University of North Texas Health Science Center

Persistent Post-Concussion Syndrome After Its Withdrawal from DSM-5 and ICD-11: Definitional Disagreement and the Neurocognitive Gap

A substantial minority of patients do not recover fully after mild traumatic brain injury. Persistent post-concussion syndrome includes both cognitive and non-cognitive manifestations, yet DSM-5 and ICD-11 withdrew the syndrome as a distinct diagnosis and reorganized its persiste...

AI versus human coding of NIH grant abstracts

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used for qualitative analysis in substance use research, yet their performance relative to human coders remains underexplored. This study compares ChatGPT-4.0 with human coders in performing qualitative coding tasks using NIH grant ab...

Lifestyle-Driven Phenotypes in Sensitive Skin: A Cross-Sectional, Multicenter Study Across Urbanization Tiers

Sensitive skin is shaped by intrinsic physiology and environmental exposures, yet how concurrent lifestyle factors modulate its expression remains poorly characterized. This study examined how differing environmental and lifestyle conditions influence sensitive skin phenotypes th...

Mediating effect of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the association between depression, anxiety, and cardiometabolic disorders in a multiethnic US population

Abstract Neuroinflammation is associated with depression and anxiety risk, both of which demonstrate a bilateral relationship with cardiometabolic disorders. Systemic inflammation was also commonly described in patients with cardiometabolic disorders. It is, thus, unclear whether...

Population Mobility, Neighborhood Social Vulnerability, and COVID-19 Outcomes in New York City: An Origin-Based Perspective

Decrease in population mobility was expected to mitigate the spread of the corona virus. Prior research mainly focused on mobility destination or network but barely took an origin perspective. Integrating multiple sources of data, this study examines the association between popul...

Multiparametric Whole-Body MRI Protocols in Contemporary Clinical Practice: Indications, Technical Considerations, and Emerging Applications

Multiparametric whole-body MRI (WB-MRI) is an advanced cross-sectional imaging technique that integrates anatomic sequences into functional modalities, including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mapping and Dixon-based imaging. WB-MRI can...

Green practices in academic libraries: validating a survey to measure sustainability awareness and perceptions

Purpose This study investigates academic librarians' awareness of and attitudes toward green library practices, technologies and theoretical frameworks. It aims to develop and validate a survey instrument capable of measuring these constructs among academic library employees acro...

Recovering the precolonial population structure of Khoe-San descendant populations

San populations from Botswana and Namibia retain exceptional linguistic, cultural and genetic diversity, but few Khoisan-speaking groups remain south of the Kalahari Desert. However, historically, far southern Africa was home to many San and Khoekhoe groups. Popular opinion often...

BRD2 impedes iPSC reprogramming by regulating lipid biosynthesis and the matrisome via its ET tail

Induction of human pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) from somatic cells encounters significant barriers that remain poorly understood. Lipids are fundamental cellular molecules with many essential roles. However, the roles of lipids in reprogramming are unknown. Here, we show that...

Acute exposure to cell-free mitochondrial DNA induces pregnancy-specific aortic endothelial dysfunction and organ-selective inflammation in rats

Abstract Pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia are associated with circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), a damage-associated molecular pattern capable of activating Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9). We hypothesized that acute mtDNA exposure induces maternal inflammat...

In Vitro Assessment of Nintedanib in Keratoconus Corneal Stromal Microenvironment

Keratoconus (KC) is a degenerative corneal disease, characterized by stromal thinning and abnormal ECM remodeling, leading to fibrosis. Corneal fibrosis is a leading cause of visual impairment. Corneal stromal keratocytes differentiate into myofibroblasts, which alters extracellu...