http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/ucsf/rss Recent eScholarship items from UCSF Thu, 18 Jun 2026 04:12:37 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wg0r7m6 TPS6603 Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutations represents a subset of up to approximately 7-14% of patients. For patients with IDH1m AML ineligible for first line intensive induction, the combination of a hypomethylating agent (HMA) and venetoclax (VEN) is a standard of care based on the VIALE-A study. In patients with IDH1m, the HMA azacitidine (AZA) plus VEN regimen leads to a complete remission (CR) plus CR with incomplete count recovery (CRi) rate of 66.7%, duration of remission (DoR) 21.9 months, and median overall survival (OS) of 15.2 months. However, one of the limiting features of HMA-VEN is myelosuppression, leading to dose delays and reductions, and adverse events (AEs) led to discontinuation in up to 30% of patients on the VIALE-A study. Approaches to increase tolerability and improve outcomes are of interest. Olutasidenib (OLU) is a potent, oral and selective small-molecule IDH1m inhibitor currently approved for... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wg0r7m6 Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Jonas, Brian Andrew https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4921-5809 Bukari, Mohammad Ferng, Timothy Jeyakumar, Deepa Oliai, Caspian Tanaka, Tiffany N Huang, Chiung-Yu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2313-3562 Socola, Francisco https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6m40k0gc INTRODUCTION: Metformin may be associated with reduced colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, but findings from previous studies have been inconsistent and had insufficient sample sizes to examine whether the association differs by anatomic site. This study examined whether metformin was associated with reduced CRC risk, both overall and stratified by anatomic site, in a large sample of persons with diabetes who underwent colonoscopy. METHODS: We performed a case-control study of US Veterans with prevalent diabetes who underwent colonoscopy between 1999 and 2014 using Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health record data. Cases were defined by presence of CRC at colonoscopy, while controls had normal colonoscopy. The primary exposure was metformin use at time of colonoscopy (yes/no). Association of metformin exposure with CRC (further stratified by proximal, distal, or rectal subsite) was examined using multivariable and multinomial logistic regression and summarized by odds ratios... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6m40k0gc Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Demb, Joshua Yaseyyedi, Armaan Liu, Lin Bustamante, Ranier Earles, Ashley Ghosh, Pradipta https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8917-3201 Gutkind, J Silvio https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5150-4482 Gawron, Andrew J Kaltenbach, Tonya R Martinez, Maria Elena Gupta, Samir https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4192-5002 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3c51f39z <h4>Background</h4>Large language models (LLMs) and, more recently, large reasoning models (LRMs) have rapidly garnered significant interest for application in psychiatry and behavioral health. However, recent studies have identified significant shortcomings and potential risks in the performance of LLM-based systems, complicating their application to psychiatric diagnosis. Two promising approaches to addressing these challenges and improving the efficacy of these models are simulated reasoning (SR) and self-verification (SV), in which additional reasoning tokens are used to guide model output, either during or after inference.<h4>Objective</h4>We aimed to explore how the use of SR (via LRMs) and SV (via supplemental prompting) affects the psychiatric diagnostic performance of LLMs.<h4>Methods</h4>106 case vignettes and associated diagnoses were extracted from the DSM-5-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Version 5, Text Revision) Clinical Cases book, with permission. Both... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3c51f39z Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sarma, Karthik Hanss, Kaitlin Halls, Andrew Becker, Daniel Glowinski, Anne Krystal, Andrew https://escholarship.org/uc/item/05n7r2bk <h4>Objectives</h4>To assess associations between body weight metrics and eating disorder (ED)-psychopathology in adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) at baseline and four weeks post-discharge (4-week follow-up) from inpatient psychiatric multimodal treatment (IMT), calculating full and partial body mass index (BMI) percentile/ED-psychopathology remission rates.<h4>Methods</h4>Secondary analysis of a prospective observational cohort study in adolescents (12-18 years) with AN-restricting (AN-R)/-binge-purge (AN-BP), and atypical AN (AAN). Body weight metrics and ED-psychopathology (Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, EDE-Q) were assessed at baseline and 4-week follow-up. Remission at 4-week follow-up was calculated by applying German-AN-S3-guidelines-based vs. DSM-5 criteria.<h4>Results</h4>In 40 adolescents (mean age = 15.6 ± 1.5 years; females = 90%; BMI <i>z</i>-score = -2.59 ± 1.07) receiving IMT (median duration = 118 (IQR = 90-150) days), BMI <i>z</i>-score increased... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/05n7r2bk Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Neumeier, Elisabeth Imken, Linus Kaiser, Vivien Le Grange, Daniel Haas, Verena Correll, Christoph https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9490m93h <h4>Background</h4>Adolescence has been identified as a high-risk period for graft failure. However, existing knowledge on this topic is largely limited to long-term graft outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine the association between age at kidney transplantation and early graft loss, defined as graft failure within 3 years post-transplantation in the contemporary era.<h4>Methods</h4>This study was a retrospective analysis of 55 973 first-time kidney transplant recipients identified in the U.S. Renal Data System from January 1, 2005, to December 31, 2021. Adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate the association between age at transplantation and early graft failure including an interaction term for race/ethnicity.<h4>Results</h4>Adolescents (12 to &lt; 18 years) and young adults (18 to &lt; 26 years) were at the highest risk of early death-censored graft loss compared to young adults (26 to &lt; 40 years), with hazard ratios of 1.95 (95%... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9490m93h Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Marroquin, Karina Frazier, Krystle Mcculloch, Chuck Grimes, Barbara Ku, Elaine https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7st7q7dt Altered extracellular proteolysis has been exploited to selectively activate therapeutics in diseases such as cancer; however, once activated, extracellular drugs can diffuse away, limiting efficacy. We address this challenge by coupling proteolytic activation with membrane tethering to retain drugs within diseased tissue. To accomplish this, we developed “restricted interaction peptides” (RIPs), a delivery platform that leverages elevated proteolytic activity to activate membrane-interacting peptides, localizing cargos near the site of proteolysis. We demonstrate that RIPs can deliver diverse therapeutic cargos, including cytotoxins and radioisotopes. As proof of concept, we engineered “FRIP,” a RIP designed for cleavage by fibroblast activation protein (FAP), an endoprotease upregulated in solid tumors and fibrosis. Efficient P4–P4’ substrate sequences were identified and incorporated into FRIPs. Cell-based studies showed that, upon activation, the peptide adhered to membranes... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7st7q7dt Mon, 15 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Kang, Deokhee Pandey, Apurva Kumar, Garima Mehta, Abijeet Singh Detomasi, Tyler C Anderson, Dashiell Bardine, Conner Asper, Garrison Qi, Junyang Nadig, Isha Cui, Yifan Quimby, Fiona M Ling, Jesse Seo, Youngho https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5908-6636 Cohen, Bruce E Anwar, Mekhail Evans, Michael J Craik, Charles S https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7704-9185 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5nr0992r https://ucsf.app.box.com/s/a6f0eh4w5wjh31eu55bn5ku92kq0sfi4 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5nr0992r Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Shabbir, Zain Shagun, Arora Dunn, Lisa Ghaskadbi, Pranav Le, Victoria Jimenez Rodriguez, Jimena Aldana, Mario Zhu, Ryan Zou, Charisse Wang, Livia Alvarez, Mae Chung, Alfred Kumar, Anupama Lipof, Jodi Pan, Darren Martin, Thomas Wolf, Jeffrey Chari, Ajai Belkora, Jeffrey https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5z10z7tj Aging is defined by a progressive deterioration of tissue and organ functionality during adulthood. Across species from invertebrates to mammals, the female reproductive system has consistently been found to be one of the first organs to lose functionality with age. While oocytes have long been assumed to be the primary cells affected by aging, growing evidence points to ovarian somatic cells as key contributors, though the molecular mechanisms driving their aging remain poorly understood. In the Drosophila ovary, a layer of somatic follicle cells surrounds each germ-cell cyst. These follicle cells are essential for guiding and supporting germ-cell cyst development into a mature oocyte. We found that aging is characterized by an accumulation of phenotypes in the somatic compartment, including failure of the follicle cells to encapsulate germ-cell cysts, an extended S phase, and increased DNA damage. These follicle encapsulation defects are associated with the lack of a germ-cell... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5z10z7tj Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Wolfgram, Emily Allyson https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1073-7981 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7nf6n5wd <h4>Background</h4>Biological and health research is increasingly data-driven, with commercial and academic institutions generating data at unprecedented rates. The rapid pace of data generation, together with lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, underscores the need for nimble, transparent, and dependable data infrastructures that enable rapid study execution and timely insights to inform public health policy and practice.<h4>Objective</h4>This paper describes the workflow-based information management (WIM) framework, a flexible research information management system designed to support diverse epidemiologic workflows and data-intensive research projects.<h4>Methods</h4>WIM was developed as a modular, workflow-oriented framework built on the open-source R (R Foundation) programming language and its extensive ecosystem of community-developed packages. The framework emphasizes reproducibility, adaptability, and transparency, enabling users to design and manage research... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7nf6n5wd Mon, 8 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sulaeman, Hasan Stone, Mars Bruhn, Roberta Zurita, Karla Nguyen, Anh Chiang, Vincent Jones, Jefferson Deng, Xutao Custer, Brian Busch, Michael Grebe, Eduard https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7179824j Importance: Despite established treatment guidelines and strong therapeutic benefit, hydroxyurea remains underused among patients with sickle cell disease. Objective: To assess the change in self-reported hydroxyurea use (ie, taking the medication at all) and adherence (ie, the number of days taken per week) over time and to examine factors associated with the trajectory of hydroxyurea use and adherence. Design, Setting, and Participants: Data were collected through the Sickle Cell Disease Implementation Consortium, a longitudinal, multicenter, observational cohort study that recruited patients from 8 centers across the US. Data collection occurred from 2017 to 2022, and analyses were performed from January to October 2025. Data were collected via self-report survey at baseline and 3 follow-up surveys distributed yearly. Patients with sickle cell disease of all genotypes between the ages of 15 and 45 years were included. Exposure: Sickle cell disease. Main Outcomes and Measures:... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7179824j Mon, 8 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Heitzer, Andrew M Wooten, Zachary Luo, Guangjin Treadwell, Marsha https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0521-1846 King, Allison A Gordeuk, Victor R Shah, Nirmish Abrams, Christina M McCuskee, Sarah Gollan, Siera Longoria, Jennifer Hankins, Jane S https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7pw9j9mr Underrepresented populations are often excluded from genomic studies owing in part to a lack of resources supporting their analyses. The 1000 Genomes Project (1kGP) and Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP), which have recently been sequenced to high coverage, are valuable genomic resources because of the global diversity they capture and their open data sharing policies. Here, we harmonized a high-quality set of 4094 whole genomes from 80 populations in the HGDP and 1kGP with data from the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD) and identified over 153 million high-quality SNVs, indels, and SVs. We performed a detailed ancestry analysis of this cohort, characterizing population structure and patterns of admixture across populations, analyzing site frequency spectra, and measuring variant counts at global and subcontinental levels. We also show substantial added value from this data set compared with the prior versions of the component resources, typically combined via liftOver and... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7pw9j9mr Fri, 5 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Koenig, Zan Yohannes, Mary Nkambule, Lethukuthula Zhao, Xuefang Goodrich, Julia Kim, Heesu Wilson, Michael Tiao, Grace Hao, Stephanie Sahakian, Nareh Chao, Katherine Walker, Mark Lyu, Yunfei Rehm, Heidi Neale, Benjamin Talkowski, Michael Daly, Mark Brand, Harrison Karczewski, Konrad Atkinson, Elizabeth Martin, Alicia https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0372c6fn Pregnancy loss and perinatal death are devastating events for families. We assessed genomic autopsy as an adjunct to standard autopsy for 200 families who had experienced fetal or newborn death, providing a definitive or candidate genetic diagnosis in 105 families. Our cohort provides evidence of severe atypical in utero presentations of known genetic disorders and identifies novel phenotypes and disease genes. Inheritance of 42% of definitive diagnoses were either autosomal recessive (30.8%), X-linked recessive (3.8%) or autosomal dominant (excluding de novos, 7.7%), with risk of recurrence in future pregnancies. We report that at least ten families (5%) used their diagnosis for preimplantation (5) or prenatal diagnosis (5) of 12 pregnancies. We emphasize the clinical importance of genomic investigations of pregnancy loss and perinatal death, with short turnaround times for diagnostic reporting and followed by systematic research follow-up investigations. This approach has the... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0372c6fn Fri, 5 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Byrne, Alicia Arts, Peer Ha, Thuong Kassahn, Karin Pais, Lynn ODonnell-Luria, Anne Babic, Milena Frank, Mahalia Feng, Jinghua Wang, Paul Lawrence, David Eshraghi, Leila Arriola, Luis Toubia, John Nguyen, Hung McGillivray, George Pinner, Jason McKenzie, Fiona Morrow, Rebecca Lipsett, Jill Manton, Nick Khong, T Moore, Lynette Liebelt, Jan Schreiber, Andreas King-Smith, Sarah Hardy, Tristan Jackson, Matilda Barnett, Christopher Scott, Hamish https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hx559x0 Inadequate Support A 71-year-old man presented to the emergency department with a 6-month history of melena, easy bleeding and bruising, and lightheadedness. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hx559x0 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Pichan, Cayla Dhaliwal, Gurpreet Cusick, Alice Saint, Sanjay Houchens, Nathan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hm8q7nw Rapamycin Reverses Lymphatic Abnormalities in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Pulmonary Lymphangiectasia https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9hm8q7nw Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Baluk, Peter Yao, Li-Chin Flores, Julio McDonald, Donald https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6985-9564 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/98d9b89k Purpose/Background: Moral distress among registered nurses (RNs) has been extensively examined in acute care settings, drawing increased attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, research has been limited for certified nursing assistants (CNAs) who comprise approximately 60% of the nursing home workforce and provide most of the direct care. Moral distress is a significant contributor to burnout and turnover. CNAs differ from RNs in education, training, and scope of practice and are predominantly women and individuals from racially and ethnically diverse, often immigrant, backgrounds, factors that may shape their professional positioning and experiences of moral distress in nursing home settings. This study aimed to explore the lived experience of moral distress among CNAs who work in nursing homes and to give voice to this population.Method: Guided by an interpretive phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with CNAs who currently work in, or... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/98d9b89k Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Toivanen-Atilla, Kirsi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2431-8385 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9892z9cn ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers are essential regulators of genome function. By altering histone–DNA contacts, these enzymes reposition nucleosomes, change nucleosome accessibility, and catalyze histone exchange during transcription, replication, and DNA repair. A central challenge in chromatin biology is to understand how remodelers that share a conserved Snf2-family ATPase motor nevertheless generate distinct remodeling outcomes in different chromatin contexts. This thesis investigates that question with a focus on how nucleosomal cues and family-specific regulatory elements govern remodeler specificity, with particular emphasis on the INO80 family.The first part of this thesis focuses on the mechanism by which INO80 positions nucleosomes. Precise nucleosome positioning is essential for controlling the sites of transcription and replication initiation, and INO80 is uniquely required in vivo to establish such positioning. This role can be explained by the observation that... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9892z9cn Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Kaur, Upneet https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1894-3563 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8q08r9fx Runt-related transcription factors 1 and 3 (Runx1 and Runx3) have been shown to orchestrate various developmental and cellular processes in numerous cell types and are critical for proper proliferation, differentiation, and cell lineage commitment. Using a conditional knockout mouse line, we specifically deleted Runx1 and Runx3 in the thymic epithelial compartment. Our findings reveal that Runx1 and Runx3 play critical, yet unique roles in controlling the development of medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs). ScRNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis on Runx1 conditional knockout mice reveal alterations in mTEC cell types, with a remarkable expansion of alveolar type 2 epithelial cells (AT2), a previously unknown mimetic cell type within the thymus. Conversely our findings show Runx3 expression in medullary thymic epithelial cells (mTECs) is required for both Autoimmune Regulator+ (Aire+) mTEC development and tissue-specific antigen (TSA) gene expression. Consequently, TEC-specific... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8q08r9fx Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sin, Jun Hyung https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7338-3877 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8852v3x4 The ability to alter our behavior based on sensory inputs, such as odors or textures, is a necessity for adaptation. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), important for cognitive function(Miller et al., 2001), produces gamma synchrony that is necessary for this behavioral flexibility tested in mice(Cho et al., 2015; Cho et al., 2020; Cho et al., 2023). It is unclear what contributes to this necessary gamma synchrony. The insula is also known to be necessary for proper cognitive function (Gehrlach et al., 2020; Menon et al., 2010; Kayyal et al., 2021), and also has bidirectional connectivity with the mPFC (Gehrlach et al., 2020). Here we apply optogenetic inhibition on the medial insular cortex (mIC) to mPFC projecting (mIC-mPFC) cell bodies and terminals during a Rule-Shifting task in mice to show that this projection is necessary for texture to odor cue rule shifts. We further determine the existence of gamma synchrony between mIC and mPFC parvalbumin interneurons (PVIs) during... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8852v3x4 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hagopian, Lara Louise https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0481-301X https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7ts2z0ff Background: There is a lack of research focusing exclusively on the sexual and reproductive healthcare of lesbian-identified Black women compared to studies with samples of heterosexual-identified and bisexual-identified Black women. Lesbian-identified Black women are likely to have different sexual and reproductive healthcare needs and concerns than heterosexual-identified Black women. An example of such needs includes the need for tailored safer sex options and education on alternative ways of achieving pregnancy, as well as other cultural considerations.Objectives: This dissertation sought to 1) examine and interpret how lesbian-identified Black women navigate accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare, 2) identify and interpret barriers and facilitators to accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare among lesbian-identified Black women, and 3) examine resiliency and protective factors employed by lesbian-identified Black women when navigating sexual and reproductive healthcare.Method:... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7ts2z0ff Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Scott-Henderson, Daphne https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4439-3697 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7h97w8r9 Cardiac MRI encodes rich spatiotemporal information about cardiac structure and function, yet standard analysis pipelines reduce this signal to scalar phenotypes derived from segmentation, discarding temporal dynamics and constraining discovery to predefined traits. To address this, we fine-tuned a pretrained VideoMAE model on 4-chamber cardiac MRI videos from 60,498 UK Biobank participants using a masked autoencoding objective, generating high-dimensional embeddings without label supervision. Attention analysis revealed preferential weighting of high-motion intra-cardiac regions, consistent with the spatiotemporal reconstruction objective. The embeddings predicted sex with 95.2% accuracy and body surface area with r = 0.85, showed biologically coherent correlations with blood biomarkers including testosterone, SHBG, and HDL cholesterol, and were broadly associated with segmentation-derived cardiac phenotypes, explaining substantial variance across chamber volumes (adjusted R2... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7h97w8r9 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Saylor, Wren https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6806-7469 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7bt8h9xn Structural homeostasis and proper distributions of signaling molecules in cilia require a constant flow of cargoes carried by intraflagellar transport (IFT) trains in both anterograde and retrograde directions within the thin, long ciliary shafts. In the motile cilium framework, the nine microtubule doublets of the same length serve as the transportation rails, and a preferential association to the two subtubules of the microtubule doublets prevents collisions among the IFT trains that move in opposite directions. However, this mechanism is incompatible with the primary cilia structure, where most of the nine microtubule doublets terminate in the ciliary shafts-only several of them reach the ciliary tip and only in a singlet form. Here, we demonstrate that anterograde and retrograde trains in primary cilia interact with both subtubules of the microtubule doublets without apparent preference. They can switch microtubules, and they may simultaneously interact with multiple microtubules... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7bt8h9xn Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sun, Shufeng Liang, Biqing Koplas, Adam Tikhonenko, Irina Nachury, Maxence https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4918-1562 Khodjakov, Alexey Sui, Haixin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/71r8f9vs Presurgical dental decompensation is a critical step in combined orthodontic–orthognathic treatment, as it systematically reverses natural dentoalveolar compensations across the sagittal, vertical, and transverse planes to fully unmask the underlying skeletal discrepancy. This preparatory phase enables precise surgical repositioning of the jaws, stable postoperative occlusion, and harmonious facial esthetics. Despite its importance, the direct influence of decompensation adequacy on postoperative facial profile attractiveness has remained relatively understudied. The present retrospective investigation tested the central hypothesis that greater achievement of three-dimensional ideal dental decompensation from T1 (initial records) to T2 (presurgical) would correlate with higher postoperative attractiveness ratings at T3 (postsurgical).The study included sixty-two adult patients (34 female, 28 male; mean age 26.4 ± 8.1 years) with skeletal Class III (61.3 %), Class II (25.8 %),... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/71r8f9vs Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Ricupito, Michael Eaton https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8976-9436 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6zq2f4g7 Importance: Individuals with congenital heart disease (CHD) are increasingly reaching childbearing age, are more prone to adverse pregnancy events, and uncommonly undergo recommended cardiac evaluations. Data to better understand resource allocation and financial planning are lacking. Objective: To examine health care use and costs for patients with CHD during pregnancy. Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective cohort study was performed from January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2016, using Merative MarketScan commercial insurance data. Participants included patients with CHD and those without CHD matched 1:1 by age, sex, and insurance enrollment year. Pregnancy claims were identified for all participants. Data were analyzed from September 2022 to March 2024. Exposures: Baseline characteristics (age, US region, delivery year, insurance type) and pregnancy-related events (obstetric, cardiac, and noncardiac conditions; birth outcomes; and cesarean delivery). Main Outcomes... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6zq2f4g7 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Agarwal, Anushree https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8535-3152 Duan, Rong Sobhani, Nasim C Sabanayagam, Aarthi Marcus, Gregory M https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5197-7696 Gurvitz, Michelle https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6w51r8dw Animals must continuously update internal representations of the external world to guide adaptive behavior. Individual features of the environment may not initially carry meaning, but through reinforcement, animals learn which cues predict salient outcomes and whether those cues should be approached, avoided, or ignored. A central challenge, however, is that many stimuli share overlapping features despite carrying different meanings. For example, a person in a new apartment building may initially struggle to distinguish among several similar-looking doors, only one of which is their own. To behave appropriately, the brain must balance two competing demands: it must generalize across related experiences that share useful structure, while also discriminating between similar cues when small differences predict different outcomes. Too much generalization can blur important distinctions, whereas too much discrimination can prevent related experiences from being linked. One way neural... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6w51r8dw Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Choi, Hye Sun https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4207-1486 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vs5h6tf BACKGROUND: Guidelines recommend lifelong care with adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) specialists for adults with congenital heart disease (CHD). However, such gaps in visits at specialized ACHD centers have not been well-characterized from diverse US settings. METHODS: This retrospective study analyzed data from 12 centers in the national Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network. CHD conditions were classified using International Classification of Disease codes and a hierarchical algorithm. ACHD specialists were identified by investigators and encounter volumes. Data from the 'Pre-COVID' (2015-2019) and 'COVID' (2020-2022) periods were analyzed separately. Main outcome measures were: 1) Gaps in any ACHD specialist visit and recommended testing throughout the study period. 2) Gaps in recommended ACHD follow-up care. RESULTS: During pre-COVID (N = 18,934) and COVID (N = 22,453) periods, between 55.3%-55.8% were males, 27.2%-31.0% were 40+ years, 18.2%-19.6% had severe CHD,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vs5h6tf Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Bayne, Joseph Duan, Rong Rudov, Lindsey Mehta, Rittal Phillippi, Ruth Roeder, Mark Saraf, Sneha Jackson, Jamie L Lewis, Matthew Saidi, Arwa Kanter, Ronald Sandhu, Satinder Young, Thomas Jacobsen, Roni Ruckdeschel, Emily Lubert, Adam Singh, Harsimran Zaidi, Ali Halpern, Dan G Leezer, Scott John, Anitha S Carton, Thomas Agarwal, Anushree https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8535-3152 Investigators, Congenital Heart Initiative-Redefining Outcomes and Navigation to an Adult-centered Care https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6s5236f8 Adolescent patients undergoing gender-affirming medical care are being treated with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRHas) and gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT), but the effects of these medications on craniofacial growth potential or temporomandibular joint (TMJ) health have not been studied. This gap in knowledge is significant for the orthodontic clinician especially as this underrepresented population continues to grow. This retrospective pilot study examined orthodontic records and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) data from six transgender patients, three transgender male patients taking testosterone therapy and three transgender female patients taking estrogen and spironolactone, to generate preliminary hypotheses on the effects of GAHT on craniofacial growth and TMJ health in the orthodontic context.A transgender male adolescent demonstrated condylar length growth of 2.7 mm between ages 15 and 16, exceeding the expected female norm of 1 mm, suggesting... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6s5236f8 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 O'Neal, Yvonne https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6476-9816 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6pr3b9x9 INTRODUCTION: To examine the generalizability of Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarker models in real-world older adults, we examined AD biomarker relationships with cognition in two multicenter cohorts that differ with respect to recruitment approach and health risk factors but were matched on a variety of characteristics. METHODS: We compared harmonized health and demographic data, AD and cerebrovascular biomarkers, and cognitive performance in the community-recruited U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk (U.S. POINTER) Imaging substudy and a matched sample from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) which recruited primarily from academic specialty clinics. RESULTS: Elevated β-amyloid (Aβ) and tau were associated with cognitive performance in ADNI but not U.S. POINTER. Findings were consistent across different cohort matching schemes, and were not explained by discrepancies in vascular risk. DISCUSSION: The role of Aβ... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6pr3b9x9 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Landau, Susan M Liu, Peiwei Harrison, Theresa M Taggett, Jacinda Ward, Tyler J Murphy, Alice Lockhart, Samuel N Lovato, Laura C Koeppe, Robert Farias, Sarah Tomaszewski Papp, Kathryn V Snyder, Heather M Harvey, Danielle J https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5367-0951 Espeland, Mark Maillard, Pauline DeCarli, Charles Vemuri, Prashanthi Weiner, Michael https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0877-4583 Baker, Laura D Jagust, William J Weiner, Michael W Trojanowski, John Q Shaw, Leslie Beckett, Laurel Aisen, Paul Petersen, Ronald Saykin, Andrew J Toga, Arthur W Jack, Clifford Morris, John C Jagust, William Landau, Susan M Baker, Laura D Espeland, Mark A Vemuri, Prashanthi DeCarli, Charles https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1914-2693 Harrison, Theresa M Koeppe, Robert A Jagust, William J Maillard, Pauline https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3516-6345 Jung, Youngkyoo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7236-8897 Lovato, Laura Harvey, Danielle J Toga, Arthur W Zamora, Ezequiel Cleveland, Jo DeCarli, Charles Whitmer, Rachel Aggarwal, Neelum Tangney, Christy Gitelman, Darren Masdeu, Joseph Pavlik, Valory Yu, Melissa Oh, Hwamee Huey, Edward Salloway, Steve Wing, Rena https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6gx6r8x2 Purpose: The translation of modern clinical radiotherapy techniques to preclinical small-animal models is often hindered by hardware limitations, soft-tissue imaging deficits, and inefficient treatment planning. This dissertation aims to address these translational challenges by developing an integrated automated framework for precision preclinical radiotherapy, incorporating high throughput hardware, deep learning-based segmentation, and advanced plan optimization. Methods: The framework was developed across three interconnected domains. First, a custom high-throughput automated platform and a sparse orthogonal collimator were integrated into a commercial small animal irradiator to enable streamlined treatment delivery. Second, deep learning architectures were developed for micro-cone-beam computed tomography segmentation. A transformer-based network was trained for robust multi-organ contouring, and a generative adversarial network was utilized for anatomy-constrained... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6gx6r8x2 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Jiang, Lu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7616-1746 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6g4299xz Accurate and efficient radiation dose calculation and treatment plan optimization are central to modern radiotherapy. This dissertation addresses computational challenges in two complementary areas: GPU-accelerated photon dose calculation and 4-pi non-coplanar treatment planning, and the statistical modeling of primary proton transport as a foundation for analytical proton dose calculation. The first contribution is UHPP (Ultra-High Performance Parallel), a GPU-accelerated framework for 4-pi non-coplanar radiotherapy planning. 4-pi plans exploit the full solid angle of beam directions accessible to a standard linac, offering superior dose conformality compared to coplanar VMAT, but require computing dose-loading matrices for thousands of candidate beams—a task that exceeds the throughput of existing methods. UHPP addresses this through three technical innovations: a two-step TERMA computation with area rescaling that eliminates aliasing artifacts, a synchronized collapsed-cone... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6g4299xz Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Xu, Qifan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7155-9552 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/632503qb KCNT1-related epilepsy is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder caused by pathogenic variants in KCNT1, which encodes a sodium-activated potassium channel. In addition to frequent, often treatment-resistant seizures, affected individuals may experience respiratory complications, cardiac abnormalities, hypotonia, skeletal fragility, and gastrointestinal dysfunction. Standard anti-seizure medications are typically ineffective, leaving patients and their caregivers to manage a broad and complex set of symptoms. Although there has been a concerted effort to find better treatment and care for KCNT1 individuals, the underlying mechanism in which mutations in KCNT1 result in multi-organ disorder remains unclear. This dissertation focuses on the role of KCNT1 beyond the synapse, specifically on cilia. In chapter 2, we provide evidence that KCNT1 localizes to both motile and primary cilia across cell types and species and explored overexpression of KCNT1. In chapter 3, we characterized... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/632503qb Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chemel, Angeline Katia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7040-2270 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5vc693vm Mitoredox shifts in mitochondrial dysfunction https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5vc693vm Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Moos, Walter H https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7244-811X Faller, Douglas V Glavas, Ioannis P Kanara, Iphigenia Kodukula, Krishna Pernokas, Julie Pernokas, Mark Pinkert, Carl A Powers, Whitney R Sampani, Konstantina Steliou, Kosta Vavvas, Demetrios G https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5mw247w0 The genome is broadly organized into compartments of active chromatin (euchromatin) and inactive chromatin (heterochromatin). These compartments were first described by cytological staining due to differences in chromatin density (1), then later characterized via Hi-C contact maps (2). In general, heterochromatin is less accessible than euchromatin. It has been proposed that the difference in accessibility is due to nucleosomes in heterochromatin having more restricted motion compared to euchromatic nucleosomes, and heterochromatin having higher viscoelastic resistance than euchromatin (3-5).The molecular mechanisms that underlie these differences between eu- and heterochromatin are not well understood. We know that some euchromatic regions have epigenetic modifications that inherently cause chromatin de-condensation (6, 7), but this only accounts for a small set of genomic regions. Thus, it is likely that proteins enriched in euchromatin could further decondense euchromatin and... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5mw247w0 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Moore, Camille Marie https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3324-789X https://escholarship.org/uc/item/55r534bc Dynamics Of Button-Like Lymphatic Endothelial Cell Junctions In Airway Development And Inflammation https://escholarship.org/uc/item/55r534bc Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Yao, Li-Chin Baluk, Peter McDonald, Donald M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6985-9564 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4wt407xs Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) is an autologous biomaterial used in periodontal and oral regenerative procedures because it contains growth factors that support wound healing. Diabetes mellitus is associated with impaired healing and may affect PRF composition, but the relationships among diabetic status, age, and PRF growth factor levels are not well defined. This exploratory case-control study examined platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) concentrations in PRF from 15 subjects: 10 healthy, non-diabetic controls and 5 subjects with diabetes. PRF was made using a standardized centrifugation protocol, and ELISA measured PDGF-BB and VEGF. Two readings were taken for each sample, and the mean value was used for analysis. Descriptive summaries and exploratory regression models were used to examine possible correlations among diabetic status, age, sex, and HbA1c. A mean PDGF-BB concentration of 4,292.6 ± 922.8 pg/mL was found in healthy... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4wt407xs Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Viets, Helena Louise https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8584-9600 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/41p6v8d6 Soft X-ray tomography (SXT) is an invaluable tool for quantitatively analyzing cellular structures at suboptical isotropic resolution. However, it has traditionally depended on manual segmentation, limiting its scalability for large datasets. Here, we leverage a deep learning-based autosegmentation pipeline to segment and label cellular structures in hundreds of cells across three <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> strains. This task-based pipeline uses manual iterative refinement to improve segmentation accuracy for key structures, including the cell body, nucleus, vacuole, and lipid droplets, enabling high-throughput and precise phenotypic analysis. Using this approach, we quantitatively compared the three-dimensional (3D) whole-cell morphometric characteristics of wild-type, VPH1-GFP, and <i>vac14</i> strains, uncovering detailed strain-specific cell and organelle size and shape variations. We show the utility of SXT data for precise 3D curvature analysis of entire organelles... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/41p6v8d6 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chen, Jianhua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7998-0878 Mirvis, Mary Ekman, Axel Vanslembrouck, Bieke Gros, Mark Le Larabell, Carolyn Marshall, Wallace F https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3xk5x1mz The superior colliculus (SC) is a highly conserved sensorimotor midbrain structure implicated in the control of orienting movements. Yet, despite decades of research, it remains unclear how neural activity in this structure unfolds during internally-driven behaviors like spatial navigation, when orienting movements need to be coordinated with other ongoing behavioral and cognitive processes. This dissertation aims to address this gap. By recording from neurons in the intermediate and deep motor layers of the SC (dSC) of mice navigating a Y-maze, it is demonstrated that: 1) About 30% of neurons fire selectively for left or right turns at the maze bifurcation (left- or right-preferring ‘turn cells’). 2) Turn cell activity is rhythmically modulated during locomotion, firing in-phase with the ongoing stepping cycle of the animal, such that left and right turn cells fire at opposite phases of the stepping cycle. 3) Simultaneous recordings from turn cells and populations of hippocampal... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3xk5x1mz Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Wilhite, Cameron https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5655-2010 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3px3n399 e18557 Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) has been proposed as a tool to aid in the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of leukemias given their genetic complexity, subtype heterogeneity, array of treatments, and need for relapse detection. AI has several potential applications in the management of leukemia. First, it can be used to detect leukemia. Using AI to detect subtle nuances in lab values can ensure these deadly cancers are never missed and that complications, such as disseminated intravascular coagulation, are recognized quickly. Second, AI can be used to risk-stratify patients and personalize treatments. Leukemias are among the most genetically complex cancers and, while they have well-characterized risk profiles, tailoring treatments remains a challenge despite our advances. And third, AI can be used for surveillance ( e.g. , minimal/measurable residual disease [MRD] testing) and relapse management. There is a role for AI in predicting risk of relapse and determining... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3px3n399 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Runde, Austin P Koo, Stephanie Mei Daneshpajouhnejad, Parnaz https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8845-5813 Shahid, Ramzan Slasuraitis, Andrea Speisman, Melvin https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3pp5p18g Bone is a unique tissue that carries both mineralized and connective components, contributing to its malleability and strength in resisting fractures and protecting internal organs. Despite the stagnant look of the tissue, bone undergoes constant remodeling to resorb and replenish its mineral and organic constituents. Of the bone cells, osteocytes contribute to bone health maintenance by orchestrating bone remodeling in response to mechanical load. Osteocytes are housed inside an intricate network of lacunae and canaliculi called the lacunocanalicular network (LCN) and serve to directly remodel the matrix surrounding LCN as well as regulate osteoclastic bone resorption and osteoblastic bone formation at the whole bone level. Mechanical load on the bone at the tissue level stimulates fluid shear stress in the lacunocanalicular network, allowing osteocytes to sense and transmit the mechanical force to downstream intracellular signaling pathways. However, specific molecular mechanisms... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3pp5p18g Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Yoon, Jihee https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9677-3419 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3p65m7gq Background Fear during pregnancy and birth can worsen health care experiences and outcomes, especially among populations experiencing racism, disrespect and reproductive inequities. Far less is known about an important counterpart, confidence. Methods This dissertation aimed to elucidate the pathways through which midwifery-led care impacts prenatal confidence for physiologic birth and to inform future care, centering the perspectives of Black populations. The work includes a participatory instrument adaptation resulting in the Preparation for Community-based Labor and Birth (P-CLAB) to measure confidence for community-based birth; a mixed methods study of prenatal confidence from the perspective of birth center patients and providers; and the qualitative and psychometric evaluation of the P-CLAB. Findings The iterative development of the P-CLAB resulted in a Likert-response survey prioritizing measures of safety, dignity, and racial concordance. Through engagement with patients... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3p65m7gq Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Mitchell, Ashley https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6351-3204 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3nn3811r Zebrafish fully regenerate and recover locomotor function after spinal cord injury (SCI), but whether and/or how developmental signals are redeployed to rebuild functional circuits remains unclear. During development, Bone Morphogenetic Protein (BMP) signaling patterns dorsal neural tube fates, but whether this pathway fulfills a similar function during SCI-based regeneration is unknown. Here we show that SCI triggers a broad elevation in BMP pathway activity in the larval zebrafish spinal cord, accompanied by upregulation of the BMP receptor bmpr2b in neural progenitors. Disruption of BMP signaling impairs locomotor recovery, producing a phenotype in which larvae initiate movement but fail to sustain or propagate swimming. At the cellular level, BMP inhibition selectively reduces regeneration of dI1 and dI2 dorsal sensory-relay interneurons and v1 and v2a ventral premotor interneurons, with reduced consequences for other neuronal subclasses. Together, these findings reveal that... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3nn3811r Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Roy, Irena https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6924-4471 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3fv1c4tj Communication, the transfer of social information from one individual to another via sensory signals, is essential for life across animal species. The neural circuitry that supports sending and interpreting these signals is incompletely understood. Responding to communication signals involves sensory processing, representation of internal states such as reproductive status, and representation of the other party in an interaction. This work addresses sensory processing systems, communication behaviors, neuromodulator control of neural responses to social behavior, and the genetics of the circuits that control these processes. I demonstrated that amplitude modulated sounds are processed differently in laboratory mice and squirrel monkey primary auditory cortex. I documented the evolution of prairie vole ultrasonic vocalizations across pair bonding. I examined the neural activity associated with chemosensory investigation during pair bonding and showed that loss of oxytocin... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3fv1c4tj Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hoglen, Nerissa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4841-4275 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3cc0n9v7 Introduction: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common mental health condition that occurs within the first 12 months after childbirth. Complications of severe and untreated PPD are associated with increased risk of maternal mortality. Risk factors are well-established in the general population; however, far less is known about PPD in specific occupational groups, including registered nurses (RNs). The RN profession is one of the few professions dominated by women in the United States, and nurses have much higher rates of depression unrelated to pregnancy compared to the general population, which is a strong predictor for the development of PPD. The prevalence and unique risk factors of PPD among RNs are unknown. To better understand how personal and occupational factors may contribute to PPD, two theories were leveraged to create a conceptual model: 1) Teetering on the Edge: A substantive theory of postpartum depression, and 2) the Person-Environment Fit Theory. These theories,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3cc0n9v7 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Mariano, Karley https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0933-5769 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3548r21t Despite initial data suggesting positive treatment outcomes for adolescent eating disorder day-hospital programmes (DHPs), existing studies have included limited follow-up, small samples, and a focus on restricting-type eating disorders. To address these gaps, we explored naturalistic outcomes for an adolescent eating disorders DHP. Adolescent participants (N = 265) completed measurements at treatment admission, discharge (n = 170), and various lengths of follow-up (n = 126; M_{follow up} = 278.87 days). Results from multilevel models indicated significant increases in body weight for the anorexia nervosa group throughout treatment and maintenance of increased body weight from discharge to follow-up. In bulimic spectrum disorders, binge eating and purging significantly decreased from intake to discharge and did not change from discharge to follow-up. Across the entire sample, eating disorder symptoms decreased from intake to discharge and did not change from discharge... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3548r21t Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Reilly, Erin E https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9269-0747 Rockwell, Roxanne E Ramirez, Ana L Anderson, Leslie K Brown, Tiffany A Wierenga, Christina E https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4843-1809 Kaye, Walter H https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4478-4906 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/344666gv Prognosis refers to the prediction of a disease’s course and outcome. While several systems exist for natural dentition, implant-specific prognosis systems remain limited. Kwok et al. 2023 proposed a dental implant prognosis system based on peri-implant supporting tissue stability and patient-related risk factors. This study aims to evaluate the predictability of this system by assessing implant survival across initial prognosis categories over a five-year period. A total of 651 implants from 291 patients were included. Baseline examinations were conducted at the time of implant-supported prosthesis delivery, with follow-up examinations at least 12 months later. Implants were categorized as favorable, questionable, unfavorable, or hopeless according to the Kwok et al. classification. Recorded variables included age, sex, follow-up duration, supportive care, history of Grade C periodontitis, smoking, diabetes, and use of intravenous bone-sparing agents. Implants initially classified... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/344666gv Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Young, Kristen Hsi https://orcid.org/009-0000-8679-8102 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2zz2f159 Brain function depends on a tightly regulated interplay between vascular delivery, neuronal activity, glial support, and energy metabolism. Disturbances in this coupling are central to two of the most common causes of age-related cognitive decline — Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD) — yet the tools most commonly used to study them in vivo remain fragmented. Positron emission tomography (PET) with [¹⁸F]FDG reports glucose uptake but requires ionizing radiation and cyclotron infrastructure; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers structural, vascular, and spectroscopic contrast but has historically lacked a practical, non-ionizing readout of glucose metabolism, and the multimodal datasets it produces have outpaced the analyses applied to them. This dissertation advances metabolic MRI as an integrated framework along three steps: combining established MRI contrasts to phenotype a monogenic cerebrovascular disease; developing a new MRI contrast to fill... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2zz2f159 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Gao, Xiao https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6175-5840 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2nx395g1 Inadequate Support. Reply. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2nx395g1 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Pichan, Cayla Dhaliwal, Gurpreet Houchens, Nathan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2j4091m5 Tissue, Teamwork, and Timing: an Exercise in Clinical Reasoning https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2j4091m5 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Ahmad, Tessnim R Kazberouk, Alexander Santhosh, Lekshmi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9897-3462 Hsu, Gerald Dhaliwal, Gurpreet https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2cf296dp The Western diet, characterized by high consumption of refined, processed grains, has been epidemiologically associated with elevated periodontal disease risk, yet the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain incompletely understood. Grain refinement simultaneously removes dietary fiber and reduces food texture, producing a soft, rapidly fermentable substrate that may promote oral biofilm dysbiosis through two distinct but potentially synergistic pathways: augmented saccharide substrate availability to saccharolytic pioneer species, and loss of the masticatory mechanical challenge that limits biofilm maturation and sustains homeostatic gingival immune signaling. Whether the protective effects of whole grain consumption are attributable to its fiber content, its structural and textural properties, or both has not been experimentally resolved.The present thesis employed a multi-diet murine experimental framework to dissociate the contributions of dietary texture and fiber... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2cf296dp Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sedghi, Lea Maryam https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0263-3683 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/28t6r55j Tuberculosis (TB) is the deadliest infectious disease worldwide, taking the lives of 1.23 million individuals in 2024. While TB is curable, the current pharmacological standard-of-care is arduous—requiring months of strict adherence to a four-drug regimen that carries risks for significant toxicities. Thus, ongoing developmental efforts concentrate on advancing safe and effective regimens with shorter treatment durations for cure. Yet, in the past several decades, only a few novel, shortened regimens have been found successful in Phase 3 clinical trials. This paucity of new therapies is due to several facets associated with TB drug development, including the need for multi-drug regimens to prevent resistance, the presence of highly variable patient phenotypes, the prolonged final clinical endpoint of relapse-free cure, and the lack of a standardized paradigm in translational decision-making. The work presented here applies integrated preclinical and clinical modeling and simulation... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/28t6r55j Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Patel, Anu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0628-668X https://escholarship.org/uc/item/26p1j8sw Periodontitis is a chronic, multifactorial inflammatory disease affecting 42% of US adults over the age of 30, characterized by progressive destruction of tooth-supporting structures associated with dysbiotic subgingival biofilms. Treponema denticola, a member of the Red complex, is one of the identified pathogenic bacteria that is strongly associated with the progression of periodontal disease. Advances in full-length 16S rRNA sequencing now allows for high-resolution taxonomic identification of Treponema species, including uncultivable phylotypes previously undetectable by traditional methods. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between subgingival Treponema community composition and clinical treatment outcomes following non-surgical periodontal therapy, with the hypothesis that greater reductions in Treponema relative abundance would be associated with improved clinical outcomes.Twenty-eight patients were initially enrolled in this study. Subjects over... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/26p1j8sw Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Arroyo, Nicholas https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7051-4821 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/21p9k545 A 62-year-old man was admitted to the hospital for malaise, anorexia, rash, and diffuse lymphadenopathy. Fatigue and anorexia began 6 months earlier. Four months before admission, a pruritic rash d... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/21p9k545 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Matsumura, Masami Kanda, Naoki Hatakeyama, Shuji Dhaliwal, Gurpreet https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1xf8q95k A Short‐Lived Crisis https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1xf8q95k Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Saxena, Kapil https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5393-7313 Dhaliwal, Gurpreet Rao, Madhu N Babik, Jennifer M https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1qx8m9c3 Importance: More than one-fourth of older individuals in the US with cognitive impairment live alone. These individuals often lack support for medication management and face a high risk of medication-related harm. Objective: To elucidate barriers and facilitators to medication management experienced by older adults living alone with cognitive impairment and their social contacts. Design, Setting, and Participants: This qualitative study was conducted between May 2016 and February 2024 among adults of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds aged 55 years or older living alone with cognitive impairment in California, Louisiana, and Michigan (ie, participants), along with their social contacts, defined as family members or other familiar persons. Data were analyzed between February 2024 and March 2025. Main Outcomes and Measures: As part of the Living Alone With Cognitive Impairment Project, participants' and social contacts' perspectives regarding barriers and facilitators were elicited... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1qx8m9c3 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Growdon, Matthew E https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5997-4406 Harrison, Krista L https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5373-3011 Steinman, Michael A https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9564-9480 Hunt, Lauren J Stone, Robyn I Tran, Thi Johnson, Julene K Portacolone, Elena https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1qk6n6fv OBJECTIVES: There is a scarcity of published best practices for efficient and effective hospital rounds. We introduced a standardized rounding intervention (NET Rounding, or <i>Novel</i> Rounding Practices, Shared <i>Expectations</i>, and <i>Time</i> Management) with the primary aims of improving rounding efficiency, reducing resident work-hour violations, and positively affecting clinician experience. Secondary aims included identifying efficient rounding practices and describing the intervention's impact on the attending and resident experience. METHODS: A standardized rounding intervention was implemented February-June 2022. Attendings and residents completed preintervention surveys October 2021-January 2022 and postintervention surveys immediately after their inpatient rotation during the intervention period. Survey data were compared using qualitative thematic analysis along with χ² and Fisher exact tests to assess intervention uptake, helpfulness of rounding strategies,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1qk6n6fv Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Insetta, Emily R Barish, Peter Baskin, Nathan Brusca, Rebeccah M Chia, David Oreper, Sandra Chan, Shirley Kantor, Molly A Conner, Stephanie M https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1kp0z6hr Background: Cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL/P) results from failed fusion of the facial prominences during embryogenesis. The cranial base, shaped largely by intrinsic developmental controls, serves as a practical proxy for the embryonic brain morphology that governs facial prominence positioning and fusion timing. Its relationship to CL/P severity in humans remains incompletely characterized.Objectives: To compare basicranial and facial shape between CL/P and non-cleft individuals, quantify their morphological covariation, and determine whether these parameters correlate with cleft severity.Materials and Methods: CBCT images from 30 children with non-syndromic CL/P (ages 7–11), acquired prior to alveolar bone grafting or orthodontic treatment, were compared to 29 age- and sex-matched controls. Thirty-nine basicranial and 29 facial three-dimensional landmarks were placed and analyzed using geometric morphometrics in MorphoJ, including Procrustes superimposition, PCA,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1kp0z6hr Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Ran-Sukkawala, Marrina Ruomei https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2736-7152 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1b71m4h3 Tumors drive T cell exhaustion in both tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and CAR T cells, marked by increased inhibitory receptor expression, impaired cytotoxicity, and reduced cytokine production, ultimately limiting durable clinical responses. In this work, I have performed a high-density base editor screen of A20/TNFAIP3, a multifunctional ubiquitin-modifying protein, to map variants to T cell functions. In addition, we performed genome-wide loss-of-function screening in repetitively stimulated human T cells and identified the multifunctional ubiquitin-modifying protein A20/TNFAIP3 as a major negative regulator of exhausted T cell persistence. Protein large language modeling, deep base-editing mutagenesis, and studies in immunocompetent mice with domain-specific inactivating mutations revealed A20’s non-enzymatic M1 ubiquitin-binding zinc finger 7 (A20ZF7) motif as critical to suppression of anti-tumor immunity. A20ZF7-deficient CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) resisted... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1b71m4h3 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sandoval, Luis Roberto https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8654-7530 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0wr1x24z BACKGROUND: In the United States, over 500,000 perioperative team members are exposed to surgical smoke annually. Surgical smoke, a by-product of electrocautery use during operative procedures, contains particulate matter and volatile organic compounds, which are known irritants and carcinogens with mutagenic potential. Surgical smoke adversely impacts the respiratory, cardiovascular, and neurological systems. Despite the exposure to surgical smoke in the operating room, little is known about the experience of surgical smoke by perioperative team members.PURPOSE: Past research has an almost exclusively quantitative approach, with scarce conceptual development beyond descriptions of the smoke’s content, mechanism, hazards, and mitigation strategies. The purpose of this dissertation is to use a mixed methods approach to advance the understanding of the experience of surgical smoke.METHODS: A scoping review with the aims to synthesize the evidence on how perioperative teams experience... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0wr1x24z Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Lewis, Merideth https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5010-8664 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0jt5s8w5 Neuronal cilia have emerged as crucial signaling hubs, yet their molecular composition and integration with synaptic communication remain poorly understood. Using a newly developed Arl13b-TurboID mouse model, we achieved robust cilia-specific biotinylation and proteomic profiling across diverse tissues and cell types. Comparative proteomics revealed notable tissue-specific specialization, with neuronal cilia uniquely enriched in synaptic proteins, adhesion molecules, and neurotransmitter receptors. Unexpectedly, several signaling and adhesion molecules localize to neuronal cilia in discrete nanodomains maintained by active retrieval mechanisms. In the mouse cortex, expansion microscopy revealed that the NMDA receptor subunit GluN1 is organized in nanodomains on neuronal ciliary membranes, which are precisely positioned to sample neurotransmitter efflux from neighboring glutamatergic synapses. These findings establish neuronal cilia as specialized... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0jt5s8w5 Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chang, Chia-Hsiang https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2725-6789 Trinh, Van Ngu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5958-8975 Novak, Sammy Weiser https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8344-9772 Lokesh, Nidhi Rani https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8208-4673 Montecinos, Catalina Kretschmar https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2365-6251 Boassa, Daniela https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4631-4139 Pownall, Mark E https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0560-2698 Kalocsay, Marian https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4187-5829 Nachury, Maxence V https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4918-1562 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hs6k3bm <h4>Background</h4>Consumer fitness tracker devices offer scalable opportunities to monitor real-world behavior and support health in cancer survivorship. However, adoption and sustained use outside structured research settings remain incompletely characterized, limiting their integration into survivorship care.<h4>Objective</h4>The primary objectives were to describe the prevalence of fitness tracker ownership and use patterns among cancer survivors and to identify sociodemographic, psychosocial, and usability-related correlates of device ownership and frequent use.<h4>Methods</h4>We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 893 cancer survivors enrolled in the Total Cancer Care protocol at a comprehensive cancer center. Participants completed an adapted online questionnaire assessing fitness tracker ownership, frequency of use, and perceived barriers and facilitators. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to identify sociodemographic, psychosocial, and usability-related... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hs6k3bm Thu, 4 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Benzo, Roberto M https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8634-6472 Fisher, James L https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3211-2691 Tetrick, Macy K https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2605-9614 Singh, Rujul https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8757-0658 Osei, Alex B https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9542-1817 Krok-Schoen, Jessica https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2484-5887 Nickerson, Brett S https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7919-970X Paskett, Electra D https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8247-8299 Kargarandehkordi, Ali https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2714-9476 Kumar, Sachin https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4400-114X St George, Sara M https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7263-4609 Rayo, Michael F https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0180-058X Penedo, Frank J https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2780-0417 Washington, Peter https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3276-4411 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8vx0p27z INTRODUCTION: Treatment indications for oligometastatic/oligoprogressive lung tumors are growing. Safety and lack of detrimental effect on patients' quality of life are critical for novel local therapies. METHODS: We tested that the additive effect of pulsed electric field (PEF) ablation with lower-dose stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as a secondary endpoint in a prospective clinical trial. FACT-Lung Cancer Subscale (FACT-LCS) and FACT-General domain surveys were collected at screening, 3 months, and 12 months. Functional clinical data included forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), and diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO). RESULTS: Six patients with eight tumors were enrolled. Baseline well-being domain scores were: Physical 25.9 (Std Dev 2.3), Social 21.0 (Std Dev 6.9), Emotional 17.3 (Std Dev 4.7), Functional 21.2 (Std Dev 5.8), and LCS 19.4 (Std Dev 5.3). There were... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8vx0p27z Wed, 3 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Harris, Jeremy P https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1231-4798 Boyd, Christina Shi, Mengying Reilly, Michael https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2481-6728 Simon, Aaron https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4685-2711 Seyedin, Steven N Chen, Wen-Pin Nagasaka, Misako Abi-Jaoudeh, Nadine https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6163-8524 Hoyt, Michael A https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2274-1902 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6600d6mx BackgroundMajor osteoporotic fracture (MOF) is associated with increased mortality; however, few studies in postmenopausal women have examined racial and ethnic differences in 1-year and 5-year mortality following MOF.ObjectiveTo assess 1-year and 5-year mortality following MOF by race and ethnicity.DesignThis prospective cohort study included postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), a population-based, multisite US study. Participants were followed from September 1994 to February 2023. Data were analyzed between August 2023 and November 2023.ParticipantsPostmenopausal women aged 50 to 79&nbsp;years old who experienced a MOF (N = 32,675 in 1&nbsp;year and 29,506 in 5&nbsp;years following MOF).Main MeasuresSelf-reported race and ethnicity. All-cause mortality was determined by death certificates, reports of surrogates, and the National Death Index Search.Key ResultsThe baseline mean age of participants was 77.0 [SD = 8.5] years with 31,223 [95.6%] White... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6600d6mx Wed, 3 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Juels, Michaela Larson, Joseph C Ensrud, Kristine E Stefanick, Marcia L Shadyab, Aladdin H https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9693-0522 Garcia, Lorena Nassir, Rami Schnatz, Peter F Nelson, Rebecca Crandall, Carolyn J https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1v14x65v <strong>Cross-D Conv</strong>: Cross-Dimensional Transferable Knowledge Base via Fourier Shifting Operation https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1v14x65v Tue, 2 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Yavuz, Mehmet Can Yang, Yang https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7bs3z8ps <p>Background&nbsp;</p><p>Over the past two years, the Library has experienced a sharp rise in questions about generative artificial intelligence (AI). Students, faculty, and staff are increasingly exposed to AI-powered databases and tools and seek guidance on whether these tools can be used responsibly. At the same time, the institution has made substantial investments in AI infrastructure and actively promotes AI adoption across a wide rangeof use cases. Within this environment, Library staff identified a need for coordinated training that moves beyond promotion and instead offers a critical and practical perspective to build AI literacy in the campus community.</p><p>Description</p><p>Between November 2025 and May 2026, the Library offered a six-session workshop series designed to support university students, faculty, and staff in critically examining the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in their professional practice. The series was taught by staff from across the Library... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7bs3z8ps Mon, 1 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Deardorff, Ariel https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2xj478vn <p>Background&nbsp;</p><p>In 2022 Library staff launched a project to enhance inclusive library teaching practices and foster collaboration among library educators. This project stemmed from a larger theme in the Library’s 2020-2025 strategic plan that aimed to build the reputation of library staff as essential campus educators. The key objectives of the project were to establish a community of practice for library educators, and develop a comprehensive guide to equitable teaching in the Library.</p><p>Description&nbsp;</p><p>The project team brought together librarians and staff from across the Library, representing diverse teaching expertise and education backgrounds. The team met monthly from late 2022 to the end of 2025 to develop the project goals, plan the Library Educators Community of Practice meetings, and design and launch the Equitable Teaching Guide. The first major milestone was the creation of the Library Educators Community of Practice, a bi-monthly meeting to foster... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2xj478vn Mon, 1 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Deardorff, Ariel Thompson, Holly Leiva, Lisa https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0zj0p2f2 <em>It’s Beshert</em> is a biography of Dr. Jay A. Levy, a former professor of medicine at UC San Francisco. His pathbreaking insights into the fundamentals of HIV/AIDS deepened public understanding of the condition and helped save lives. The book captures the diversity of Levy’s life, including his upbringing in Wilmington, Delaware; the research obstacles he encountered at UCSF in the 1980s; and his extensive travels (and rich experiences) throughout the world. Levy is a strong believer in <em>beshert</em> – a Yiddish word for “destiny” or “fate” – and the concept is woven into his inspiring life story. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0zj0p2f2 Mon, 1 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Rees, Matthew https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hn2p25s INTRODUCTION: Studies of adults undergoing lung resection indicated that selective omission of pleural drains is safe and advantageous. Significant practice variation exists for pleural drainage practices for children undergoing lung resection. We surveyed pediatric surgeons in a 10-hospital research consortium to understand decision-making for placement of pleural drains following lung resection in children. METHODS: Faculty surgeons at the 10 member institutions of the Western Pediatric Surgery Research Consortium completed questionnaires using a REDCap survey platform. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were used to characterize responses regarding indications and management of pleural drains following lung resection in pediatric patients. RESULTS: We received 96 responses from 109 surgeons (88&nbsp;%). Most surgeons agreed that use of a pleural drain after lung resection contributes to post-operative pain, increases narcotic use, and prolongs hospitalization. Opinions... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hn2p25s Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Schnuck, Jamie K Acker, Shannon N Kelley-Quon, Lorraine I Lee, Justin H Shew, Stephen B Fialkowski, Elizabeth Ignacio, Romeo C https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7259-8679 Melhado, Caroline Qureshi, Faisal G Russell, Katie W Rothstein, David H Consortium, the Western Pediatric Surgery Research Cairo, Sarah Chao, Stephanie D Fenton, Stephen J Gollin, Gerald https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4642-3370 Jensen, Aaron Keane, Olivia A Nicassio, Lauren Ochoa, Brielle Pandya, Samir Patwardhan, Utsav M https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hc4r248 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Major weather and climate disasters are increasing in frequency and severity. How often these events result in child deaths is unknown. We assessed temporal and regional trends in pediatric fatalities due to weather events in the United States over the last 21&nbsp;years. METHODS: We conducted an ecological study of weather-related pediatric fatalities between 2001 and 2021 using the National Centers for Environmental Information Storm Events Database. Weather-related fatalities were compared with pediatric fatalities included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research database. The change in the proportion of all-cause pediatric fatalities associated with weather events was assessed over time. The frequency of events occurring in regions with Pediatric Disaster Care Centers of Excellence (COE) was examined. RESULTS: Between 2001 and 2021, weather events were associated with 1423 pediatric fatalities.... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8hc4r248 Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Stephens, Caroline Q Cairo, Sarah B Fallat, Mary E Melhado, Caroline G Godfred-Cato, Shana Ong, Hilary Newton, Christopher https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6g7116b8 Importance: Conclusions vary substantially among studies examining associations between area-based social determinants of health (SDOH) and pediatric health disparities based on the selected patient population and SDOH index. Most national studies use zip codes, which encompass a wide distribution of communities, limiting the generalizability of findings. Objectives: To characterize the distributions of composite SDOH indices for pediatric surgical patients within a national sample of academic children's hospitals and to assess SDOH index precision in classifying patients at similar levels of disadvantage. Design, Setting, and Participants: This multicenter retrospective cohort study included patients younger than 18 years who underwent surgery from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2021, at 8 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Pediatric children's hospitals. Data were analyzed November 15, 2023, to September 25, 2024. Exposures: Exposures... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6g7116b8 Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Stephens, Caroline Q Yap, Ava Vu, Lan Saito, Jacqueline M Barry, Dwight Shui, Amy M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8243-6910 Cockrell, Hannah Cairo, Sarah Wakeman, Derek Berman, Loren Greenberg, Sarah Linden, Allison F Kohler, Jonathan https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7509-4097 Tsao, KuoJen Wilson, Nicole A https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3p50r0q1 PURPOSE: Pleural drains are used routinely after thoracic surgery in children despite evidence that drainage is not always necessary. The purpose of this study was to assess the necessity of intraoperative drain placement after resectional lung surgery in children, provide a contemporary characterization of the use of pleural drains, and evaluate the utility of intraoperative air leak testing. METHODS: A multi-institutional prospective cohort study was performed at 10 free-standing children's hospitals in the United States from 2023 to 2024. Patients ≤18 years old who underwent open or thoracoscopic wedge resection or lobectomy were included. Patients undergoing operation for spontaneous pneumothorax or trauma, those on extra-corporeal life support, those undergoing bi-lobectomy or pneumonectomy, and those undergoing reoperation in the affected hemithorax were excluded. Operative parameters, intra-operative air leak, length of post-operative drain placement, and number of post-operative... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3p50r0q1 Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Kahan, Anastasia M Kelley-Quon, Lorraine I Acker, Shannon N Vincent, Sage Chao, Stephanie D Nepomuceno, Helene Lee, Justin H Padilla, Benjamin E Patwardhan, Utsav M Gollin, Gerald Ignacio, Romeo C https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7259-8679 Fialkowski, Elizabeth A Fowler, Kathryn L Cairo, Sarah B Munar, Dane Pandya, Samir R Russell, Katie W Fenton, Stephen J Lee, Steven L Rothstein, David H https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2v15j9s2 BACKGROUND: There is no consensus on the appropriate duration of postoperative antibiotics for complicated appendicitis in children. Commonly used antibiotic endpoints include normalization of white blood cell count (WBC) or completion of a minimum number of prespecified treatment days. We compared clinical outcomes resulting from varying postoperative antibiotic protocols for complicated appendicitis in children. METHODS: National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Pediatric (NSQIP-P) data from nine children's hospitals was used to identify a retrospective cohort of children (&lt;18 years) who underwent laparoscopic appendectomy from 2021 to 2023 with intraoperative findings of complicated appendicitis. Participating hospitals were classified into four groups based on discharge protocol: 1) no discharge antibiotics, 2) oral antibiotics for elevated WBC on the day of discharge, 3) oral antibiotics to complete a minimum number of total antibiotic days, and 4) routine discharge... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2v15j9s2 Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Patwardhan, Utsav M Kahan, Anastasia Eldredge, R Scott Russell, Katie W Lee, Justin Short, Scott S Padilla, Benjamin Cairo, Sarah B Acker, Shannon N Jensen, Aaron R Kelley-Quon, Lorraine I Rothstein, David H Fialkowski, Elizabeth A Chao, Stephanie D Gillory, Lauren Pandya, Samir Diaz-Miron, Jose Ignacio, Romeo C https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7259-8679 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9517t20x Abstract Introduction Maternal prenatal folate intake is associated with a decreased risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in children. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) show that variations in genes regulating folate metabolism impact serum folate level irrespective of nutritional intake. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) summarize the cumulative genetic liability associated with specific phenotypes. This study aimed to examine if the child PRS related to folate level interacts with maternal periconception folate intake from food and supplements, contributing to ALL risk. Methods Data on periconceptional folate intake spanning the year prior to pregnancy were obtained from the California Childhood Leukemia Study (CCLS). Folate intake from diet and supplement was measured in dietary folate equivalents (DFE). A PRS related to folate level was constructed using summary statistics from a GWAS of serum folate levels among Europeans. After assigning genetically predicted folate... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9517t20x Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Xiang, Yijin Metayer, Catherine Kogan, Scott https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2395-8479 Ma, Xiaomei Wiemels, Joseph https://escholarship.org/uc/item/42q583dk Author Correction: Mechanisms of clonal evolution in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia https://escholarship.org/uc/item/42q583dk Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Swaminathan, Srividya Klemm, Lars Park, Eugene Papaemmanuil, Elli Ford, Anthony Kweon, Soo-Mi Trageser, Daniel Hasselfeld, Brian Henke, Nadine Mooster, Jana Geng, Huimin https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5339-5446 Schwarz, Klaus Kogan, Scott C https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2395-8479 Casellas, Rafael Schatz, David G Lieber, Michael R Greaves, Mel F Müschen, Markus https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2h89g17f Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a fatal blood cancer with cytotoxic chemotherapy offering at best 25% 5-year survival. While targeted BCL2 and FLT3 inhibitors venetoclax and gilteritinib are used upfront in the treatment of a subset of adult patients with AML and help to extend the survival of some patients, a curative treatment combination with minimal side effects has yet to be discovered. We find that use of the dual histone acetyltransferase p300/CBP bromodomain inhibitor CCS1477 (inobrodib), together with venetoclax and gilteritinib, virtually eliminates leukemia stem cells in an aggressive preclinical model of <i>DNMT3A/FLT3</i>-mutant AML by impairing pro-oncogenic survival and proliferation factors to effectively block leukemogenesis. This work identifies potential clinical utility of a targeted, triplet combination therapy for treatment of AML. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2h89g17f Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Goetz, Melanie L Romer-Seibert, Jennifer S Versace, Amanda M Kogan, Scott https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2395-8479 Jeurkar, Chetan Bowman, Robert L Brooks, Nigel Frese, Kris Meyer, Sara E https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1zb0m0sj BACKGROUND: Prenatal maternal folate intake is associated with a reduced risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), but how this interacts with children's genetic predisposition to folate deficiency remains unclear. METHODS: We used Mendelian randomization to investigate the causal link among serum folate, total homocysteine, and B vitamins on ALL using independent genetic instruments. These were evaluated in two independent childhood ALL genome-wide association studies: the California Childhood Cancer Record Linkage Project and the California Childhood Leukemia Study, the latter with available self-reported periconceptional nutrition data. Logistic regressions assessed the interrelationship between maternal nutrition and children's folate metabolism-related polygenic risk score (PRS) and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase rs1801133 genotype. RESULTS: Mendelian randomization analyses showed that higher genetically predicted serum folate was associated with reduced... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1zb0m0sj Tue, 26 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Xiang, Yijin Metayer, Catherine Kogan, Scott C https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2395-8479 Ma, Xiaomei Nickels, Eric Wiemels, Joseph L https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9k83z4gw Importance: Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) trials have high levels of functional unblinding, which biases results when comparing PAT with blinded interventions. Because PAT is effectively always open label, treatment results should be compared with those of open-label traditional antidepressants (TADs), so potential benefits associated with patients knowing their treatment is equal between the interventions. Objective: To investigate the comparative effectiveness of PAT vs open-label traditional antidepressants (TADs; such as selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors) for the treatment of major depression. Data Sources: PubMed was systematically searched in March 2024 for trials of PAT and open-label TADs for the treatment of major depression without comorbidity in adults without psychosis in the outpatient setting. Extraction was supplemented with data from a review and meta-analysis of antidepressant drugs to assess the open-label vs blinded TAD difference. Data... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9k83z4gw Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Williams, Zachary J Barnett, Hannah Szigeti, Balázs https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3809-6442 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7st0x72x Can Targeting Circadian Rhythms Help Prevent Alzheimer Disease?: Lessons From Down Syndrome. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7st0x72x Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Fang, Yi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1199-187X Leng, Yue https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5826-4031 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4gx130gs Transportation insecurity significantly affects dialysis care, yet little research examines its impact from both patient and provider perspectives. This qualitative study explored how transportation challenges influence the experiences of patients receiving in-center hemodialysis and dialysis clinic staff. We conducted 78 semi-structured interviews with patients (n = 49) and staff (n = 29) across four Northern California dialysis clinics. Participants described challenges of navigating two systems, healthcare and transportation, and how this creates emotional distress for patients and staff, disrupts clinic workflows, and compromises treatment adherence. Transportation services are a major part of the patient and staff experience in dialysis clinics. Our findings highlight the need to improve transportation for dialysis patients through collaboration between healthcare systems, transportation providers, and community stakeholders. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4gx130gs Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Bonilla-Herrera, Bethney Saini, Navkirn Corina, Iris Dickerson, Bertha Grijalva, Maria Elena Pulido, Daniel Jovan Roshanravan, Baback Fenton, Joshua J Gottlieb, Laura M Razon, Na'amah https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8785-3406 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9w13t71m BACKGROUND: Air pollution may impair child growth and cognitive development, with potential markers including birth length and head circumference. METHODS: The Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial was an open label multi-country-randomized controlled trial, with 3200 pregnant women aged 18-34&nbsp;years (9-19&nbsp;weeks of gestation) randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stove intervention compared to women continuing to cook with solid fuels for 18&nbsp;months. Particulate matter&nbsp;≤&nbsp;2.5&nbsp;μm (PM2.5), black carbon (BC) and carbon monoxide (CO) 24-hour personal exposures were measured three times during pregnancy. Head circumference and length were measured&nbsp;&lt;&nbsp;24&nbsp;h of birth. We conducted intention-to-treat and exposure-response analyses to determine the intervention effects and associations between household air pollution (HAP) exposure during pregnancy and head circumference, head circumference-for-gestational... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9w13t71m Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Raheel, Hina Sinharoy, Sheela Diaz-Artiga, Anaité Garg, Sarada S Pillarisetti, Ajay Balakrishnan, Kalpana Chiang, Marilu Lovvorn, Amy Kirby, Miles Ramakrishnan, Usha Jabbarzadeh, Shirin Mukeshimana, Alexie Johnson, Michael McCracken, John P Naeher, Luke P Rosa, Ghislaine Wang, Jiantong Rosenthal, Joshua Checkley, William Clasen, Thomas F Peel, Jennifer L Thompson, Lisa M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-2057 investigators, Household Air Pollution Intervention Network https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wq8m0st BACKGROUND: Household air pollution is associated with stunted growth in infants. Whether the replacement of biomass fuel (e.g., wood, dung, or agricultural crop waste) with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking can reduce the risk of stunting is unknown. METHODS: We conducted a randomized trial involving 3200 pregnant women 18 to 34 years of age in four low- and middle-income countries. Women at 9 to less than 20 weeks' gestation were randomly assigned to use a free LPG cookstove with continuous free fuel delivery for 18 months (intervention group) or to continue using a biomass cookstove (control group). The length of each infant was measured at 12 months of age, and personal exposures to fine particulate matter (particles with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤2.5 μm) were monitored starting at pregnancy and continuing until the infants were 1 year of age. The primary outcome for which data are presented in the current report - stunting (defined as a length-for-age z score that... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wq8m0st Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Checkley, William Thompson, Lisa M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-2057 Sinharoy, Sheela S Hossen, Shakir Moulton, Lawrence H Chang, Howard H Waller, Lance Steenland, Kyle Rosa, Ghislaine Mukeshimana, Alexie Ndagijimana, Florien McCracken, John P Díaz-Artiga, Anaité Balakrishnan, Kalpana Garg, Sarada S Thangavel, Gurusamy Aravindalochanan, Vigneswari Hartinger, Stella M Chiang, Marilú Kirby, Miles A Papageorghiou, Aris T Ramakrishnan, Usha Williams, Kendra N Nicolaou, Laura Johnson, Michael Pillarisetti, Ajay Rosenthal, Joshua Underhill, Lindsay J Wang, Jiantong Jabbarzadeh, Shirin Chen, Yunyun Dávila-Román, Victor G Naeher, Luke P McCollum, Eric D Peel, Jennifer L Clasen, Thomas F https://escholarship.org/uc/item/89v6x733 Residential biomass burning is an important source of black carbon (BC) exposure among rural communities in low- and middle-income countries. We collected 7165 personal BC samples and individual/household level information from 3103 pregnant women enrolled in the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network trial. Women in the intervention arm received free liquefied petroleum gas stoves and fuel throughout pregnancy; women in the control arm continued the use of biomass stoves. Median (IQR) postintervention BC exposures were 9.6 μg/m³ (5.2-14.0) for controls and 2.8 μg/m³ (1.6-4.8) for the intervention group. Using mixed models, we characterized predictors of BC exposure and assessed how exposure contrasts differed between arms by select predictors. Primary stove type was the strongest predictor (<i>R</i>² = 0.42); the models including kerosene use, kitchen location, education, occupation, or stove use hours also provided additional explanatory... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/89v6x733 Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Campbell, Devan A Johnson, Michael Piedrahita, Ricardo Pillarisetti, Ajay Waller, Lance A Kearns, Katherine A Kremer, Jacob Mollinedo, Erick Sarnat, Jeremy A Clark, Maggie L Underhill, Lindsay J McCracken, John P Diaz-Artiga, Anaité Steenland, Kyle Rosa, Ghislaine Kirby, Miles A Balakrishnan, Kalpana Sambandam, Sankar Mukhopadhyay, Krishnendu Sendhil, Saritha Natarajan, Amudha Ndagijimana, Florien Dusabimana, Ephrem Thompson, Lisa M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-2057 Checkley, William Nicolaou, Laura Hartinger, Stella Peel, Jennifer L Clasen, Thomas F Naeher, Luke P https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7wb671hh Opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. exceed 80,000 annually and methadone, an effective treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), remains difficult to access. Understanding how ownership structures affect access, quality, cost, and regulation in methadone treatment for opioid use disorder in the U.S. is thus a public health imperative. Private equity (PE) has rapidly consolidated opioid treatment programs (OTPs), now owning nearly one-third of all facilities that are the primary means for receiving methadone treatment. This growth is rooted in a complex federal regulatory regime and public-financing expansions that create barriers for smaller providers and predictable revenue streams for PE-owned facilities. While proponents of PE tout their capacity to infuse capital and modernize care, emerging evidence - combined with concerning patterns from PE ownership in other health sectors - suggests risks of understaffing, aggressive revenue optimization, and regulatory influence. This... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7wb671hh Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Roy, Victor Barsky, Benjamin A Fuse Brown, Erin C Suen, Leslie W https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7d5790gm BACKGROUND: Report-back of individual exposure information to research participants is recognised in high-income countries as an important, yet often overlooked, component of environmental research, with many potential benefits to study communities. Nonetheless, the optimal means of communicating findings to participants in low-income countries with limited health and scientific literacy is unknown. METHODS: Between March 2021 and May 2022, we conducted a qualitative study with 61 women and 20 of their household members (n=81) participating in the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network trial in Guatemala and Rwanda. Using participant observations and individual interviews (n=61), group interviews (n=21), dynamic working groups (n=78) and focus groups (n=45), we collaborated with study participants to iteratively develop contextually appropriate and comprehensible materials that conveyed individual air pollution exposures. RESULTS: Posters were generated to display graphical... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7d5790gm Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Quinn, Ashlinn Hengstermann, Mayari Diaz-Artiga, Anaite Pillarisetti, Ajay Clark, Maggie Ruiz-Aguilar, Laura Ndagijimana, Florien McCracken, John P Rosa, Ghislaine Checkley, William Peel, Jennifer Clasen, Thomas F Thompson, Lisa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-2057 Aravindalochanan, Vigneswari Balakrishnan, Kalpana Bankundiye, Gloriose Barr, Dana Boyd Burrowes, Vanessa Bussalleu, Alejandra Campbell, Devan Canuz, Eduardo Castañaza, Adly Chang, Howard H Chen, Yunyun Chiang, Marilú Contreras, Carmen Lucia Craik, Rachel Crocker, Mary Davila-Roman, Victor G de las Fuentes, Lisa De León, Oscar D’Souza, Priya Dusabimana, Ephrem Elon, Lisa Espinoza, Juan Gabriel https://escholarship.org/uc/item/70z523kb Waste collection services are uncommon in rural areas of low-resource countries, causing waste accumulation and subsequent dumping and burning of garbage. Air pollution from household garbage burning, including plastics, has been observed in Jalapa, Guatemala in addition to household air pollution (HAP) from cooking. Adolescent girls often help with these cooking and household tasks, but little is known about their exposures. We characterized 24-h exposures to HAP and household garbage burning in adolescent girls by measuring fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), black carbon (BC), urinary biomarkers of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), bisphenol A (BPA), and phthalates. We recruited 60 girls between 13 and 17 years of age who helped with cooking activities and lived with participants of the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial. We recruited n&nbsp;=&nbsp;30 girls each from the control (wood-burning stove) and intervention (liquefied petroleum... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/70z523kb Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Kearns, Katherine A Naeher, Luke P McCracken, John P Barr, Dana Boyd Saikawa, Eri Hengstermann, Mayari Mollinedo, Erick Panuwet, Parinya Yakimavets, Volha Lee, Grace E Thompson, Lisa M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-2057 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6jq254sn Mucoceles of the paranasal sinus commonly involve the frontal sinuses, the ethmoid sinuses, and rarely the maxillary or sphenoid sinuses. They often present with sinus pain or pressure, but rarely can present with more severe symptoms such as changes in mental status or vision due to expansion and invasion through the skull base or orbit. A 62-year-old male presented with optic neuropathy, a relative afferent pupillary defect with proptosis and lateral gaze palsy of the left eye. The patient was found to have a large mucocele extending from the left posterior ethmoid sinus into the left orbital apex. Urgent endoscopic sinus surgery was performed jointly between Oculoplastics and Otolaryngology. Post-operatively, the patient had improvement in diplopia, extraocular motion, and proptosis with stable vision. This case demonstrates the importance of early identification and intervention in a rare presentation of a sinus mucocele to prevent serious complications such as vision loss. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6jq254sn Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Ting, Magdalene Shan, Meghan Gantz, Oliver Zhang-Nunes, Sandy Wrobel, Bozena https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5j95x679 BACKGROUND: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluate the efficacy of an intervention remain underutilized in community-based environmental health research. RCTs that use a pragmatic design emphasize the effectiveness of interventions in complex, real world settings. Pragmatic trials may be especially relevant when community-based interventions address social and environmental determinants that threaten health equity. The revised Pragmatic Explanatory Continuum Indicator Summary (PRECIS-2) is a validated tool developed in 2015 by trialists to ensure that clinical trials are designed to fit their intended purpose, with an assessment of applicability of the trial results to specific contexts. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to ask Ecolectivos study investigators and external implementation scientists to evaluate the Ecolectivos study protocol using the PRECIS-2 tool prior to the launch of the trial. Ecolectivos is an implementation science study, using a village-level... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5j95x679 Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Thompson, Lisa M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-2057 Ferguson, Annalyse Raheel, Hina Lovvorn, Amy E Hengstermann-Artiga, Mayari Lopez, Maria Renee Higgins, Melinda Saikawa, Eri Handley, Margaret A https://escholarship.org/uc/item/42g932b9 <h4>Purpose of review</h4>There is growing evidence that psychedelics and associated treatment modalities may offer therapeutic benefits across a range of psychiatric conditions. Anorexia nervosa (AN), a serious and often treatment-resistant illness associated with significant morbidity and mortality, is one such condition for which psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) may hold promise.<h4>Recent findings</h4>To date, research on PAT for AN has focused primarily on adults, despite the fact that AN frequently begins in adolescence, and early age of onset portends poorer prognosis, including more severe AN, more lifetime psychiatric comorbidity, and greater life difficulties. Given these risks, an exploration of the theoretical potential of PAT for adolescent populations is warranted. Important considerations include biological implications, developmental stage, and consent. Adaptations to the current models of psilocybin-assisted therapy in studies of adults are proposed, and emerging... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/42g932b9 Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Geller, Jamarie A Pacilio, Rachel Downey, Amanda E Ragnhildstveit, Anya Raymond-Flesch, Marissa https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0037-8970 Knatz-Peck, Stephanie Gukasyan, Natalie https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4104z2rb Clinical trials focusing on therapeutic candidates that modify β-amyloid (Aβ) have repeatedly failed to treat Alzheimer’s disease (AD), suggesting that Aβ may not be the optimal target for treating AD. The evaluation of Aβ, tau, and neurodegenerative (A/T/N) biomarkers has been proposed for classifying AD. However, it remains unclear whether disturbances in each arm of the A/T/N framework contribute equally throughout the progression of AD. Here, using the random forest machine learning method to analyze participants in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative dataset, we show that A/T/N biomarkers show varying importance in predicting AD development, with elevated biomarkers of Aβ and tau better predicting early dementia status, and biomarkers of neurodegeneration, especially glucose hypometabolism, better predicting later dementia status. Our results suggest that AD treatments may also need to be disease stage-oriented with Aβ and tau as targets in early AD and glucose... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4104z2rb Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hammond, Tyler C Xing, Xin Wang, Chris Ma, David Nho, Kwangsik Crane, Paul K Elahi, Fanny Ziegler, David A Liang, Gongbo Cheng, Qiang Yanckello, Lucille M Jacobs, Nathan Lin, Ai-Ling https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3s65c83g The utility of <i>in vitro</i> human disease models is mainly dependent on the availability and functional maturity of tissue-specific cell types. We have previously screened for and identified small molecules that can enhance hepatocyte function <i>in vitro</i>. Here, we characterize the functional effects of one of the hits, FH1, on primary human hepatocytes <i>in vitro</i>, and also <i>in vivo</i> on primary hepatocytes in a zebrafish model. Furthermore, we conducted an analogue screen to establish the structure-activity relationship of FH1. We performed affinity-purification proteomics that identified NQO2 to be a potential binding target for this small molecule, revealing a possible link between inflammatory signaling and hepatocellular function in zebrafish and human hepatocyte model systems. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3s65c83g Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Schepers, Arnout Shan, Meghan Cox, Andrew Huang, Ada Evans, Helen Walesky, Chad Fleming, Heather Goessling, Wolfram Bhatia, Sangeeta https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kp0v10z Background: Over a third of children globally do not meet their developmental potential, and children living in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) are most vulnerable. Understanding the contextual factors that influence cognitive development for children in LMICs is crucial to inform and develop interventions. We sought to characterize developmental trajectories of cognition in Bangladeshi children and identify salient social determinants. Methods: We used a longitudinal design and included 542 children living in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Social determinants (maternal and paternal education, housing risks, household assets, and food security) were assessed at baseline visits using a combination of oral interviews and home assessments. Cognitive development was assessed at 6 months, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 years. A total of 1397 cognitive assessments were completed across all participants. Growth curve models and mixed effect models were used. Findings: In children living above the poverty... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kp0v10z Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Valdes, Viviane Sullivan, Eileen F Tofail, Fahmida Thompson, Lisa M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-2057 Kakon, Shahria H Shama, Talat Haque, Rashidul Nelson, Charles A https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j40z96v Mindfulness meditation has numerous purported benefits for psychological well-being; however, problems such as adherence to mindfulness tasks, quality of mindfulness sessions, or dosage of mindfulness interventions may hinder individuals from accessing the purported benefits of mindfulness. Methodologies including closed-loop systems and real-time neurofeedback may provide tools to help bolster success in mindfulness task performance, titrate the exposure to mindfulness interventions, or improve engagement with mindfulness sessions. In this review, we explore the use of closed-loop systems and real-time neurofeedback to influence, augment, or promote mindfulness interventions. Various closed-loop neurofeedback signals from functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography have been used to provide subjective correlates of mindfulness states including functional magnetic resonance imaging region-of-interest-based signals (e.g., posterior cingulate cortex), functional... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j40z96v Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chen, Joseph CC https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4166-9814 Ziegler, David A https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3d50k28z BACKGROUND: Reducing household air pollution (HAP) to levels associated with health benefits requires nearly exclusive use of clean cooking fuels and abandonment of traditional biomass fuels. METHODS: The Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial randomized 3,195 pregnant women in Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda to receive a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stove intervention (n&nbsp;=&nbsp;1,590), with controls expected to continue cooking with biomass fuels (n&nbsp;=&nbsp;1,605). We assessed fidelity to intervention implementation and participant adherence to the intervention starting in pregnancy through the infant's first birthday using fuel delivery and repair records, surveys, observations, and temperature-logging stove use monitors (SUMs). RESULTS: Fidelity and adherence to the HAPIN intervention were high. Median time required to refill LPG cylinders was 1&nbsp;day (interquartile range 0-2). Although 26% (n&nbsp;=&nbsp;410) of intervention participants... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3d50k28z Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Williams, Kendra N Quinn, Ashlinn North, Hayley Wang, Jiantong Pillarisetti, Ajay Thompson, Lisa M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-2057 Díaz-Artiga, Anaité Balakrishnan, Kalpana Thangavel, Gurusamy Rosa, Ghislaine Ndagijimana, Florien Underhill, Lindsay J Kirby, Miles A Puzzolo, Elisa Hossen, Shakir Waller, Lance A Peel, Jennifer L Rosenthal, Joshua P Clasen, Thomas F Harvey, Steven A Checkley, William Investigators, for the HAPIN https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ts9g6jj The Environmental Costs and Geography of U.S. Data Center Expansion https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ts9g6jj Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hernandez-Cortes, Danae Meng, Kyle Weber, Paige https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2gc9q3jr Background: Maternal overweight and obesity has been associated with poor lactation performance including delayed lactogenesis and reduced duration. However, the effect on human milk composition is less well understood. Objectives: We evaluated the relationship of maternal BMI on the human milk metabolome among Guatemalan mothers. Methods: We used data from 75 Guatemalan mothers who participated in the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network trial. Maternal BMI was measured between 9 and &lt;20 weeks of gestation. Milk samples were collected at a single time point using aseptic collection from one breast at 6 mo postpartum and analyzed using high-resolution mass spectrometry. A cross-sectional untargeted high-resolution metabolomics analysis was performed by coupling hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) and reverse phase C18 chromatography with mass spectrometry. Metabolic features associated with maternal BMI were determined by a metabolome-wide association... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2gc9q3jr Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Sivalogan, Kasthuri Liang, Donghai Accardi, Carolyn Diaz-Artiga, Anaite Hu, Xin Mollinedo, Erick Ramakrishnan, Usha Teeny, Sami Nadeem Tran, ViLinh Clasen, Thomas F Thompson, Lisa M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-2057 Sinharoy, Sheela S https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2654q9bt BACKGROUND: Anemia is common in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), causing significant health issues and social burdens. Exposure to household air pollution from using biomass fuels for cooking and heating has been associated with anemia, but the exposure-response association has not been studied. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the associations between personal exposure to air pollution and both hemoglobin levels and anemia prevalence among pregnant women in a multi-country randomized controlled trial. METHODS: We studied 3,163 pregnant women aged 18-35&nbsp;years with 9-20&nbsp;weeks of gestation, recruited as part of the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) randomized controlled trial in Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda. We assessed 24-hour personal exposures to fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), black carbon (BC), and carbon monoxide (CO), and measured hemoglobin levels at baseline (15&nbsp;±&nbsp;3&nbsp;weeks gestation). Linear and logistic regression... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2654q9bt Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Deng, Yanling Steenland, Kyle Sinharoy, Sheela S Peel, Jennifer L Ye, Wenlu Pillarisetti, Ajay Eick, Stephanie M Chang, Howard H Wang, Jiantong Chen, Yunyun Young, Bonnie N Clark, Maggie L Barr, Dana Boyd Clasen, on behalf of the HAPIN Investigators Thomas F https://escholarship.org/uc/item/25q428gg Exposure to household air pollution has been linked to adverse health outcomes among women aged 40-79. Little is known about how shifting from biomass cooking to a cleaner fuel like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) could impact exposures for this population. We report 24-h exposures to particulate matter (PM_2.5), black carbon (BC), and carbon monoxide (CO) among women aged 40 to &lt;80 years participating in the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network trial. 209 participants were randomized to the intervention and received an LPG stove and continuous fuel supply; controls used biomass (<i>n</i> = 209). Exposures were measured up to six times; we used mixed-effects models to estimate differences between intervention and control groups. Preintervention exposures between groups were comparable; median postintervention exposures were 62% (76.3 vs 29.3 μg/m³), 73% (10.4 vs 2.8 μg/m³), and 57% (1.4 vs 0.6 ppm) lower for PM_2.5, BC, and CO... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/25q428gg Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Ye, Wenlu Campbell, Devan Johnson, Michael Balakrishnan, Kalpana Peel, Jennifer L Steenland, Kyle Underhill, Lindsay J Rosa, Ghislaine Kirby, Miles A Díaz-Artiga, Anaité McCracken, John Thompson, Lisa M https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-2057 Clark, Maggie L Waller, Lance A Chang, Howard H Wang, Jiantong Dusabimana, Ephrem Ndagijimana, Florien Sambandam, Sankar Mukhopadhyay, Krishnendu Chiang, Marilu Hartinger, Stella M Nicolaou, Laura Williams, Kendra Piedrahita, Ricardo Kearns, Katherine A Kremer, Jacob Ghosh, Ahana Rosenthal, Joshua P Checkley, William Clasen, Thomas Naeher, Luke Pillarisetti, Ajay https://escholarship.org/uc/item/20v7t0rz Background: Psychiatric comorbidity and self-reported cognitive dysfunction are common among individuals with hoarding disorder (HD). However, common patterns of co-occurring neuropsychiatric symptoms, and their potential impact on the clinical manifestation of hoarding, including functional impairment, are not well-established. Methods: Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify and characterize distinct neuropsychiatric symptom subgroups among 7606 adult internet-based research participants who reported experiencing social impairment due to household clutter. An additional 1129 participants who screened negative but had evidence of hoarding on additional assessment ("false negative") were identified and compared to the LCA-identified classes. Demographic and clinical characteristics associated with class membership were assessed. Results: The best fitting model yielded five subgroups, including three subgroups characterizing individuals with hoarding symptoms: "hoarding... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/20v7t0rz Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Nutley, Sara K Striley, Catherine W Cottler, Linda B Eichenbaum, Joseph Nosheny, Rachel L Mackin, R Scott Mathews, Carol A https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1gq1p3s2 The steroid hormone 5-androstene-3β,17β-diol (ADIOL) was discovered nearly a century ago in humans, yet its physiological functions have remained poorly understood. Using C. elegans, we identify ADIOL as essential for several pro-healthspan effects of fasting and caloric restriction (CR). These dietary restriction regimens activate an ADIOL-NHR-91-kynurenic acid signaling axis, partly through transcriptional programs associated with ADIOL biosynthesis. Within this axis, ADIOL acts through NHR-91, a C. elegans homolog of estrogen receptor β, to reduce levels of kynurenic acid, a neuromodulatory metabolite, thereby enhancing healthspan. Critically, ADIOL does not extend lifespan, indicating its healthspan benefits are independent of longevity, and even late-life supplementation is effective. Collectively, this work establishes ADIOL as a physiological link between metabolic cues and neural function, promoting health during aging via the kynurenine pathway. Given that in mammals... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1gq1p3s2 Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Guijarro‐Hernández, Ana Yoo, Shinja Lemieux, George A Komatsu, Sena Latiff, Abdullah Q Patil, Rishika R Ashrafi, Kaveh https://escholarship.org/uc/item/13b540vb Liver disease is a leading cause of morbidity worldwide and treatment options are limited, with organ transplantation being the only form of definitive management. Cell-based therapies have long held promise as alternatives to whole-organ transplantation but have been hindered by the rapid loss of liver-specific functions over a period of days in cultured hepatocytes. Hypothesis-driven studies have identified a handful of factors that modulate hepatocyte functions in vitro, but our understanding of the mechanisms involved remains incomplete. We thus report here the development of a high-throughput platform to enable systematic interrogation of liver biology in vitro. The platform is currently configured to enable genetic knockdown screens and includes an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based functional assay to quantify albumin output as a surrogate marker for hepatocyte synthetic functions as well as an image-based viability assay that counts hepatocyte nuclei. Using this platform,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/13b540vb Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Shan, Meghan Logan, David Root, David Carpenter, Anne Bhatia, Sangeeta https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0dh3x62v Background The fentanyl-driven overdose crisis has heightened challenges in buprenorphine initiation, as traditional methods risk precipitated withdrawal due to fentanyl's prolonged presence in the body. Buprenorphine low-dose initiation (LDI) offers a gradual approach to starting buprenorphine but requires continued full-agonist opioid use in outpatient settings, where success rates remain low and patient experiences have not been evaluated. Objectives To identify barriers and facilitators to successful LDI completion and inform strategies to improve outpatient buprenorphine treatment. Methods We conducted 19 semi-structured interviews with people with opioid use disorder using fentanyl who had attempted LDI in the past three months. Using the COM-B framework, we applied thematic analysis to identify barriers and facilitators to LDI completion from interviews until reaching thematic saturation. Results We found that barriers and facilitators to LDI completion were linked to five... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0dh3x62v Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Suen, Leslie W Samayoa, Elyssa Spinelli, Matthew A Scarpetta, Maia Knight, Kelly R Chael, Julia Soran, Christine S Geier, Michelle Snyder, Hannah R Coffin, Phillip O https://escholarship.org/uc/item/04c579pz Repeated measurements of household air pollution may provide better estimates of average exposure but can add to costs and participant burden. In a randomized trial of gas versus biomass cookstoves in four countries, we took supplemental personal 24-h measurements on a 10% subsample for mothers and infants, interspersed between protocol samples. Mothers had up to five postrandomization protocol measurements over 16 months, while infants had three measurements over one year. For the subsample, we added up to 6 supplemental postrandomization samples for mothers and 3 for infants, measuring PM_2.5, black carbon (BC) (mothers only), and carbon monoxide (CO) at each visit. 310 mothers had both protocol (<i>n</i> = 1026) and supplemental (<i>n</i> = 1099) valid exposure measurements. For children, supplemental data sufficient for analysis were collected in only two countries; 94 infants had both protocol (<i>n</i> = 317) and supplemental (<i>n</i> = 234) samples. The geometric... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/04c579pz Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Steenland, K Pillarisetti, A Johnson, M Rosenthal, J Balakrishnan, K Underhill, L Thompson, L https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8001-2057 McCracken, J Waller, L Nicolaou, L Clark, M Checkley, W Peel, J Clasen, T