Adherence to positive airway pressure therapy in patients with Down syndrome: assessing cloud-based monitoring data.

Study Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea is common in Down syndrome (DS) with many patients prescribed positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy. This study evaluates PAP adherence and identifies factors influencing adherence.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of electronic health records and cloud-based PAP therapy data from patients with DS at Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, CA.

Neonicotinoid Residues on Filter Paper Lack Insecticidal Activity.

Neonicotinoid insecticides are used against agricultural, forest, and urban insect pests. Evaluation of dry neonicotinoid residues on treated filter paper is a commonly used method to determine the toxicity of active ingredients towards target and non-target organisms. Dry residues of four neonicotinoids, acetamiprid, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam, on filter paper did not cause significant levels of mortality in Hippodamia convergens (Guérin-Méneville) (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) and Nezara viridula (L.

Intensive Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Frequency and Burden of Migraine: An Unblinded Single-Arm Trial.

Objectives: Preventing migraine headaches and improving the quality of life for patients with migraine remains a challenge. We hypothesized intensive meditation training would reduce the disease burden of migraine.

Method: An unblinded trial was analyzed as a single cohort exposed to a silent 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat that included 100 hr of sitting meditation.

Nesting Behavior, Phenology, and Bionomics of the High Andean Leaf-Cutter Bee Megachile (Cressoniella) amparo.

Megachile amparo (González, Revista Colombiana De Entomología 32(1):93-96, 2006) is the only high Andean leaf-cutter bee reported in Colombia and is possibly endemic to the Colombian Andes. Although it is frequently observed, even in urban areas, its biology and ecology remain unknown. The present study aimed to describe detailed aspects of its bionomy.

Therapeutic US Applications for the Abdomen and Pelvis.

US and MRI-guided therapeutic US (TUS) can aid in the treatment of prostate, liver, and pancreatic cancer, as well as uterine fibroids and osseous metastases, and understanding the selection and optimization of treatment strategies is essential to furthering TUS advances and innovations.

High Foraging Fidelity and Plant-Pollinator Network Dominance of Non-native Honeybees (Apis mellifera) in the Ecuadorian Andes.

Pollinator foraging fidelity (i.e., consistent and repeated visitation to a particular plant species or area) is poorly understood for most bee species, but is important information for both the conservation of plant and pollinator species and the ecosystem services they provide to humans.

Dynamics in Pest Status of Phytophagous Stink Bugs in the Neotropics.

In this review article, we present and discuss the main factors influencing the change in pest status of phytophagous stink bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) in the Neotropics. We have surveyed the published records over the past 50 years and divided this timeframe into decades. This was done to rank in time the relative abundance (percentage) of the following species, known pests of commodities, in the Neotropical Region: the Neotropical brown stink bug, Euschistus heros (F.

CT/MRI and CEUS LI-RADS Major Features Association with Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Individual Patient Data Meta-Analysis.

Background The Liver Imaging Reporting and Data System (LI-RADS) assigns a risk category for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to imaging observations. Establishing the contributions of major features can inform the diagnostic algorithm. Purpose To perform a systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis to establish the probability of HCC for each LI-RADS major feature using CT/MRI and contrast-enhanced US (CEUS) LI-RADS in patients at high risk for HCC.

The impact of policy timing on the spread of COVID-19.

We model COVID-19 data for 89 nations and US states with a recently developed formalism that describes mathematically any pattern of growth with the minimum number of parameters. The results show that the disease has a typical duration of 18 days, with a significant increase in fatality when it lasts longer than about 4 months. Searching for correlations between "flattening of the curve" and preventive public policies, we find strong statistical evidence for the impact of the first implemented policy on decreasing the pandemic growth rate; a delay of one week in implementation nearly triples the size of the infected population, on average.

Determining the prevalence and risk factors for prescription drug unaffordability.

Background: Prescription affordability is a key component of healthcare accessibility and a determinant of health outcomes. Prior studies indicate that up to 1 in 4 Americans report difficulty affording prescriptions.

Objective(s): This study aims to identify factors associated with cost-based prescription refusal.

A Prehospital Acute Stroke Trial has Only Modest Impact on Enrollment in Concurrent, Post-arrival-Recruiting Stroke Trials.

Background: Because "time is brain," acute stroke trials are migrating to the prehospital setting. The impact upon enrollment in post-arrival trials of earlier recruitment in a prehospital trial requires delineation.

Methods: We analyzed all patients recruited into acute and prevention stroke trials during an 8-year period when an academic medical center (AMC) was participating in a prehospital treatment trial - the NIH Field Administration of Stroke Treatment - Magnesium (FAST-MAG) study.

Ants Do Not Traverse the Silk of Adult Female Nephila clavipes (Linnaeus) Webs.

Many organisms use chemicals to deter enemies. Some spiders can modify the composition of their silk to deter predators from climbing onto their webs. The Malaysian golden orb-weaver Nephila antipodiana (Walckenaer) produces silk containing an alkaloid (2-pyrrolidinone) that functions as a defense against ant invasion-ants avoid silk containing this chemical.

Molecular, Morphological, and Biological Differentiation between Anagrus virlai sp. n., an Egg Parasitoid of the Corn Leafhopper Dalbulus maidis (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) in the New World, and Anagrus incarnatus from the Palaearctic Region (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae).

The common New World egg parasitoid of the corn leafhopper Dalbulus maidis (DeLong) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae), an economically important pest of maize from Argentina to southern USA, has long been misidentified as the Palaearctic species Anagrus incarnatus Haliday or its synonym A. breviphragma Soyka (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae). Using a combination of genetic and morphometric methods, and available biological information, specimens reared from eggs of D.

Effect of beta-blockers on exacerbation rate and lung function in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Background: Beta-blockers are commonly prescribed for patients with cardiovascular disease. Providers have been wary of treating chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients with beta-blockers due to concern for bronchospasm, but retrospective studies have shown that cardio-selective beta-blockers are safe in COPD and possibly beneficial. However, these benefits may reflect symptom improvements due to the cardiac effects of the medication.

Hepatopulmonary Shunting: A Prognostic Indicator of Survival in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Adenocarcinoma Treated with Y Radioembolization.

Purpose To determine if high lung shunt fraction (LSF) is an independent prognostic indicator of poor survival in patients who undergo yttrium 90 radioembolization for unresectable liver-dominant metastatic colorectal cancer. Materials and Methods Retrospective data were analyzed from 606 patients (62% men; mean age, 62 years) who underwent radioembolization to treat liver metastases from colorectal adenocarcinoma between July 2002 and December 2011 at 11 U.S.

Small Bugs, Big Changes: Taxonomic Revision of Orthorhagus McAtee & Malloch.

The Schizopteridae, the largest family of litter bugs (Hemiptera: Schizopteridae), comprises 53 genera of primarily tropical, tiny true bugs. The largest genus Schizoptera Fieber comprises 64 described species and six subgenera with primarily tropical and subtropical distributions across the New World. Schizoptera species are morphologically diverse with extreme asymmetry of male genitalia and sexually dimorphic wing in females of some species.

Onset, timing, and exposure therapy of stress disorders: mechanistic insight from a mathematical model of oscillating neuroendocrine dynamics.

Background: The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a neuroendocrine system that regulates numerous physiological processes. Disruptions in the activity of the HPA axis are correlated with stress-related diseases such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder. In this paper, we characterize "normal" and "diseased" states of the HPA axis as basins of attraction of a dynamical system describing the inhibition of peptide hormones such as corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) by circulating glucocorticoids such as cortisol (CORT).

Lethal and Demographic Impact of Chlorpyrifos and Spinosad on the Ectoparasitoid Habrobracon hebetor (Say) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae).

The appropriate use of biological agents and chemical compounds is necessary to establish successful integrated pest management (IPM) programs. Thus, the off-target effects of pesticides on biological control agents are essential considerations of IPM. In this study, the effects of lethal and sublethal concentrations of chlorpyrifos and spinosad on the demographic parameters of Habrobracon hebetor (Say) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) were assessed.

Comparative effectiveness of combined digital mammography and tomosynthesis screening for women with dense breasts.

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of combined biennial digital mammography and tomosynthesis screening, compared with biennial digital mammography screening alone, among women with dense breasts.

Materials And Methods: An established, discrete-event breast cancer simulation model was used to estimate the comparative clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of biennial screening with both digital mammography and tomosynthesis versus digital mammography alone among U.S.

A physiologically motivated sparse, compact, and smooth (SCS) approach to EEG source localization.

Here, we introduce a novel approach to the EEG inverse problem based on the assumption that principal cortical sources of multi-channel EEG recordings may be assumed to be spatially sparse, compact, and smooth (SCS). To enforce these characteristics of solutions to the EEG inverse problem, we propose a correlation-variance model which factors a cortical source space covariance matrix into the multiplication of a pre-given correlation coefficient matrix and the square root of the diagonal variance matrix learned from the data under a Bayesian learning framework. We tested the SCS method using simulated EEG data with various SNR and applied it to a real ECOG data set.

Automatic Segmentation and Quantification of Filamentous Structures in Electron Tomography.

Electron tomography is a promising technology for imaging ultrastructures at nanoscale resolutions. However, image and quantitative analyses are often hindered by high levels of noise, staining heterogeneity, and material damage either as a result of the electron beam or sample preparation. We have developed and built a framework that allows for automatic segmentation and quantification of filamentous objects in 3D electron tomography.

Electrocortical source imaging of intracranial EEG data in epilepsy.

Here we report first results of numerical methods for modeling the dynamic structure and evolution of epileptic seizure activity in an intracranial subdural electrode recording from a patient with partial refractory epilepsy. A 16-min dataset containing two seizures was decomposed using up to five competing adaptive mixture independent component analysis (AMICA) models. Multiple models modeled early or late ictal, or pre- or post-ictal periods in the data, respectively.

Uptake of divalent ions (Mn+2 and Ca+2) by heat-set whey protein gels.

Unlabelled: Divalent salts are used commonly for gelation of polymer molecules. Calcium, Ca(+2), is one of the most common divalent ions that is used in whey protein gels. Manganese, Mn(+2), is also divalent, but paramagnetic, enhancing relaxation decay rates in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and can be used as a probe to understand the behavior of Ca(+2) in whey protein gels.

Barbadocladius Cranston & Krosch, a new genus of Orthocladiinae (Diptera: Chironomidae) from South America.

Barbadocladius n. gen. is erected and described in larval, pupal and adult stages for two species: B.

Image analysis of microstructural changes in almond cotyledon as a result of processing.

Release of oil from nuts due to damaged cellular structures can degrade the quality of products incorporating nuts. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different processing conditions on microstructure of almond tissue and to quantify these changes using image processing. Spinning disk confocal fluorescence microscopy was used for imaging changes in microstructure of almonds as a function of different thermal processing of almonds.