, and their profession, all of which are untrue. Plastic surgeons are uniquely positioned to advocate based on their clinical acumen, personal experiences with patient care, and their position in the healthcare ecosystem value chain.

Inpatient Flap Monitoring after Deep Inferior Epigastric Artery Perforator Flap Breast Reconstruction: How Long Is Long Enough?

Background:  There is a growing trend across health care to perform increasingly complex procedures in less acute settings. This shift has been fueled, in part, by enhanced recovery protocols, which have shortened hospital stays after major surgeries. We set out to determine the timing of microvascular complications after deep inferior epigastric artery perforator (DIEP) free flap breast reconstruction in a high-volume practice using continuous flap monitoring technologies.

Corrosion of upstream metal plumbing components impact downstream PEX pipe surface deposits and degradation.

Plastic pipes have been and are being installed downstream of metal drinking water plumbing components. Prior research has suggested that such pipe configurations may induce plastic pipe degradation and even system failure. To explore the impact of upstream metal plumbing components on downstream plastic pipes, field- and bench-scale experiments were conducted.

Consensus statement from the International Consensus Meeting on the Role of Decompressive Craniectomy in the Management of Traumatic Brain Injury : Consensus statement.

Background: Two randomised trials assessing the effectiveness of decompressive craniectomy (DC) following traumatic brain injury (TBI) were published in recent years: DECRA in 2011 and RESCUEicp in 2016. As the results have generated debate amongst clinicians and researchers working in the field of TBI worldwide, it was felt necessary to provide general guidance on the use of DC following TBI and identify areas of ongoing uncertainty via a consensus-based approach.

Methods: The International Consensus Meeting on the Role of Decompressive Craniectomy in the Management of Traumatic Brain Injury took place in Cambridge, UK, on the 28th and 29th September 2017.

Recurrent Ectopic Variceal Bleed After Pancreas Transplantation With No Portal Hypertension: Case Report and Outcomes of Endovascular Onyx Embolization.

A 57-year-old male presented with intermittent gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) 1 year after a successful simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant. No source could be found after 5 tagged red blood cell studies, 3 computed tomographies (CTs), 7 endoscopies, and 4 catheter angiograms. Review of CTs showed pathologically enlarged superior mesenteric vein branches near a jejunal segment near pancreas graft.