Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Ovarian Cancer Metastasis: Looking Beyond The Surface, Emine Bayraktar, Sisy Chen, Sara Corvigno, Jinsong Liu, Anil K Sood

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Historically, ovarian cancer (OC) was thought to metastasize by surface-to-surface spread, but recent developments have yielded a new understanding of the paths of metastatic spread. Given the histologic and molecular heterogeneity of OC, we will focus on high-grade serous carcinoma (HGSC). Here, we provide a critical and more holistic view of the evidence supporting various routes of metastasis, including peritoneal, hematogenous, lymphatic, and nerve-related. Understanding the underlying mechanisms is necessary to improve treatment strategies for this challenging disease.

Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction With Elevated Filling Pressures Is Associated With Embolic Stroke Of Undetermined Source And Atrial Fibrillation, Zubair Bashir, Liqi Shu, Yuqian Guo, Edward W Chen, Shuyuan Wang, Eric D Goldstein, Maheen Rana, Narendra Kala, Xing Dai, Daniel Mandel, Shadi Yaghi, Phinnara Has, Mingxing Xie, Tao Wang, James Simmons, Christopher Song, Philip Haines

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background/Objectives: Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) and elevated left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP) are strong predictors of clinical outcomes across various populations. However, their diagnostic utility in embolic stroke of undetermined source (ESUS) remains unclear. We hypothesized that LVDD with elevated LVFP (based on echocardiography) was more likely to be prevalent in ESUS compared to non-cardioembolic stroke (NCE) and to be associated with atrial fibrillation (AF) on follow-up monitoring.

Methods: This is a single-center retrospective study that included adult patients with a diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke between January 2016 and June 2017. LV function was assessed by …

When Less Is More: Sketching With Minimizers In Genomics, Malick Ndiaye, Silvia Prieto-Baños, Lucy M Fitzgerald, Ali Yazdizadeh Kharrazi, Sergey Oreshkov, Christophe Dessimoz, Fritz J Sedlazeck, Natasha Glover, Sina Majidian

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The exponential increase in sequencing data calls for conceptual and computational advances to extract useful biological insights. One such advance, minimizers, allows for reducing the quantity of data handled while maintaining some of its key properties. We provide a basic introduction to minimizers, cover recent methodological developments, and review the diverse applications of minimizers to analyze genomic data, including de novo genome assembly, metagenomics, read alignment, read correction, and pangenomes. We also touch on alternative data sketching techniques including universal hitting sets, syncmers, or strobemers. Minimizers and their alternatives have rapidly become indispensable tools for handling vast amounts of data.

The Role Of Jordanian Television Programs In Raising Awareness About Mental Health From The Perspective Of Psychiatrists, Yasmine Hamza Badis, Saddam Suleiman Salman Almashaqbeh

Middle East Journal of Communication Studies

The study aimed to identify the role of Jordanian television programs in raising awareness of mental health from the perspective of psychiatrists. The sample of the study was composed of 153 members from the Jordanian Association of Psychiatrists affiliated with the Jordanian Medical Association. To achieve the goal of this study, the descriptive approach was followed, and the study relied on the questionnaire as a tool for collecting data. The results of the study showed that the role of Jordanian television programs in raising awareness about mental health from the Perspective of psychiatrists was medium, and the diversity of features …

Effects Of Cadherin Mediated Contact Normalization On Oncogenic Src Kinase Mediated Gene Expression And Protein Phosphorylation, Rachel E Nicoletto, Cayla J Holdcraft, Ariel C Yin, Edward P Retzbach, Stephanie A Sheehan, Amanda A Greenspan, Christopher M Laugier, Jason Trama, Caifeng Zhao, Haiyan Zheng, Gary S Goldberg

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

Nontransformed cells form heterotypic cadherin junctions with adjacent transformed cells to inhibit tumor cell growth and motility. Transformed cells must override this form of growth control, called "contact normalization", to invade and metastasize during cancer progression. Heterocellular cadherin junctions between transformed and nontransformed cells are needed for this process. However, specific mechanisms downstream of cadherin signaling have not been clearly elucidated. Here, we utilized a β-catenin reporter construct to determine if contact normalization affects Wnt signaling in transformed cells. β-catenin driven GFP expression in Src transformed mouse embryonic cells was decreased when cultured with cadherin competent nontransformed cells compared to …

Bi-Directional Allosteric Pathway In Nmda Receptor Activation And Modulation, Paula A Bender, Subhajit Chakraborty, Ryan J Durham, Vladimir Berka, Elisa Carrillo, Vasanthi Jayaraman

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors are ionotropic glutamate receptors involved in learning and memory. NMDA receptors primarily comprise two GluN1 and two GluN2 subunits. The GluN2 subunit dictates biophysical receptor properties, including the extent of receptor activation and desensitization. GluN2A- and GluN2D-containing receptors represent two functional extremes. To uncover the conformational basis of their functional divergence, we utilize single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer to probe the extracellular domains of these receptor subtypes under resting and ligand-bound conditions. We find that the conformational profile of the GluN2 amino-terminal domain correlates with the disparate functions of GluN2A- and GluN2D-containing receptors. Changes at the pre-transmembrane …

Stratomod: Predicting Sequencing And Variant Calling Errors With Interpretable Machine Learning, Nathan Dwarshuis, Peter Tonner, Nathan D Olson, Fritz J Sedlazeck, Justin Wagner, Justin M Zook

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Despite the variety in sequencing platforms, mappers, and variant callers, no single pipeline is optimal across the entire human genome. Therefore, developers, clinicians, and researchers need to make tradeoffs when designing pipelines for their application. Currently, assessing such tradeoffs relies on intuition about how a certain pipeline will perform in a given genomic context. We present StratoMod, which addresses this problem using an interpretable machine-learning classifier to predict germline variant calling errors in a data-driven manner. We show StratoMod can precisely predict recall using Hifi or Illumina and leverage StratoMod's interpretability to measure contributions from difficult-to-map and homopolymer regions for …

Porous Iron Electrodes Reduce Energy Consumption During Electrocoagulation Of A Virus Surrogate: Insights Into Performance Enhancements Using Three-Dimensional Neutron Computed Tomography, Kyungho Kim, Cesar Castillo, Gyoung G Jang, Yuxuan Zhang, Costas Tsouris, Shankararaman Chellam

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Electrocoagulation has attracted significant attention as an alternative to conventional chemical coagulation because it is capable of removing a wide range of contaminants and has several potential advantages. In contrast to most electrocoagulation research that has been performed with nonporous electrodes, in this study, we demonstrate energy-efficient iron electrocoagulation using porous electrodes. In batch operation, investigation of the external pore structures through optical microscopy suggested that a low porosity electrode with sparse connection between pores may lead to mechanical failure of the pore network during electrolysis, whereas a high porosity electrode is vulnerable to pore clogging. Electrodes with intermediate porosity, …

Mates: A Deep Learning-Based Model For Locus-Specific Quantification Of Transposable Elements In Single Cell, Ruohan Wang, Yumin Zheng, Zijian Zhang, Kailu Song, Erxi Wu, Xiaopeng Zhu, Tao P Wu, Jun Ding

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Transposable elements (TEs) are crucial for genetic diversity and gene regulation. Current single-cell quantification methods often align multi-mapping reads to either 'best-mapped' or 'random-mapped' locations and categorize them at the subfamily levels, overlooking the biological necessity for accurate, locus-specific TE quantification. Moreover, these existing methods are primarily designed for and focused on transcriptomics data, which restricts their adaptability to single-cell data of other modalities. To address these challenges, here we introduce MATES, a deep-learning approach that accurately allocates multi-mapping reads to specific loci of TEs, utilizing context from adjacent read alignments flanking the TE locus. When applied to diverse single-cell …

Impact Of Age On Pharmacogenomics And Treatment Outcomes Of B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Satoshi Yoshimura, Zhenhua Li, Yoshihiro Gocho, Wenjian Yang, Kristine R Crews, Shawn H R Lee, Kathryn G Roberts, Charles G Mullighan, Mary V Relling, Jiyang Yu, Allen E J Yeoh, Mignon L Loh, Caner Saygin, Mark R Litzow, Sima Jeha, Seth E Karol, Hiroto Inaba, Ching-Hon Pui, Marina Konopleva, Nitin Jain, Wendy Stock, Elisabeth Paietta, Elias Jabbour, Steven M Kornblau, William E Evans, Jun J Yang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) can occur across all age groups, with a strikingly higher cure rate in children compared with adults. However, the pharmacological basis of age-related differences in ALL treatment response remains unclear.

Methods: Studying 767 children and 309 adults with newly diagnosed B-cell ALL enrolled on frontline trials at St Jude Children's Research Hospital, MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, and the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group, we determined the ex vivo sensitivity of leukemia cells to 21 drugs. Twenty-three ALL molecular subtypes were identified using RNA sequencing. We systematically characterized the associations …

Larp1 Haploinsufficiency Is Associated With An Autosomal Dominant Neurodevelopmental Disorder, James Chettle, Raymond J Louie, Olivia Larner, Robert Best, Kevin Chen, Josephine Morris, Zinaida Dedeic, Anna Childers, R Curtis Rogers, Barbara R Dupont, Cindy Skinner, Sébastien Küry, Kevin Uguen, Marc Planes, Danielle Monteil, Megan Li, Aviva Eliyahu, Lior Greenbaum, Nofar Mor, Thomas Besnard, Bertrand Isidor, Benjamin Cogné, Alyssa Blesson, Anne Comi, Ingrid M Wentzensen, Blake Vuocolo, Seema R Lalani, Roberta Sierra, Lori Berry, Kent Carter, Stephan J Sanders, Sarah P Blagden

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) that affects approximately 4% of males and 1% of females in the United States. While causes of ASD are multi-factorial, single rare genetic variants contribute to around 20% of cases. Here, we report a case series of seven unrelated probands (6 males, 1 female) with ASD or another variable NDD phenotype attributed to de novo heterozygous loss of function or missense variants in the gene LARP1 (La ribonucleoprotein 1). LARP1 encodes an RNA-binding protein that post-transcriptionally regulates the stability and translation of thousands of mRNAs, including those regulating cellular metabolism and …

Churning The Tides Of Care: When Nurse Turnover Makes Waves In Patient Access To Primary Care, Kelley Arredondo, Ashley M Hughes, Houston F Lester, Trang N D Pham, Laura A Petersen, Lechauncy Woodard, Richard Sorelle, Cheng Rebecca Jiang, Frederick L Oswald, Daniel R Murphy, Hilary N Touchett, Joshua Hamer, Sylvia J Hysong

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Team-based primary care (PC) enhances the quality of and access to health care. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) implements team-based care through Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACTs), consisting of four core members: a primary care provider, registered nurse (RN) care manager, licensed vocational nurse, and scheduling clerk. RNs play a central role: they coordinate patient care, manage operational needs, and serve as a patient point of contact. Currently, it is not known how varying levels of RN staffing on primary care teams impact patient outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to empirically assess how the stability of RN staffing within …

Molecular And Clinical Features Of Pancreatic Acinar Cell Carcinoma: A Single-Institution Case Series, Ashwathy Balachandran Pillai, Mahmoud Yousef, Abdelrahman Yousef, Kristin D Alfaro-Munoz, Brandon G Smaglo, Jason Willis, Robert A Wolff, Shubham Pant, Mark W Hurd, Anirban Maitra, Huamin Wang, Matthew Harold G Katz, Laura R Prakash, Ching-Wei D Tzeng, Rebecca Snyder, Luca F Castelnovo, Anthony Chen, Andrey Kravets, Kseniia Kudriavtseva, Artem Tarasov, Kirill Kryukov, Haoqiang Ying, John Paul Shen, Dan Zhao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objectives: Acinar cell carcinoma (ACC) accounts for about 1% of pancreatic cancers. The molecular and clinical features of ACC are less characterized than those of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated the clinical and molecular features of ACC patients who underwent germline and/or somatic molecular testing at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from 2008 to 2022 and two cases from 2023-2024 who underwent RNA and TME analysis by Boston Gene. Patient information was extracted from our institutional database with the approval of the Institutional Review Board. Results: We identified 16 patients with available molecular testing …

Characterizing The Influence Of Metabolism On Steady State Water Exchange In Yeast As A Potential Mri Diagnostic Biomarker, Samantha Mumford

Dissertations and Theses

Under conditions of ionic equilibrium with the environment a cell maintains a constant volume yet rapidly exchanges water molecules with the extracellular space. The rate constant for steady state water efflux, k_io, can be measured using contrast enhanced magnetic resonance (CE-MR). The active water cycling (AWC) hypothesis is puts forward that k_io is primarily influenced by cellular ATP levels and H⁺ ATPase activity at the cell membrane. Due to the correlation between k_io and ATP levels, k_io is thought to be a probable MRI biomarker for metabolic diseases such as cancer. Yet, the molecular …

Effects Of Supplementing Rumen-Protected Methionine And Lysine On Milk Yield And Milk Composition In Dairy Cows, Imene Kerbache, Samir Souames, Amel Haddoum, Nedjoua Lakhdara, Nassim Moula

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

The use of “health-food additives” has gained significant attention within the dairy sector, with a focus on enhancing the nutritional intake of dairy cows to improve their productivity and reproductive performance. This study aims at examining the impact of rumen-protected methionine (Met) and lysine (Lys) supplementation on production and reproductive parameters in a sample of 100 dairy cows, comprising 32 primiparous and 68 multiparous cows with an average of 5.24±2.31 years. The cows’ average milk production was determined to be 24.9±7.40 kg/day. The cows were divided into two groups, one receiving Met/Lys supplementation and the other serving as a control …

Phase I/Ii Study Of Bms-986156 With Ipilimumab Or Nivolumab With Or Without Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy In Patients With Advanced Solid Malignancies, Joe Y Chang, Xinyan Xu, Girish S Shroff, Nathan I Comeaux, Wei Li, Jordi Rodon Ahnert, Daniel D Karp, Ecaterina E Dumbrava, Vivek Verma, Aileen Chen, James Welsh, David S Hong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: BMS-986156 is an agonist of the glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNFR)-related protein (GITR) and promotes increased effector T-cell activation. Combined anti-GITR, anti-programmed death-1, anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 antibodies and radiotherapy improve tumor control in preclinical studies. Herein we describe the results of the safety and efficacy of BMS-986156+ipilimumab or nivolumab with/without stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) in patients with advanced solid cancers (NCT04021043).

Methods: This open-label, multigroup, single-center phase I/II study enrolled patients with histologically-confirmed stage IV solid cancers resistant to standard treatments. Group 1 (G1, n=20) received four cycles of ipilimumab (3 mg/kg) plus BMS-986156 (30 …

Monitoring Cow Behavior Based On Lying, Standing, Eating, And Ruminating Recognition Using Yolov8, Ali Saifudin, Sri Pantja Madyawati, Imam Yuadi, Rimayanti Rimayanti, Imam Mustofa, Riries Rulaningtyas, Teddy Surya Gunawan, Adnan Rahmat Anom Besari

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

Cow behavior is a crucial indicator for monitoring health, reproductive status, and welfare in livestock management. However, methods that rely on wearable devices often face significant challenges, including high costs, maintenance difficulties, and potential impacts on animal welfare. To address these limitations, this study explored the potential of using YOLOv8, a cutting-edge computer vision model, for non-invasive monitoring of cow behavior. The research methodology involved four key steps: data collection, preliminary data processing, model training, and validation. The findings revealed that YOLOv8 is capable of accurately detecting and localizing key cow behaviors—lying, standing, eating, and ruminating—achieving a mean average precision …

Investigation Of The Acaricidal Efficacy, Tolerance And Residue Levels Of Thymol-Containing Gelatin-Based Hydrogel Developed For Varroosis Control, Onur Demi̇r, Ali̇ Bi̇lgi̇li̇, Mehli̇ka Pulat

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

The aim of this study was to investigate the acaricidal efficacy, tolerability of the target species and residue levels of a thymol-containing gelatin-based hydrogel developed as a controlled release system for varroosis control. The study was carried out on naturally infested honey bee colonies and compared with those of the negative control and positive control groups. The acaricidal efficacy (%) of the negative control, positive control and hydrogel was 21.93 ± 2.87, 81.09 ± 2.30 and 70.32 ± 2.05, respectively. For the tolerability controls, the average number of dead bees per colony was determined to be 60.80 ± 8.01, 297.40 …

An Innovative Approach: Introducing Novel Sheep Paternity Testing Panels, Onur Yilmaz, İbrahi̇m Cemal, Nezi̇h Ata, Orhan Karaca

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

The aim of this research was to create various microsatellite paternity test panels that are efficient, cost-effective, simple, and accessible for paternity assessments within the Eşme sheep breed in Western Anatolia. The study included 2432 animals from sixteen farms, consisting of 147 rams and 2285 lambs. 17 microsatellite markers were utilized in the study to develop these test panels, prioritizing markers with high polymorphic information content (PIC) and probability of exclusion (PE) values. By combining markers with varying PIC and PE values, 16 distinct paternity test panels were established. The study revealed mean values for various parameters of the microsatellites …

Single-Cell Somatic Copy Number Variants In Brain Using Different Amplification Methods And Reference Genomes, Ester Kalef-Ezra, Zeliha Gozde Turan, Diego Perez-Rodriguez, Ida Bomann, Sairam Behera, Caoimhe Morley, Sonja W Scholz, Zane Jaunmuktane, Jonas Demeulemeester, Fritz J Sedlazeck, Christos Proukakis

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The presence of somatic mutations, including copy number variants (CNVs), in the brain is well recognized. Comprehensive study requires single-cell whole genome amplification, with several methods available, prior to sequencing. Here we compare PicoPLEX with two recent adaptations of multiple displacement amplification (MDA): primary template-directed amplification (PTA) and droplet MDA, across 93 human brain cortical nuclei. We demonstrate different properties for each, with PTA providing the broadest amplification, PicoPLEX the most even, and distinct chimeric profiles. Furthermore, we perform CNV calling on two brains with multiple system atrophy and one control brain using different reference genomes. We find that 20.6% …

A Review Of Biomass-Based Natural Coagulants For Water Pollution Remediation: Impact Of Properties And Coagulation Operational Parameters, Nur Faizzah Husna Mohammad Ali, Megat Ahmad Kamal Megat Hanafiah, Sabiha Hanim Saleh, Mohd Tajudin Mohd Ali, Shariff Ibrahim

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

The rapid growth of cities, industries, and population has made tackling water scarcity increasingly challenging as the global demand for clean drinking water continues to rise. Consequently, extensive research in water and wastewater treatment, specifically focusing on the coagulation process, has ensued. Coagulation plays a critical role in water treatment, and its effectiveness depends on the type of coagulant used. However, the widespread use of chemical coagulants raises concerns for the environment and public health. Consequently, there has been growing interest in exploring natural alternatives derived from plants and animals. This review examines how the properties of natural coagulants, as …

Mutations And Antibiotic Resistance In Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Ryan M. Johnson, Bodhi Brady, Nicklaus Busse, Connor Beckman, Hunter Gloden, Joseph Glasrud, Zachary Smith, Hari P. Nepal, Madhav P. Nepal

Life Science Reports

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is a bacterium known to target, infect, and destroy lung cells as well as connective tissues within the body. This bacterium is prevalent worldwide and has infected over a quarter of the current world population, becoming one of the most successful pathogens in history. Due to its extreme transmission rates as an airborne pathogen, MTB strains have been treated with antibiotics such as rifampicin and isoniazid, which inhibit bacterial infection in the human body. These first-round drugs remained as successful mechanisms for slowing and killing the pathogen, notably through rifampicin's inhibition of RNA-polymerase and isoniazid’s ability to …

Prescription Adherence Rates Across Medication Categories, Makenzie Stagner, Allie Weber, Madhav P. Nepal, Hari P. Nepal

Life Science Reports

Prescription adherence is a major public health challenge, as non-adherence to medication instructions can lead to poorer health outcomes and higher healthcare costs. Although prescription adherence is crucial for managing patient compliance and health outcomes, adherence rates differ greatly between medication types. The main objectives of this study were to determine prescription adherence rates across six medication types (antibiotic, cardiac, chronic health, pediatric, and psychiatric) and identify sources of variation. We searched PubMed and Web of Science databases for relevant published articles. Previous research data were selected related to prescription adherences and compliance rates were included in our analysis. Results …

The Role Of Lymph-Adipose Crosstalk In Alcohol-Induced Perilymphatic Adipose Tissue Dysfunction, Kourtney D. Weaver, Liz Simon, Patricia E. Molina, Flavia Souza-Smith

School of Graduate Studies Faculty Publications

Chronic alcohol use leads to metabolic dysfunction in adipose tissue. The underlying mechanisms and the contribution of alcohol-induced adipose tissue dysfunction to systemic metabolic dysregulation are not well understood. In our previous studies, we found that chronic alcohol feeding induces mesenteric lymphatic leakage, perilymphatic adipose tissue (PLAT) inflammation, and local insulin resistance in rats. The goal of this study was to further explore the link between alcohol-induced lymphatic leakage and PLAT immunometabolic dysregulation, locally and systemically, using in vivo and ex vivo approaches. Male rats received a Lieber–DeCarli liquid diet, of which 36% of the calories were from alcohol, for …

Impact Of Cancer Therapy On Clonal Hematopoiesis Mutations And Subsequent Clinical Outcomes, Kevin T Nead, Taebeom Kim, Lijin Joo, Tina L Mcdowell, Justin W Wong, Irenaeus C C Chan, Elizabeth Brock, Jing Zhao, Ting Xu, Chad Tang, Chang-Lung Lee, Jun-Ichi Abe, Kelly L Bolton, Zhongxing Liao, Paul A Scheet, Steven H Lin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Exposure to cancer therapies is associated with an increased risk of clonal hematopoiesis (CH). The objective of our study was to investigate the genesis and evolution of CH after cancer therapy. In this prospective study, we undertook error-corrected duplex DNA sequencing in blood samples collected before and at 2 time points after chemoradiation in patients with esophageal or lung cancer recruited from 2013 to 2018. We applied a customized workflow to identify the earliest changes in CH mutation count and clone size and determine their association with clinical outcomes. Our study included 29 patients (87 samples). Their median age was …

Flagellar Motility Is Mutagenic, Souvik Bhattacharyya, Shelby Lopez, Abhyudai Singh, Rasika M Harshey

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Flagella are highly complex rotary molecular machines that enable bacteria to not only migrate to optimal environments but also to promote range expansion, competitiveness, virulence, and antibiotic survival. Flagellar motility is an energy-demanding process, where the sum of its production (biosynthesis) and operation (rotation) costs has been estimated to total ~10% of the entire energy budget of an

Rapid Hyperspectral Photothermal Mid-Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging From Sparse Data For Gynecologic Cancer Tissue Subtyping, Reza Reihanisaransari, Chalapathi Charan Gajjela, Xinyu Wu, Ragib Ishrak, Sara Corvigno, Yanping Zhong, Jinsong Liu, Anil K Sood, David Mayerich, Sebastian Berisha, Rohith Reddy

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Ovarian cancer detection has traditionally relied on a multistep process that includes biopsy, tissue staining, and morphological analysis by experienced pathologists. While widely practiced, this conventional approach suffers from several drawbacks: it is qualitative, time-intensive, and heavily dependent on the quality of staining. Mid-infrared (MIR) hyperspectral photothermal imaging is a label-free, biochemically quantitative technology that, when combined with machine learning algorithms, can eliminate the need for staining and provide quantitative results comparable to traditional histology. However, this technology is slow. This work presents a novel approach to MIR photothermal imaging that enhances its speed by an order of magnitude. This …

Fast, Variable Stiffness-Induced Braided Coiled Artificial Muscles, Xinghao Hu, Xiangyu Wang, Jian Wang, Guorong Zhang, Shaoli Fang, Fengrui Zhang, Ye Xiao, Guanggui Cheng, Ray H Baughman, Jianning Ding

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Biomimetic actuation technologies with high muscle strokes, cycle rates, and work capacities are necessary for robotic systems. We present a muscle type that operates based on changes in muscle stiffness caused by volume expansion. This muscle is created by coiling a mechanically strong braid, in which an elastomer hollow tube is adhesively attached inside. We show that the muscle reversibly contracts by 47.3% when driven by an oscillating input air pressure of 120 kilopascals at 10 Hz. It generates a maximum power density of 3.0 W/g and demonstrates a mechanical contractile efficiency of 74%. The muscle's low-pressure operation allowed for …

The Impact Of A Web-Based Prognostic Calculator On Prognostic Confidence In Outpatient Palliative Care, David Hui, John P Maxwell, Allison De La Rosa, Kristofer Jennings, Marieberta Vidal, Akhila Reddy, Ahsan Azhar, Rony Dev, Kimberson Tanco, Yvonne Heung, Marvin Delgado-Guay, Donna Zhukovsky, Joseph Arthur, Suresh Reddy, Sriram Yennu, Amy Ontai, Eduardo Bruera

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Clinicians are often uncertain about their prognostic estimates, which may impede prognostic communication and clinical decision-making. We assessed the impact of a web-based prognostic calculator on physicians' prognostic confidence.

Methods: In this prospective study, palliative care physicians estimated the prognosis of patients with advanced cancer in an outpatient clinic using the temporal, surprise, and probabilistic approaches for 6 m, 3 m, 2 m, 1 m, 2 w, 1 w, and 3 d. They then reviewed information from www.predictsurvival.com , which calculated survival estimates from seven validated prognostic scores, including the Palliative Prognostic Score, Palliative Prognostic Index, and Palliative Performance …

Ct Strain Metrics Allow For Earlier Diagnosis Of Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome After Hematopoietic Cell Transplant, Husham Sharifi, Christopher D Bertini, Mansour Alkhunaizi, Maria Hernandez, Zayan Musa, Carlos Borges, Ihsan Turk, Lara Bashoura, Burton F Dickey, Guang-Shing Cheng, Gregory Yanik, Craig J Galban, Huawei Henry Guo, Myrna C B Godoy, Joseph M Reinhardt, Eric A Hoffman, Mario Castro, Gabriela Rondon, Amin M Alousi, Richard E Champlin, Elizabeth J Shpall, Ying Lu, Samuel Peterson, Keshav Datta, Mark R Nicolls, Joe Hsu, Ajay Sheshadri

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Quantitative computed tomography (qCT) can help diagnose advanced BOS meeting National Institutes of Health (NIH) criteria (NIH-BOS) but has not been used to diagnose early, often asymptomatic BOS (early BOS), limiting the potential for early intervention and improved outcomes. Using pulmonary function tests (PFTs) to define NIH-BOS, early BOS, and mixed BOS (NIH-BOS with restrictive lung disease) in patients from 2 large cancer centers, we applied qCT to identify early BOS and distinguish between types of BOS. Patients with transient impairment or healthy lungs …