Vanderbilt University

Diagnostic yield and outcomes of hand surgery referrals to rheumatology

ABSTRACT Background: Hand and upper extremity complaints frequently prompt evaluation for systemic inflammatory conditions, leading surgeons to refer patients to rheumatology. However, referral patterns are highly variable and not standardized, and access to rheumatologic care is...

Exploratory integrative analysis of infant gut microbiome and metabolome suggests diet- and microbiome-derived metabolites associated with childhood asthma

Abstract Background Early-life gut microbiome composition has been linked to childhood asthma risk, but the metabolic pathways underlying this association remain unclear. Objective To integrate infant gut microbiome and metabolome data to identify pathways associated with asthma...

Standards for practical management of drug hypersensitivity reactions to intravenous drugs and proactive early allergy involvement before referral: A WAO Statement

Hypersensitivity reactions to intravenous therapies—including antibiotics, chemotherapeutics, biologics, anesthesia agents, and contrast media—pose significant challenges in acute care settings. These reactions often occur outside the purview of allergy specialists, leading to de...

The value of a statistical life year

Abstract Embedded in the value of a statistical life (VSL) is a stream of valuations of each expected year of life. The value of a statistical life year (VSLY) has a policy-relevant role analogous to the VSL, except that it monetizes risks to short periods of life extension. This...

Engaging Secondary Caregivers in Research for Children With Medical Complexity

OBJECTIVE: Primary caregivers (PCG; eg, often a parent or guardian) are central to caring for children with medical complexity (CMC). Secondary caregivers (eg, another parent, spouse/partner of the PCG, extended family members, friends, in-home or school-based professionals) also...

Development and Preliminary Feasibility Testing of PACERS , a Physical Activity‐Centered Intervention for Rural Older Adults With Hypertension

BACKGROUND: A high prevalence of hypertension is observed among American rural residents. This study aimed to engage rural community members in designing, developing, and preliminarily testing the feasibility of a physical activity (PA)-centered health promotion intervention inte...

Classifying group actions on hyperbolic spaces

For a given group G , it is natural to ask whether one can classify all isometric G -actions on Gromov hyperbolic spaces. We propose a formalization of this problem utilizing the complexity theory of Borel equivalence relations. In this paper, we focus on actions of general type,...

Conserved C-terminal residues adjacent to the canonical PDX1 homeodomain are required for chromatin occupancy and pancreas development

Essential roles for the PDX1 transcription factor in pancreatic development and β-cell function are well-known, yet the structure-function relationships of domains within its C-terminus remain incompletely defined. We identified a focal intrinsically disordered region (IDR) spann...

Actionable genetic landscape and dynamics in circulating DNA from 12,827 patients with metastatic breast cancer

Abstract Plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is a sensitive, noninvasive tool for monitoring the genomic landscape, heterogeneity, and evolution of cancer, aggregating genetic information from multiple metastatic sites. Here, we study 15,564 cfDNA samples from 12,827 patients with metas...

Protein Thioether Crosslinks Installed by a SPASM-Containing Radical SAM Enzyme from Methanogenic Archaea

Abstract Cysteine is a vital amino acid with wide biological utility, serving functions in catalysis, ligand binding, and maintenance of protein structures. In a subset of natural products, termed ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs), multipl...

Rapid data quality investigations of gravitational-wave events with the Data Quality Report Builder toolkit

Abstract We present the Data Quality Report Builder toolkit, DQRbuild, a suite of data quality tools that have been developed to vet gravitational-wave events in preparation for the fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run. We explain the main functionality and the many scientific t...

Sex-related variability of white-matter tracts is robust to tractography methodology

Abstract Diffusion tractography is the prominent in-vivo technique to study and investigate white-matter pathways in the human brain. While tractography is a powerful method, recent work suggests that different tractography methods can produce strikingly different representations...

α-Parvin regulation of cell rearrangement is critical for ureteric bud branching morphogenesis

All branched tubular structures, including the kidney collecting system, are formed by branching morphogenesis, a process that includes tip branching and trunk narrowing. Tight control of cell movement and rearrangement is a prerequisite for branching morphogenesis. The role of i...

Intermolecular Carbon–Carbon Naphthalene Coupling Involves a Radical Mechanism Driven by Cytochrome P450 in Alternaria alternata

ABSTRACT Dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) derivatives are precursors of biologically important molecules, including melanin and perylenequinones (PQs). Biosynthesis of DHN‐derived metabolites requires precise spatial control of radical reactions to form specific C─C or C─O─C bonds. Inv...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances levels other than PFOS, PFOA, or PFHxS and liver cancer risk: a nested case-control analysis

Abstract Epidemiologic studies of PFAS and liver cancer risk have produced conflicting results with no strong or clear associations for pre-diagnostic perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), and perfluorohexanesulfonate (PFHxS). We now report analyses of nine...

Design Principles of Optimizing Cementitious Glasses for the Disposal of Radioactive Waste

ABSTRACT We designed, synthesized, and characterized 26 cementitious calcium‐magnesium aluminosilicate (CMAS) glasses using the chemical and mineralogical properties of ordinary Portland cement (OPC), ground, granulated blast furnace slag (BFS), and class F fly ash as bounding co...

Score Reliability and Validity of a Mexican Dialect Spanish Translation of the Flourishing Scale With Mexican Earthquake Survivors

ABSTRACT The Flourishing Scale (FS) scores have demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties in general adult populations, but no previous research has validated its use among natural disaster survivors. This study examined the reliability, validity, and measurement invariance...

Predictors and prevalence of support for white nationalism in the United States

Abstract White nationalism has become increasingly visible in American public life 1–10 . Yet we lack knowledge of the predictors and prevalence of explicit support for this ideology, as survey research has treated it as a latent construct captured through indirect indicators 11–...

Children’s health care utilization and parenting stress as predictors of behavior problems

Previous research has found an association between children’s utilization of health care services and reduced child behavior problems. One reason for this relationship is that pediatricians have a unique role in the early identification of children’s mental health problems and in...

National Outcomes of Sepsis in Publicly Insured Children: 2021–2023

OBJECTIVE To identify incidence and factors associated with sepsis mortality. METHODS We conducted a cohort study of all US publicly insured children younger than age 19 years hospitalized with a diagnosis code–based definition of sepsis in 2021–2023 using the Transformed Medicai...