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BioDrugs 2021 Apr 21. Epub 2021 Apr 21.

Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Wrocław, Poland.

The current problems with increasing bacterial resistance to antibacterial therapies, resulting in a growing frequency of incurable bacterial infections, necessitates the acceleration of studies on antibacterials of a new generation that could offer an alternative to antibiotics or support their action. Bacteriophages (phages) can kill antibiotic-sensitive as well as antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and thus are a major subject of such studies. Their efficacy in curing bacterial infections has been demonstrated in in vivo experiments and in the clinic. Read More

Health Phys 2021 Jun;120(6):693-698

Radian Scientific, LSS, Huntsville AL 35801.

Abstract: Public communication about radiation is tricky business. Members of the public are frequently skeptical about messages from scientific sources, particularly when it comes to radiation. As radiation protection professionals, it is our job to relay scientifically sound information in a simple, clear, and concise manner. Read More

Reg Anesth Pain Med 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.

Chronic pain imposes a tremendous economic burden of up to US$635 billion per year in terms of direct costs (such as the costs of treatment) and indirect costs (such as lost productivity and time away from work). In addition, the initiation of opioids for pain is associated with a more than doubling of pharmacy and all-cause medical costs. The high costs of chronic pain are particularly relevant for anesthesiologists because surgery represents an inciting event that can lead to chronic pain and long-term opioid use. Read More

Panminerva Med 2021 Apr 20. Epub 2021 Apr 20.

IRCCS Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital, Bologna, Italy -

Introduction: The Brisighella Heart Study (BHS) is a long-term, prospective, population-based longitudinal study on 2939 randomly selected residents of the town of Brisighella, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Evidence Acquisition: At the enrollment time in 1972 no participant had any cardiovascular disease, 1491 participants were men and 1448 women, and the age span was 14 to 84 years.

Evidence Synthesis: The observational phase of the study contributed to the evidence of a strong pathophysiological association between hypercholesterolemia and hypertension. Read More

Clin Microbiol Infect 2021 Apr 17. Epub 2021 Apr 17.

Renal Research Institute, New York, NY, USA; Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address:

Background: Pool testing strategies combine samples from multiple people and test them as a group. A pool testing approach may shorten the screening time and increase the test rate during times of limited test availability and inadequate reporting speed. Pool testing has been effectively used for a wide variety of infectious disease screening settings. Read More

Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces 2021 Apr 5;203:111743. Epub 2021 Apr 5.

Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz 5166616471, Iran.

As a fascinating class of fluorescent carbon dots (CDs), doped-CDs are now sparked intense research interest, particularly in the diverse fields of biomedical applications due to their unique advantages, including low toxicity, physicochemical, photostability, excellent biocompatibility, and so on. In this review, we have summarized the most recent developments in the literature regarding the employment of doped-CDs for pharmaceutical and medical applications, which are published over approximately the past five years. Accordingly, we discuss the toxicity and optical properties of these nanomaterials. Read More

Acc Chem Res 2021 Apr 19. Epub 2021 Apr 19.

Department of Chemical Engineering and the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute (RBNI), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 3200003, Israel.

ConspectusCryogenic-temperature transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) of aqueous systems has become a widely used methodology, especially in the study of biological systems and synthetic aqueous systems, such as amphiphile and polymer solutions. Cryogenic-temperature scanning electron microscopy (cryo-SEM), while not as widely used as cryo-TEM, is also found in many laboratories of basic and applied research. The application of these methodologies, referred to collectively as cryogenic-temperature electron microscopy (cryo-EM) for direct nanostructural studies of nonaqueous liquid systems is much more limited, although such systems are important in basic research and are found in a very large spectrum of commercial applications. Read More

ATS Sch 2020 Feb 21;1(1):20-32. Epub 2020 Feb 21.

Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Mount Auburn Hospital/Beth Israel Lahey Health, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and.

Education in quality improvement (QI) is endorsed by the Association of American Medical Colleges across the spectrum of undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate training. QI training is also a required component of graduate medical training per the American College of Graduate Medical Education. Despite widespread recognition of the importance of QI education and high levels of trainee involvement in QI as reported by pulmonary and critical care fellowship program directors, significant barriers to the implementation of effective and meaningful QI education during training exist. Read More

Front Sociol 2021 3;6:613340. Epub 2021 Feb 3.

University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

The New Zealand government has been globally praised for its response to Covid-19. Despite the global accolades, little attention has been given to the swift and innovative Māori response to Covid-19. This paper will detail some of this rapid Māori response to Covid-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand and argue the response can be understood as key examples of Māori exercising tino rangatiratanga (self-determination), independent of the government's measures and policies. Read More

Sci Rep 2021 Apr 14;11(1):8199. Epub 2021 Apr 14.

ISEA, Université de la Nouvelle Calédonie, Avenue Larribau, Nouméa, Nouvelle Calédonie, France.

Rifted margins are the result of the successful process of thinning and breakup of the continental lithosphere leading to the formation of new oceanic lithosphere. Observations on rifted margins are now integrating an increasing amount of multi-channel seismic data and drilling of several Continent-Ocean Transitions. Based on large scale geometries and domains observed on high-quality multi-channel seismic data, this article proposes a classification reflecting the mechanical behavior of the crust from localized to diffuse deformation (strong/coupled to weak/decoupled mechanical behaviors) and magmatic intensity leading to breakup from magma-rich to magma-poor margins. Read More

Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev 2021 Jun 10;21:209-236. Epub 2021 Mar 10.

Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.

There is growing attention and effort focused on treating the root cause of sensorineural hearing loss rather than managing associated secondary characteristic features. With recent substantial advances in understanding sensorineural hearing-loss mechanisms, gene delivery has emerged as a promising strategy for the biological treatment of hearing loss associated with genetic dysfunction. There are several successful and promising proof-of-principle examples of transgene deliveries in animal models; however, there remains substantial further progress to be made in these avenues before realizing their clinical application in humans. Read More

Subst Abus 2021 Apr 13:1-8. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

School of Nursing-Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.

The COVID-19 crisis presents new challenges and opportunities in managing alcohol use disorders, particularly for people unable to shelter in place due to homelessness or other reasons. Requiring abstinence for shelter engagement is impractical for many with severe alcohol use disorders and poses a modifiable barrier to self-isolation orders. Managed alcohol programs (MAPs) have successfully increased housing adherence for those with physical alcohol dependence in Canada, but to our knowledge, they have not been implemented in the United States. Read More

Adv Exp Med Biol 2021 ;1256:191-200

Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a multifactorial neurodegenerative disease, which is a leading cause of vision loss among the elderly in the developed countries. As one of the most successful examples of genome-wide association study (GWAS), a large number of genetic studies have been conducted to explore the genetic basis for AMD and its progression, of which over 30 loci were identified and confirmed. In this chapter, we review the recent development and findings of GWAS for AMD risk and progression. Read More

Front Bioeng Biotechnol 2021 25;9:652214. Epub 2021 Mar 25.

Holostem Terapie Avanzate S.r.l., Modena, Italy.

This article explores examples of successful and unsuccessful regenerative medicine on human epithelia. To evaluate the applications of the first regenerated tissues, the analysis of the past successes and failures addresses some pending issues and lay the groundwork for developing new therapies. Research should still be encouraged to fill the gap between pathologies, clinical applications and what regenerative medicine can attain with current knowledge. Read More

Gait Posture 2021 Apr 3;86:319-326. Epub 2021 Apr 3.

Sport Sciences - Performance and Technology, Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark. Electronic address:

Background: The walk-to-run transition, which occurs during gradually increasing locomotion speed, has been addressed in research at least eight decades back.

Research Question: Why does the walk-to-run transition occur? In the present review, we focus on the reason for the transition, more than on the consequences of it. The latter has historically constituted a primary focus. Read More

Nurs Leadersh (Tor Ont) 2021 Mar;34(1):60-71

Dean Emerita, Faculty of Community Services and Professor Emerita, Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON.

Nurses everywhere are called to seek new and better ways of providing care in the complex and dynamic environments where they practise. The core of innovation is the creation of new ideas and use of existing ideas in new ways or in new settings. Today, innovation and fresh thinking are more important than ever as the world is changing rapidly and complexity is the norm. Read More

Emerg Top Life Sci 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Laboratory of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Engineering, Regional Centre for Biotechnology, Faridabad, Haryana 121001, India.

The combinatorial space of an enzyme sequence has astronomical possibilities and exploring it with contemporary experimental techniques is arduous and often ineffective. Multi-target objectives such as concomitantly achieving improved selectivity, solubility and activity of an enzyme have narrow plausibility under approaches of restricted mutagenesis and combinatorial search. Traditional enzyme engineering approaches have a limited scope for complex optimization due to the requirement of a priori knowledge or experimental burden of screening huge protein libraries. Read More

Disabil Rehabil 2021 Apr 8:1-12. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences Melbourne, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.

Purpose: Evidence for the importance of focusing on participation to promote health and wellbeing in childhood-onset disability exists, but practice is slow to change. This paper provides a knowledge translation roadmap to accelerate uptake of participation evidence into day-to-day practice.

Materials And Methods: A structured roadmap to guide knowledge translation initiatives for implementing participation-based practices in co-creation with service users was developed based on elements from: the Five-factorframework for predicting implementation outcomes, the Cultural Cone framework, and the Knowledge-to-Action model. Read More

Sichuan Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban 2021 Mar;52(2):156-161

Center of Telepathology, Guangzhou Da'an Clinical Laboratory Center, Guangzhou 510700, China.

In recent years, with the progress of image processing and network transmission technology, digital pathology (DP) is being more and more extensive applied in clinical practice, and new artificial-intelligence-assisted diagnosis technology based on digital imaging is emerging. Being a widely-used mature field, telepathology is changing the temporal and spatial scope of pathological diagnosis through remote electronic transmission of digital images. Fully digitized pathology departments are realizing the transformation of diagnostic modes and workflow from microscopic diagnosis to digital image computer review, and there have already been successful examples of large-scale fully digitized pathology departments. Read More

Hum Resour Health 2021 Apr 7;19(1):48. Epub 2021 Apr 7.

Department of Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of California, San Francisco, 490 Illinois Street, Floor 11, Box 1242, San Francisco, CA, 94143, United States of America.

Background: Care coordination is a key strategy used to improve health outcomes and efficiency, yet there are limited examples in dentistry. A large dental accountable care organization piloted care coordination by retraining existing administrative staff to coordinate the care of high-risk patients. Following the pilot's success, a formal "dental care advocate" (DCA) role was integrated system-wide. Read More

Annu Rev Chem Biomol Eng 2021 Apr 7. Epub 2021 Apr 7.

Charles D. Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA; email:

Catalysis science is founded on understanding the structure, number, and reactivity of active sites. Kinetic models that consider active sites to be static and noninteracting entities are routinely successful in describing the behavior of heterogeneous catalysts. Yet, active site ensembles often restructure in response to their external environment and even during steady-state catalytic turnover, sometimes requiring non-mean-field kinetic treatments to describe distance-dependent interactions among sites. Read More

GMS J Med Educ 2021 15;38(3):Doc57. Epub 2021 Mar 15.

Universität Witten/Herdecke, Fakultät für Gesundheit, Department für Humanmedizin, Witten, Germany.

In October 2018, the University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H) launched the new reformed medical education programme called Medicine 2018+. A major innovation compared to the existing model programme was the introduction of thematic focuses. A longitudinal communication skills curriculum was integrated into the new thematic focus "professional and personal development - inner work" (IAP). Read More

J Am Chem Soc 2021 Apr 6;143(15):5917-5927. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States of America.

Lasso peptides are ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide (RiPP) natural products that display a unique lariat-like, threaded conformation. Owing to a locked three-dimensional structure, lasso peptides can be unusually stable toward heat and proteolytic degradation. Some lasso peptides have been shown to bind human cell-surface receptors and exhibit anticancer properties, while others display antibacterial or antiviral activities. Read More

AMA J Ethics 2021 03 1;23(3):E235-239. Epub 2021 Mar 1.

Senior research associate for the American Medical Association Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs in Chicago, Illinois.

Health equity in the United States requires elimination of differentials in access to health services according to race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, comorbidity, or ability. To achieve health equity, governments can use a variety of tools, including civil rights legislation and constitutional jurisprudence. In the United States, 2 such examples are the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution's Equal Protection clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Read More

Front Microbiol 2021 19;12:629163. Epub 2021 Mar 19.

Department of Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences, National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources, Naples, Italy.

Our understanding of the function of bacterial carbonic anhydrases (CAs, EC 4.2.1. Read More

Sensors (Basel) 2021 Mar 31;21(7). Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb, Ivana Lučića Street 5, 10002 Zagreb, Croatia.

Intelligent fault diagnosis can be related to applications of machine learning theories to machine fault diagnosis. Although there is a large number of successful examples, there is a gap in the optimization of the hyper-parameters of the machine learning model, which ultimately has a major impact on the performance of the model. Machine learning experts are required to configure a set of hyper-parameter values manually. Read More

Healthcare (Basel) 2021 Mar 17;9(3). Epub 2021 Mar 17.

School of Population & Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada.

Violence from patients and visitors towards healthcare workers is an international concern affecting the safety and health of workers, quality of care, and healthcare system sustainability. Although the predominant intervention has been violence prevention (VP) education for healthcare workers, evaluating its effectiveness is challenging due to underreporting of violence and the inherent complexity of both violence and the health care environment. This review utilized a theory-driven, realist approach to synthesize and analyze a wide range of academic and grey literature to identify explanations of how and why VP education makes a difference in preventing violence and associated physical and psychological injury to workers. Read More

Implement Sci Commun 2021 Apr 1;2(1):35. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Women's College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care, and Women's College Research Institute, Women's College Hospital, 76 Grenville Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Background: Quality improvement (QI) evaluations rarely consider how a successful intervention can be sustained long term, nor how to spread or scale to other locations. A survey of authors of randomized trials of diabetes QI interventions included in an ongoing systematic review found that 78% of trials reported improved quality of care, but 40% of these trials were not sustained. This study explores why and how the effective interventions were sustained, spread, or scaled. Read More

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2021 Apr 1. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Jilin University, College of Chemistry, CHINA.

Organic-inorganic metal-halide materials (OIMMs) with zero-dimensional (0D) structure have recently attracted increasing attention owing to their excellent optical properties and widely photo-functional applications. However, successful examples of 0D structural OIMMs with well-defined optical  performance at micro-/nanometer size are still quite limited. Here, we design and synthesise  a one-dimensional (1D) (DTA) 2 SbCl 5 ·DTAC (DTAC=Dodecyl trimethyl ammonium chloride) single crystal micro-rod and 2D micro-plates with 0D structure, in which individual (SbCl 5 ) 2- quadrangular units are completely isolated and surrounded by the organic cation DTA + . Read More

FEMS Microbiol Lett 2021 Mar 31. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Department of Integrative Biology, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620 USA.

It is widely acknowledged that having experience conducting research is invaluable for undergraduate science students. Most undergraduate research is undertaken by students in a mentor's laboratory, but this limits the number of opportunities for students, as each laboratory can only take on a certain number of undergraduate researchers each semester. Additionally, it is also widely acknowledged that it is difficult for teachers to meet research goals while providing the best possible coursework for undergraduate students. Read More