Assessing Readability of Patient Education Materials on Adult-Acquired Buried Penis.

Introduction: Adult-acquired buried penis (AABP) is an increasingly prevalent condition characterized by the penis "buried" in prepubic/suprapubic tissue. AABP affects urinary and sexual function, hygiene, and psychosocial well-being. Because many affected individuals are unfamiliar with the condition or hesitant to seek medical help, accessible, high-quality patient education materials (PEMs) are necessary.

A Sneaky Culprit: Secondary Infectious Keratitis Due to Brevundimonas diminuta.

Purpose: To describe a rare case of infectious keratitis secondary to Brevundimonas diminuta, a gram-negative bacillus with fluoroquinolone resistance and rare clinical isolation.

Methods: A 50-year-old man with contact lens overuse presented with a large corneal ulcer and hand motion visual acuity. Initial treatment with fortified topical tobramycin and vancomycin yielded slow improvement, and initial culture grew Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus hominis, and Corynebacterium bovis.

Probabilistic Approaches for Risk Assessment and Regulatory Criteria Development: Current Applications, Gaps, and Opportunities.

Traditional ecological and human health risk assessment often relies on deterministic frameworks that preclude the presence of variability or uncertainty among input parameters characterizing exposure, effects, and risk. To promote increased realism and generate more robust risk management decisions, probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) has been introduced as a foundational grouping of techniques that seeks to broadly characterize variability among its components. While multiple methods exist (e.

Multidimensional scaling improves distance-based clustering for microbiome data.

Motivation: Clustering patients into subgroups based on their microbial compositions can greatly enhance our understanding of the role of microbes in human health and disease etiology. Distance-based clustering methods, such as partitioning around medoids (PAM), are popular due to their computational efficiency and absence of distributional assumptions. However, the performance of these methods can be suboptimal when true cluster memberships are driven by differences in the abundance of only a few microbes, a situation known as the sparse signal scenario.

Evidence that flocking behavior is rewarded by singing, flock mates, and mu opioid receptors in the nucleus accumbens.

It has been proposed that social groups are maintained both by reward resulting from positive social interactions and by the reduction of a negative state that would otherwise be caused by social separation. European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, develop strong conditioned place preferences for places associated with the production of song in flocks outside the breeding season (gregarious song) and singers are motivated to rejoin the flock following removal. This indicates that the act of singing in flocks is associated with a positive affective state and raises the possibility that reward induced by song in flocks may play a role in flock maintenance.

Cognitive Impairment in Primary Open Angle Glaucoma: A Case Control Study.

Prcis: Cognitive impairment in multiple domains was observed in primary open angle glaucoma patients as compared to age and gender matched healthy controls.

Objective: Evaluation of cognitive impairment in individuals with Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG).

Methods: In this case-control study, individuals with POAG (cases, n=70) were compared with age- and sex-matched healthy individuals (controls, n=70) using detailed ophthalmological evaluation, cognitive assessment and serum cortisol level.

Promiscuity Guided Evolution of Decarboxylative Aldolases for Synthesis of Tertiary γ-Hydroxy Amino Acids.

Many applications of enzymes benefit from activity on structurally diverse substrates. Here, we sought to engineer the decarboxylative aldolase UstD to perform a challenging C-C bond forming reaction with ketone electrophiles. The parent enzyme had only low levels of activity, portending multiple rounds of directed evolution and a possibility that mutations may inadvertently increase the specificity of the enzyme for a single model screening substrate.

International Urogynecology Consultation Chapter 3 Committee 1 - Pessary Management.

Introduction And Hypothesis: This manuscript is part of the International Urogynecological Consultation (IUC) on Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP), Chapter 3, Committee 1 focusing on pessary management of POP.

Methods: A narrative review was conducted by an international, multi-disciplinary group of clinicians working in the field of pelvic health following a search of the literature using the MeSH terms "pelvic organ prolapse" OR "urogenital prolapse" OR "vaginal prolapse" OR "uterovaginal prolapse" AND "pessary" OR "support device" OR "intravaginal device." Relevant studies, as determined after review using the Covidence manuscript review platform, were included.

Prevalence of Mutations Associated with QoI, QiI, QioSI and CAA Fungicide Resistance Within in North America and a Tool to Detect CAA Resistant Isolates.

Grape downy mildew, caused by poses a threat to grape cultivation globally. Early detection of fungicide resistance is critical for effective management. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and distribution of mutations associated with resistance to Quinone oxide inhibitors (QoI, FRAC 11), Quinone inside inhibitors (QiIs, FRAC 21, cyazofamid), Carboxylic acid amides (CAA, FRAC 41), and Quinone inside and outside inhibitor, stigmatellin binding mode (QioSI, FRAC 45, ametoctradin) in populations in the eastern United States and Canada; and evaluate whether these mutations are linked to fungicide resistance correlate with specific clades.

Fear conditioning modulates the intrinsic excitability of ventral hippocampal CA1 neurons in male rats.

The hippocampus has a known role in learning and memory, with the ventral subregion supporting many learning tasks involving affective responding, including fear conditioning. Altered neuronal intrinsic excitability reflects experience-dependent plasticity that supports learning-related behavioral changes. Such changes have previously been observed in the dorsal hippocampus following fear conditioning, but little work has examined the effect of fear conditioning on ventral hippocampal intrinsic plasticity.

Allosteric regulation of pyruvate kinase enables efficient and robust gluconeogenesis by preventing metabolic conflicts and carbon overflow.

Gluconeogenesis, the reciprocal pathway of glycolysis, is an energy-consuming process that generates glycolytic intermediates from non-carbohydrate sources. In this study, we demonstrate that robust and efficient gluconeogenesis in bacteria relies on the allosteric inactivation of pyruvate kinase, the enzyme responsible for the irreversible final step of glycolysis. Using the model bacterium as an example, we discovered that pyruvate kinase activity is inhibited during gluconeogenesis via its extra C-terminal domain (ECTD), which is essential for autoinhibition and metabolic regulation.

Pediatric Transplant Surgeons' Perspectives on Palliative Care for Children With Chronic Kidney Disease: A National Cross-Sectional Survey.

Background: Some adult transplant surgeons consider transplant to be contraindicated in patients receiving palliative care (PC). Little is known about pediatric transplant surgeons' attitudes toward PC. We sought to ascertain pediatric kidney transplant surgeons' perspectives regarding the routine integration of PC for children with chronic kidney disease.

Measurement of multidifferential cross sections for dijet production in proton-proton collisions at .

A measurement of the dijet production cross section is reported based on proton-proton collision data collected in 2016 at by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 36.3 . Jets are reconstructed with the anti- algorithm for distance parameters of and 0.

Urban sensing in the era of large language models.

Urban sensing has become increasingly important as cities evolve into the centers of human activities. Large language models (LLMs) offer new opportunities for urban sensing based on commonsense and worldview that emerged through their language-centric framework. This paper illustrates the transformative impact of LLMs, particularly in the potential of advancing next-generation urban sensing for exploring urban mechanisms.

Assessing Family Caregiver Readiness for Hospital Discharge of Patients With Serious or Life-Limiting Illness Using Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Self-Reported Data.

Objective: To assess how patient and caregiver factors influence caregiver readiness for hospital discharge in palliative care patients.

Study Setting And Design: This transitional care study uses cross-sectional data from a randomized controlled trial conducted from 2018 to 2023 testing an intervention for caregivers of hospitalized adult patients with a serious or life-limiting illness who received a palliative care consult prior to transitioning out of the hospital.

Data Sources And Analytical Sample: Caregiver readiness was measured with the Family Readiness for Hospital Discharge Scale (n = 231).

Inconsistent Associations of Modified Frailty Index-5 With Adverse Head and Neck Reconstruction Outcomes.

Objectives: To investigate the consistency of associations between modified frailty index-5 (mFI-5) and postoperative adverse outcomes in head and neck cancer (HNC) reconstruction.

Methods: American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) database from 2017 to 2022 was utilized to identify HNC patients undergoing locoregional or microvascular free tissue transfers. Kaplan-Meier estimates and multivariable Cox regression analyses were utilized to compare risk of infections, bleeding, readmissions, reoperations, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), and mortality within the first postoperative month for each mFI-5 score with mFI-5 = 0 as reference.

Rethinking the residual approach: leveraging statistical learning to operationalize cognitive resilience in Alzheimer's disease.

Cognitive resilience (CR) describes the phenomenon of individuals evading cognitive decline despite prominent Alzheimer's disease neuropathology. Operationalization and measurement of this latent construct is non-trivial as it cannot be directly observed. The residual approach has been widely applied to estimate CR, where the degree of resilience is estimated through a linear model's residuals.

Promoting Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Medical and Scientific Writing and Publishing of Research: A Statement from the Inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Advocacy Team of the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

The Journal of General Internal Medicine (JGIM) has a long-standing history of publishing manuscripts focused on health equity and is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in scientific writing and publishing. This is extremely important in the current climate where false narratives and attacks on DEI and health equity are rampant. To demonstrate their commitment to DEI and health equity, the JGIM Editors-in-Chief created an inaugural DEI Advocacy Team.

How childhood adversity affects components of decision making.

Extreme and chronic adverse experiences in childhood are linked to disruptions in a wide range of behavioral processes, including self-regulation, increased risk taking, and impulsivity. One proposed mechanism for these effects is alterations in how children learn and use information about rewards and risk in their environment. This type of decision making is a complex and multifaceted process consisting of distinct subcomponents, each of which may have varying effects on behavior.

Improving Quality of Care for Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia Admissions After Birth Hospitalization.

Background And Objectives: Infants with neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (NH) often require admission after their birth hospitalization for treatment with phototherapy. Our aim was to align local practice with updated national guidelines to promote efficiency and decrease length of stay (LOS) for this patient population by ∼ 10% over a 15-month period using quality improvement methodology.

Methods: Our improvement initiative included infants younger than age 14 days born at more than 35 weeks' gestation admitted to the hospital medicine service with an NH diagnosis.

Investigation on the Heating Effects of Intra-Tumoral Injectable Magnetic hydrogels (IT-MG) for Cancer Hyperthermia.

Capacitive-based radiofrequency (Rf) radiation at 27 MHz offers a non-invasive approach for inducing hyperthermia, making it a promising technique for thermal cancer therapy applications. To achieve focused and site-specific hyperthermia, external material is required that efficiently convert Rf radiation into localized heat. Nanomaterials capable of absorbing Rf energy and convert into heat for targeted ablation are of critical importance.

A Fast-Pass, Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry Strategy for Untargeted Metabolic Phenotyping.

Desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry imaging (DESI-MSI) provides direct analytical readouts of small molecules that can be used to characterize the metabolic phenotypes of genetically engineered bacteria. In an effort to accelerate the time frame associated with the screening of mutant libraries, we have developed a high-throughput DESI-MSI analytical workflow implementing a single raster line-scan strategy that facilitates the collection of location-resolved molecular information from engineered strains on a subminute time scale. Evaluation of this "Fast-Pass" DESI-MSI phenotyping workflow on analytical standards demonstrated the capability of acquiring full metabolic profiling information with a throughput of ∼40 s per sample.