bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Experiences of nurse practitioners working during the COVID-19 pandemic: A metasynthesis of qualitative studies
Authors: Twist Ida Laura , Moxham Lorna , Tillott Sarah , Fernandez Ritin 
Published: May 2023

ABSTRACT

Background:
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic forced global changes to how nurses practice. Nurse practitioners adjusted their scope, changed how they delivered their service, and worked with limited resources. For some services, patient access was also compromised.

Objectives:
To synthesize, combine, and present current evidence on the experiences of nurse practitioners working during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data sources:
CINAHL, Embase, and MEDLINE electronic databases were used to perform a structured search strategy.

Conclusion:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, health care services had to leverage their workforce skills to accelerate COVID-19 identification, treatment, and care. Nurse practitioners rapidly found themselves at the forefront and were concerned about infecting others. They also identified the need for support and were able to adapt to the changing environment. Nurse practitioners also recognized the impact on their well-being. Having insight into nurse practitioner's experiences during the pandemic is valuable for future health care workforce planning. Understanding how they coped will help with critical preparedness and response actions to other health care crises.

Implications for practice:
Having insight into nurse practitioner's experiences during the pandemic is valuable for future health care workforce planning because, as we know, the nurse practitioner workforce is one of the most rapidly growing professions in primary health care. Any future work in this space will help inform future nurse practitioner education and also help by informing critical preparedness and response actions to future health care crises, whether global or local or clinical or nonclinical.
Education standards, accreditation, certification, and regulation of nurse practitioner practice
Authors: Savin Michele K. , Newberry Desi M. 
Published: May 2023

ABSTRACT
Many organizations play a role in creating, supporting, clarifying, and certifying the foundational documents for nurse practitioner (NP) education and practice. Quality standards for NP education are promulgated by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF). Competency-based education, in the form of interactive learning, helps bridge the gap between theory and practice. In 2021, AACN released new competencies that correspond to 10 domains which reflect the uniqueness of the nursing profession and guide professional nursing education. The NONPF and AACN are co-facilitators of a multi-organizational group called the National Task Force (NTF) on quality nurse practitioner education that standardizes the general evaluation of NP education. In 2022, the NTF updated the evaluation standards in response to the new competencies. Schools are accredited by one of three agencies: The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, The Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, and The National League for Nursing Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation. The eight NP specialties each have their own certifying bodies. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing is involved in regulation of NPs. The purpose of this article is to update stakeholders, including NPs, preceptors, and nurse faculty, about the various agencies and guidelines that inform education standards, accreditation, certification, and regulation of NP practice. A review of recently published guidelines with a summary of implications is also presented.
Great debates in trauma biomechanics
Authors: Glatt Vaida , O'Toole Robert , Mehta Samir , Kandemir Utku , Ricci William , Nauth Aaron , Schemitsch Emil , Hast Michael W. 
Published: May 2023

Summary:
At the 2021 annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Trauma Association, the Basic Science Focus Forum hosted its first ever debate-style symposium focused on biomechanics and fracture repair. The 3 subjects of debate were “Mechanics versus Biology—Which is ‘More Important’ to Consider?” “Locked Plate versus Forward Dynamization versus Reverse Dynamization—Which Way Should I Go?” and “Sawbones versus Cadaver Models—What Should I Believe Most?” These debates were held because fracture healing is a highly organized synergistic response between biological factors and the local mechanical environment. Multiple studies have demonstrated that both factors play roles in governing bone healing responses, and the causal relationships between the 2 remain unclear. The lack of clarity in this space has led to a spectrum of research with the common goal of helping surgeons make good decisions. Before reading further, the reader should understand that the questions posed in the debate titles are unanswerable and might represent a false choice. Instead, the reader should appreciate that the debates were held to gain a more thorough understanding of these topics based on the current state of the art of experimental and clinical studies, by using an engaging and thought-provoking format.
Orthopaedic infections: what have we learned?
Authors: Lee Christopher , Mayer Erik , Bernthal Nicholas , Wenke Joseph , O'Toole Robert V. 
Published: May 2023

Summary:Orthopaedic infections remain challenging complications to treat, with profound economic impact in addition to patient morbidity. The overall estimates of infection after orthopaedic surgery with internal devices has been estimated at 5%, with hospital costs eight times that of those without fracture-related infections and with significantly poorer functional and pain interference PROMIS scores. Orthopaedic infection interventions have been focused on prevention and treatment options. The creation of new modalities for orthopaedic infection treatment can benefit from the understanding of the temporal relationship between bacterial colonization and host–cell integration, a concept referred to as “the race for the surface.” Regarding prevention, host modulation and antibiotic powder use have been explored as viable options to lower infection rates. Orthopaedic infection treatment has additionally continued to evolve, with PO antibiotics demonstrating equivalent efficacy to IV antibiotics for the treatment of orthopaedic infections in recent studies. In conclusion, orthopaedic infections remain difficult clinical dilemmas, although evolving prevention and treatment modalities continue to emerge.
Airway Epithelium Respiratory Illnesses and Allergy (AERIAL) birth cohort: study protocol
Authors: Kicic-Starcevich Elizabeth , Hancock David G , Iosifidis Thomas , Agudelo-Romero Patricia , Caparros-Martin Jose A , Silva Desiree , Turkovic Lidija , Le Souef Peter N , Bosco Anthony , Martino David J , Kicic Anthony , Prescott Susan L , Stick Stephen M 
Published: May 2023

ABSTRACTIntroductionRecurrent wheezing disorders including asthma are complex and heterogeneous diseases that affect up to 30% of all children, contributing to a major burden on children, their families, and global healthcare systems. It is now recognized that a dysfunctional airway epithelium plays a central role in the pathogenesis of recurrent wheeze, although the underlying mechanisms are still not fully understood. This prospective birth cohort aims to bridge this knowledge gap by investigating the influence of intrinsic epithelial dysfunction on the risk for developing respiratory disorders and the modulation of this risk by maternal morbidities,in uteroexposures, and respiratory exposures in the first year of life.Methods and AnalysisThe Airway Epithelium Respiratory Illnesses and Allergy (AERIAL) study is nested within the ORIGINS Project and will monitor 400 infants from birth to five years. The primary outcome of the AERIAL study will be the identification of epithelial endotypes and exposure variables that influence the development of recurrent wheezing, asthma, and allergic sensitisation. Nasal respiratory epithelium at birth to six weeks, one, three, and five years will be analysed by bulk RNA-seq and DNA methylation sequencing. Maternal morbidities andin uteroexposures will be identified on maternal history and their effects measured through transcriptomic and epigenetic analyses of the amnion and newborn epithelium. Exposures within the first year of life will be identified based on infant medical history as well as on background and symptomatic nasal sampling for viral PCR and microbiome analysis. Daily temperatures and symptoms recorded in a study-specific Smartphone App will be used to identify symptomatic respiratory illnesses.Ethics and DisseminationEthical approval has been obtained from Ramsey Health Care HREC WA-SA (#1908). Results will be disseminated through open-access peer-reviewed manuscripts, conference presentations, and through different media channels to consumers, ORIGINS families, and the wider community.
ESKtides: a comprehensive database and mining method for ESKAPE-derived peptides
Authors: Li David Runze , Wu Hongfang , Zou Geng , Li Xuejian , Zhang Yue , Zhou Yang , Chen Huanchun , Li Jinquan 
Published: May 2023

AbstractUnder the concept of one health, Super-drug resistant bacteria are getting more and more attention from scientists, in particular, ESKAPE bacteria directly killed more than 1,270,000 people in 2019. Recent studies have proposed that phage PGHs(peptidoglycan hydrolases) and antimicrobial peptides can be the new antibacterial agents against multi-drug resistant bacteria. However, Methods for mining antimicrobial peptides based on phages or phages PGHs are in need to develop. Here, using ESKAPE strains and ESKAPE phages in total of 6,809 samples from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), PhagesDB, Microbe Versus Phage (MVP) and Virus-Host Database, we systematically identified PGHs across ESKAPE strains prophages and phages, mined peptides and scored peptides based on PGHs. As a result, a total of 1,000 high antibacterial activity peptides and 1,200 medium antibacterial activity peptides were identified. In order to reduce the impact of different methods on comments, we used a unified process to comment ESKAPE strains and phages. In addition, we designed an online tool to predict the peptides antibacterial activity. Calculations of peptides phylogeny, peptides physicochemical property and peptides secondary structure are also included into our online tools. Finally, we developed ESKtides, a user-friendly and intuitive database (http://www.phageonehealth.cn:9000/ESKtides) for data browsing, searching, and downloading. ESKtides will significantly provide a rich peptide library based on ESKAPE strains and phages.
VEGF-C overexpression in kidney progenitor cells is a model of renal lymphangiectasia
Authors: Donnan Michael D. , Deb Dilip K. , David Valentin , Quaggin Susan E. 
Published: May 2023

ABSTRACTBackgroundLymphangiogenesis is believed to be a protective response in the setting of multiple forms of kidney injury and mitigates the progression of interstitial fibrosis. To augment this protective response, promoting kidney lymphangiogenesis is being investigated as a potential treatment to slow the progression of kidney disease.As injury related lymphangiogenesis is driven by signaling from the receptor VEGFR-3 in response to the cognate growth factor VEGF-C released by tubular epithelial cells, this signaling pathway is a candidate for future kidney therapeutics. However, the consequences to kidney development and function to targeting this signaling pathway remains poorly defined.MethodsWe generated a new mouse model expressingVegf-Cunder regulation of the nephron progenitor Six2Cre driver strain (Six2Vegf-C). Mice underwent a detailed phenotypic evaluation. Whole kidneys were processed for histology and micro computed tomography 3-dimensional imaging.ResultsSix2Vegf-Cmice had reduced body weight and kidney function compared to littermate controls.Six2Vegf-Ckidneys demonstrated large peripelvic fluid filled lesions with distortion of the pelvicalcyceal system which progressed in severity with age. 3D imaging showed a 3-fold increase in total cortical vascular density. Histology confirmed a substantial increase in LYVE1+/PDPN+/VEGFR3+ lymphatic capillaries extending alongside EMCN+ peritubular capillaries. There was no change in EMCN+ peritubular capillary density.ConclusionsKidney lymphangiogenesis was robustly induced in theSix2Vegf-Cmice. There were no changes in peritubular blood capillary density despite these endothelial cells also expressing VEGFR-3. The model resulted in a severe cystic kidney phenotype that resembled a human condition termed renal lymphangiectasia. This study defines the vascular consequences of augmenting VEGF-C signaling during kidney development and provides new insight into a mimicker of human cystic kidney disease.
Plant inositol transport influences bacterial colonization phenotypes
Authors: O’Banion Bridget S. , Jones Piet , Demetros Alexander A. , Kelley Brittni R. , Wagner Andrew S. , Chen Jin-Gui , Muchero Wellington , Reynolds Todd B. , Jacobson Daniel , Lebeis Sarah L. 
Published: May 2023

SummaryPlant microbiomes are assembled and modified through a complex milieu of biotic and abiotic factors. Despite dynamic and fluctuating contributing variables, specific host metabolites are consistently identified as important mediators of microbial interactions. We combine information from a large-scale metatranscriptomic dataset from natural poplar trees and experimental genetic manipulation assays in model Arabidopsis seedlings to converge on a conserved role for transport of the plant metabolitemyo-inositol in mediating host-microbe interactions. While microbial catabolism of this compound is often linked to increased host colonization, we identify motility phenotypes that occur independently of catabolism, suggesting that inositol may additionally serve as a eukaryotic-derived signaling molecule to modulate microbial activities. Our data suggests host control of this compound and resulting microbial behavior are important mechanisms at play surrounding the host metabolite inositol.
Natural and engineered isoforms of the inflammasome adaptor ASC form non-covalent, pH-responsive hydrogels
Authors: Gaspar-Morales Eduardo A. , Waterston Anthony , Diaz-Parga Pedro , Smith Ariell M. , Sadqi Mourad , Gopinath Arvind , Andresen Eguiluz Roberto C. , de Alba Eva 
Published: May 2023

ABSTRACTThe protein ASC polymerizes into intricate filament networks to assemble the inflammasome, a filamentous multiprotein complex that triggers the inflammatory response. ASC carries two Death Domains integrally involved in protein self-association for filament assembly. We have leveraged this behavior to create non-covalent, pH-responsive hydrogels of full-length, folded ASC by carefully controlling the pH as a critical factor in the polymerization process. We show that natural variants of ASC (ASC isoforms) involved in inflammasome regulation also undergo hydrogelation. To further demonstrate this general capability, we engineered proteins inspired in the ASC structure that successfully form hydrogels. We analyzed the structural network of the natural and engineered protein hydrogels using transmission and scanning electron microscopy, and studied their viscoelastic behavior by shear rheology. Our results reveal one of the very few examples of hydrogels created by the self-assembly of globular proteins and domains in their native conformation and show that Death Domains can be used alone or as building blocks to engineer bioinspired hydrogels.
Computational and experimental hunt for expansion prone tandem CNG repeats in human genomes
Authors: Suroliya Varun , Uppili Bharathram , Kumar Manish , Jha Vineet , Srivastava Achal K , Faruq Mohammed 
Published: May 2023

AbstractIntroductionSpinocerebellar ataxias (SCA) are a group of clinically and genetically heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorders. Tandem repeat expansion is the pathogenic mutation in most of SCA cases. The pathophysiology of SCAs is still not completely defined due to the lack of genetic mutation in around 50% of cases worldwide. These uncharacterized cases must be genetically diagnosed for a better understanding and future treatment purposes. In this study, we tried a combination of computational and experimental approaches to find out novel CNG repeat loci that may be associated with SCAs.MethodologyWe investigate the human reference genome (hg-37) to find out all the possible CNG repeats present in more than 3 continuous uninterrupted units and annotated their functional locations. For experiment purposes, we targeted 52 loci from exonic and UTR regions and screened them in our 100 control samples through fragment analysis to know their polymorphic status. All the highly polymorphic loci were further investigated in 100 patient samples to know any large repeat expansion.ResultsThere are 15069 CNG repeat loci present in the human genome. After the examination of 52 loci in the control samples, 19 loci showed a highly polymorphic repeat pattern and were screened in patients. The 1000 genome different population data also suggested the polymorphic status in the available 15 loci data. From the GTEx database, 18 loci proposed the expression in the brain, suggesting any variation in these genes may cause neurological disorders.ConclusionWe tried a different kind of approach to find out tandem repeat expansion mutation in a cost-effective manner. Although we were unable to identify any disease-causing mutation in our patient cohort recently, various studies from different populations of the world have vouched for the genetic changes in these genes like GLS, RAI1, GIPC1, and CNKSR2 resulted in neurological disorders. Moreover, publications on the same identified repeats in GIPC1 for OPMD and GLS for ataxia with developmental delay, confirm the hypothesis to evaluate these repeat loci in different populations and other neurological disorders to identify novel targets.
How well do models of visual cortex generalize to out of distribution samples?
Authors: Ren Yifei , Bashivan Pouya 
Published: May 2023

AbstractUnit activity in particular deep neural networks (DNNs) are remarkably similar to the neuronal population responses to static images along the primate ventral visual cortex. Lin-ear combinations of DNN unit activities are widely used to build predictive models of neu-ronal activity in the visual cortex. Nevertheless, prediction performance in these models is often investigated on stimulus sets consisting of everyday objects under naturalistic set-tings. Recent work has revealed a generalization gap in how predicting neuronal responses to synthetically generated out-of-distribution (OOD) stimuli. Here, we investigated how the recent progress in improving DNNs’ object recognition generalization, as well as various DNN design choices such as architecture, learning algorithm, and datasets have impacted the generalization gap in neural predictivity. We came to a surprising conclusion that the performance on none of the common computer vision OOD object recognition benchmarks is predictive of OOD neural predictivity performance. Furthermore, we found that adver-sarially robust models often yield substantially higher generalization in neural predictivity, although the degree of robustness itself was not predictive of neural predictivity score. These results suggest that improving object recognition behavior on current benchmarks alone may not lead to more general models of neurons in the primate ventral visual cortex.
Externally provided rewards increase internal preference, but not as much as preferred ones without extrinsic rewards
Authors: Zhu Jianhong , Katahira Kentaro , Hirakawa Makoto , Nakao Takashi 
Published: May 2023

AbstractIt is well known that preferences are formed through choices, known as choice-induced preference change (CIPC). However, whether value learned through externally provided rewards influences the preferences formed through CIPC remains unclear. To address this issue, we used tasks for decision-making guided by reward provided by the external environment (externally guided decision-making; EDM) and for decision-making guided by one’s internal preference (internally guided decision-making; IDM). In the IDM task, we presented stimuli with learned value in the EDM and novel stimuli to examine whether the value in the EDM affects preferences. Stimuli reinforced by rewards given in the EDM were reflected in the IDM’s initial preference and further increased through CIPC in the IDM. However, such stimuli were not as strongly preferred as the most preferred novel stimulus in the IDM, indicating the superiority of intrinsically learned values (SIV). The underlying process of this phenomenon is discussed in terms of the fundamental self-hypothesis.Author SummaryWe make decisions based on internal value criteria, which are individual preferences, or based on external value criteria, which are the values learned from the external environment. Although it is known that values are learned in both types of decisions, is there a difference in the nature of these values? Our study uses simulation and fits human behavioral data to address this question. The results showed that stimuli that were learned to be highly valued because of external feedback became preferred in subsequent preference judgments. However, it is interesting to note that such stimuli were not chosen as much as stimuli that were preferred without influence from the external environment. This finding suggests that values formed through one’s own criteria have characteristics distinct from those formed through external environmental influence. Our findings promote an integrated understanding of the decision-making process.
A modified BCG with depletion of enzymes associated with peptidoglycan amidation induces enhanced protection against tuberculosis in mice
Authors: Shaku Moagi T. , Um Peter , Ocius Karl L. , Apostolos Alexis J. , Pires Marcos M. , Bishai William R. , Kana Bavesh D. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractMechanisms by whichMycobacterium tuberculosis(Mtb) evades pathogen recognition receptor activation during infection may offer insights for the development of improved tuberculosis (TB) vaccines. Whilst Mtb elicits NOD-2 activation through host recognition of its peptidoglycan-derived muramyl dipeptide (MDP), it masks the endogenous NOD-1 ligand through amidation of glutamate at the second position in peptidoglycan sidechains. As the current BCG vaccine is derived from pathogenic mycobacteria, a similar situation prevails. To alleviate this masking ability and to potentially improve efficacy of the BCG vaccine, we used CRISPRi to inhibit expression of the essential enzyme pair, MurT-GatD, implicated in amidation of peptidoglycan sidechains. We demonstrate that depletion of these enzymes results in reduced growth, cell wall defects, increased susceptibility to antibiotics and altered spatial localization of new peptidoglycan. In cell culture experiments, training of monocytes with this recombinant BCG yielded improved control of Mtb growth. In the murine model of TB infection, we demonstrate that depletion of MurT-GatD in BCG, resulting in unmasking of the D-glutamate diaminopimelate (iE-DAP) NOD-1 ligand, yields superior prevention of TB disease compared to the standard BCG vaccine. This work demonstrates the feasibility of gene regulation platforms such as CRISPRi to alter antigen presentation in BCG in a bespoke manner that tunes immunity towards more effective protection against TB disease.