Analysis of Top 100 Articles Cited in Top Pain Journals: A Comprehensive Two Decade Bibliometric Analysis.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: A bibliometric analysis was performed to analyze and compare the top 100 articles from the most well-known five pain journals: Pain, Pain Physician, Pain Medicine, Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine, and Journal of Pain. A query of the Scopus database was performed to filter the top 200 most cited articles from each journal. CY score was calculated for the top 200 articles from each journal by dividing the total number of citations by the number of years the article has been published. RECENT FINDINGS: All articles had a collective analysis of the top CY scores, the top 100 of which were further analyzed. The pain subtype, type of publication, country of origin, and senior author were extrapolated from these top 100 articles. Frequency tables were organized, revealing Pain Journal as the highest publishing journal out of the top 100 articles. Chronic pain was the most studied subtype of pain and narrative reviews were the most common type of evidence. Studies were also organized in five-year epochs to analyze the frequency of publications in these intervals. Results show that 2010-2014 had the highest frequency of articles published overall. Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is also an objective indicator of the average number of citations per published article from each journal. The journal with the highest JIF was Pain with an impact factor of 7.926. (6).

Interaction between type 2 diabetes and past COVID-19 on active tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: The global setback in tuberculosis (TB) prevalence and mortality in the post-COVID-19 era have been partially attributed to pandemic-related disruptions in healthcare systems. The additional biological contribution of COVID-19 to TB is less clear. The goal of this study was to determine if there is an association between COVID-19 in the past 18 months and a new TB episode, and the role played by type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) comorbidity in this relationship. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 112 new active TB patients and 373 non-TB controls, identified between June 2020 and November 2021 in communities along the Mexican border with Texas. Past COVID-19 was based on self-report or positive serology. Bivariable/multivariable analysis were used to evaluate the odds of new TB in hosts with past COVID-19 and/or DM status. RESULTS: The odds of new TB were higher among past COVID-19 cases vs. controls, but only significant among DM patients (aOR 2.3). The odds of TB given DM was 2.7-fold among participants without past COVID-19 and increased to 7.9-fold among those with past COVID-19. CONCLUSION: DM interacts with past COVID-19 synergistically to magnify the risk of TB. Latent TB screening and prophylactic treatment, if positive, is recommended in this COVID-19/DM/latent TB high-risk group.

COVID-19 and chronic diabetes: the perfect storm for reactivation tuberculosis?: a case series.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic is predicted to have a net negative effect on tuberculosis control, with an estimated excess of 6.3 million tuberculosis cases and 1.4 million deaths by 2025. Programmatic issues such as the lockdown of tuberculosis services affect all patients, while biosocial factors have a differential impact on an individual's risk for tuberculosis or adverse tuberculosis outcomes. CASE PRESENTATION: We report three Hispanic cases of incident tuberculosis (two males, 43 and 44 years old; one female, 49 years old) after resolution of coronavirus disease episodes. Coincidentally, all cases shared a common risk factor: a chronic history poorly controlled diabetes. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings alert to the threat posed by the synergy between coronavirus disease and diabetes, on tuberculosis reactivation. In medium- to high-risk settings for tuberculosis, we recommend implementation of routine screening for latent tuberculosis infection in these cases, and preventive tuberculosis treatment in those who are positive.

Transforming carbon dioxide into jet fuel using an organic combustion-synthesized Fe-Mn-K catalyst.

With mounting concerns over climate change, the utilisation or conversion of carbon dioxide into sustainable, synthetic hydrocarbons fuels, most notably for transportation purposes, continues to attract worldwide interest. This is particularly true in the search for sustainable or renewable aviation fuels. These offer considerable potential since, instead of consuming fossil crude oil, the fuels are produced from carbon dioxide using sustainable renewable hydrogen and energy. We report here a synthetic protocol to the fixation of carbon dioxide by converting it directly into aviation jet fuel using novel, inexpensive iron-based catalysts. We prepare the Fe-Mn-K catalyst by the so-called Organic Combustion Method, and the catalyst shows a carbon dioxide conversion through hydrogenation to hydrocarbons in the aviation jet fuel range of 38.2%, with a yield of 17.2%, and a selectivity of 47.8%, and with an attendant low carbon monoxide (5.6%) and methane selectivity (10.4%). The conversion reaction also produces light olefins ethylene, propylene, and butenes, totalling a yield of 8.7%, which are important raw materials for the petrochemical industry and are presently also only obtained from fossil crude oil. As this carbon dioxide is extracted from air, and re-emitted from jet fuels when combusted in flight, the overall effect is a carbon-neutral fuel. This contrasts with jet fuels produced from hydrocarbon fossil sources where the combustion process unlocks the fossil carbon and places it into the atmosphere, in longevity, as aerial carbon - carbon dioxide.

Development and Validation of a Polypharmacy Knowledge Assessment Instrument.

Objective. To develop a brief instrument for academic pharmacists or physicians to use in assessing postgraduate residents' knowledge of polypharmacy. Methods. Five clinicians used a modified Delphi process to create a 26-item multiple-choice test to assess knowledge of polypharmacy in geriatric primary care. The test was distributed to 74 participants: 37 internal medicine (MD) residents, six nurse practitioner (NP) residents, nine primary care attendings, 12 pharmacists and pharmacy residents, and 10 geriatrics attendings and fellows. Construct validity was assessed using factor analysis and item response theory. Overall group differences were examined using a Kruskal-Wallis test, and between group differences were assessed using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. Results. The response rate for the survey was 89%. Factor analysis resulted in a one factor solution. Item response theory modeling yielded a 12-item and six-item test. For the 12-item test, the mean scores of geriatricians and pharmacists (88%) were higher than those of MD and NP residents (58%) and primary care attendings (61%). No differences were found between MD and NP residents and primary care attendings. Findings for the six-item test were similar. Conclusion. Both the 12-item and six-item versions of this polypharmacy test showed acceptable internal consistency and known groups validity and could be used in other academic settings. The similar scores between MD and NP residents and primary care attendings, which were significantly lower than scores for pharmacists and geriatricians, support the need for increased educational interventions.

Prognosis Reconsidered in Light of Ancient Insights-From Hippocrates to Modern Medicine.

Whereas modern clinicians are often reluctant to discuss prognosis with their patients, such discussions were central to medical practice in ancient Greece. A historical analysis has the potential to explain the reasons for this difference in prognostic practices and provide insights into overcoming current challenges. Many scholars consider prognosis to be the principal scientific achievement of the Hippocratic tradition. The earliest treatise on the subject, On Prognostics, defines prognosis broadly as "foreseeing and foretelling, by the side of the sick, the present, the past, and the future." This definition makes clear that prognosis is not simply about predicting the future, but also involves an appreciation for the continuity of past, present, and future as sequences of connected events, or trajectories, that can be pieced together into a comprehensive story of the patient's health. In modern medicine, prognosis has lagged behind diagnosis and treatment in its establishment as a central component of medical care. An important basis for understanding this lies in the paradigm change that occurred with the discovery of pathogens as agents of disease, shifting attention toward individual diseases and away from diseased individuals. With this shift, diagnostics and treatments advanced dramatically and prognosis fell to the background. More recent attempts to advance prognosis have focused on narrower uses of the term, such as estimates of life expectancy and mortality risk. However, physicians have expressed a number of reservations about the use of such estimates in the care of patients, and patients have indicated the desire for a wide variety of predictive information. Adopting the broadness of the Hippocratic definition may allow clinicians to overcome their hesitancy and provide much-needed information to their patients.

Assessing an Interprofessional Polypharmacy and Deprescribing Educational Intervention for Primary Care Post-graduate Trainees: a Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) are increasingly common and associated with adverse health effects. However, post-graduate education in polypharmacy and complex medication management for older adults remain limited. OBJECTIVE: The Initiative to Minimize Pharmaceutical Risk in Older Veterans (IMPROVE) polypharmacy clinic was created to provide a platform for teaching internal medicine (IM) and nurse practitioner (NP) residents about outpatient medication management and deprescribing for older adults. We aimed to assess residents' knowledge of polypharmacy and perceptions of this interprofessional education intervention. DESIGN: A prospective cohort study with an internal comparison group. PARTICIPANTS: IM residents and NP residents; Veterans ≥ 65 years and taking ≥ 10 medications. INTERVENTION: IMPROVE consists of a pre-clinic conference, shared medical appointment, individual appointment, and interprofessional precepting model. MAIN MEASURES: We assessed residents' performance on a pre-post knowledge test, residents' qualitative assessment of the educational impact of IMPROVE, and the number and type of medications discontinued or decreased. KEY RESULTS: The IMPROVE intervention group (n = 18) had a significantly greater improvement in test scores than the control group (n = 18) (14% ± 15% versus - 1.3% ± 16%) over a period of 6 months (Wilcoxon rank sum, p = 0.019). In focus groups, residents (n = 17) reported perceived improvements in knowledge and skills, noting that the experience changed their practice in other clinical settings. In addition, residents valued the unique interprofessional experience. Veterans (n = 71) had a median of 15 medications (IQR 12-19), and a median of 2 medications (IQR 1-3) was discontinued. Vitamins, supplements, and cardiovascular medications were the most commonly discontinued medications, and cardiovascular medications were the most commonly decreased in dose or frequency. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, IMPROVE is an effective model of post-graduate primary care training in complex medication management and deprescribing that improves residents' knowledge and skills, and is perceived by residents to influence their practice outside the program.

Defining the Scope of Prognosis: Primary Care Clinicians' Perspectives on Predicting the Future Health of Older Adults.

CONTEXT: Studies examining the attitudes of clinicians toward prognostication for older adults have focused on life expectancy prediction. Little is known about whether clinicians approach prognostication in other ways. OBJECTIVES: To describe how clinicians approach prognostication for older adults, defined broadly as making projections about patients' future health. METHODS: In five focus groups, 30 primary care clinicians from community-based, academic-affiliated, and Veterans Affairs primary care practices were given open-ended questions about how they make projections about their patients' future health and how this informs the approach to care. Content analysis was used to organize responses into themes. RESULTS: Clinicians spoke about future health in terms of a variety of health outcomes in addition to life expectancy, including independence in activities and decision making, quality of life, avoiding hospitalization, and symptom burden. They described approaches in predicting these health outcomes, including making observations about the overall trajectory of patients to predict health outcomes and recognizing increased risk for adverse health outcomes. Clinicians expressed reservations about using estimates of mortality risk and life expectancy to think about and communicate patients' future health. They discussed ways in which future research might help them in thinking about and discussing patients' future health to guide care decisions, including identifying when and whether interventions might impact future health. CONCLUSION: The perspectives of primary care clinicians in this study confirm that prognostic considerations can go beyond precise estimates of mortality risk and life expectancy to include a number of outcomes and approaches to predicting those outcomes.

Initiative to Minimize Pharmaceutical Risk in Older Veterans (IMPROVE) Polypharmacy Clinic.

An interprofessional polypharmacy clinic for intensive management of medication regimens helps high-risk patients manage their medications.

Rapid Production of High-Purity Hydrogen Fuel through Microwave-Promoted Deep Catalytic Dehydrogenation of Liquid Alkanes with Abundant Metals.

Hydrogen as an energy carrier promises a sustainable energy revolution. However, one of the greatest challenges for any future hydrogen economy is the necessity for large scale hydrogen production not involving concurrent CO2 production. The high intrinsic hydrogen content of liquid-range alkane hydrocarbons (including diesel) offers a potential route to CO2 -free hydrogen production through their catalytic deep dehydrogenation. We report here a means of rapidly liberating high-purity hydrogen by microwave-promoted catalytic dehydrogenation of liquid alkanes using Fe and Ni particles supported on silicon carbide. A H2 production selectivity from all evolved gases of some 98 %, is achieved with less than a fraction of a percent of adventitious CO and CO2 . The major co-product is solid, elemental carbon.

Ultrafast Elemental and Oxidation-State Mapping of Hematite by 4D Electron Microscopy.

We describe a new methodology that sheds light on the fundamental electronic processes that occur at the subsurface regions of inorganic solid photocatalysts. Three distinct kinds of microscopic imaging are used that yield spatial, temporal, and energy-resolved information. We also carefully consider the effect of photon-induced near-field electron microscopy (PINEM), first reported by Zewail et al. in 2009. The value of this methodology is illustrated by studying afresh a popular and viable photocatalyst, hematite, α-Fe2O3 that exhibits most of the properties required in a practical application. By employing high-energy electron-loss signals (of several hundred eV), coupled to femtosecond temporal resolution as well as ultrafast energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy in 4D, we have, inter alia, identified Fe4+ ions that have a lifetime of a few picoseconds, as well as associated photoinduced electronic transitions and charge transfer processes.

Protective Effect of Anti-Phosphatidylserine Antibody in a Guinea Pig Model of Advanced Hemorrhagic Arenavirus Infection.

OBJECTIVE: Host derived markers on virally infected cells or virions may provide targets for the generation of antiviral agents. Recently, we identified phosphatidylserine (PS) as a host marker of virions and virally-infected cells. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Under normal physiological conditions, PS is maintained on the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane facing the cytosol. Following viral infection, activation or pre-apoptotic changes cause PS to become externalized. We have previously shown that bavituximab, a chimeric human-mouse antibody that binds PS complexed with ß2-glycoprotein I (ß2GP1), protected rodents against lethal Pichinde virus and cytomegalovirus infections. RESULTS: Here, we determined the antiviral activity of a fully human monoclonal antibody, PGN632, that directly binds to PS. Treatment with PGN632 protected 20% of guinea pigs with advanced infections of the hemorrhagic arenavirus, Pichinde, from death. Combining PGN632 with ribavirin improved the antiviral activity of both agents, such that the combination rescued 50% of animals from death. CONCLUSION: The major mechanisms of action of PGN632 appear to be opsonization of virus and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity of virally-infected cells. PS-targeting agents may have utility in the treatment of viral diseases.

Design of Highly Selective Platinum Nanoparticle Catalysts for the Aerobic Oxidation of KA-Oil using Continuous-Flow Chemistry.

Highly active and selective aerobic oxidation of KA-oil to cyclohexanone (precursor for adipic acid and ɛ-caprolactam) has been achieved in high yields using continuous-flow chemistry by utilizing uncapped noble-metal (Au, Pt & Pd) nanoparticle catalysts. These are prepared using a one-step in situ methodology, within three-dimensional porous molecular architectures, to afford robust heterogeneous catalysts. Detailed spectroscopic characterization of the nature of the active sites at the molecular level, coupled with aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, reveals that the synthetic methodology and associated activation procedures play a vital role in regulating the morphology, shape and size of the metal nanoparticles. These active centers have a profound influence on the activation of molecular oxygen for selective catalytic oxidations.

A comparison of the willingness of resident and attending physicians to comply with the requests of patients at the end of life.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the differences between physicians in training and post training in their willingness to comply with patient requests at the end of life. OBJECTIVE: To compare the attitudes of attendings and residents regarding a range of patient requests at the end of life DESIGN: Written, cross-sectional survey PARTICIPANTS: The cohort included 191 attendings randomly selected across the state of Connecticut and 240 residents from 2 university-affiliated Internal Medicine programs. MAIN MEASURES: We surveyed attendings and residents about their willingness to honor the requests of the same decisionally capable elderly patient in five scenarios involving different requests regarding end-of-life treatment. RESULTS: While a large majority of both attendings and residents were willing to comply with each of the requests to withhold intubation (100 % and 94 %, respectively), to extubate (92 % and 77 %), and to give increasingly higher doses of narcotics (94 % and 71 %), a significantly larger proportion of attendings versus residents was willing to comply with each of these requests. Small proportions of attendings and residents were willing to prescribe a lethal amount of sleeping pills (3 % and 5 %, respectively) and to give a lethal injection in its current illegal state (1 % and 4 %). A significantly larger proportion of residents (32 %) compared to attendings (19 %) was willing to give a lethal injection if legal. Adjusting for sociodemographic factors, attending status was independently associated with willingness to extubate [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 3.0, 95 % CI = 1.6-5.7] and to give a lethal injection if legal (AOR = 0.5, 95 % CI = 0.3-0.8). The proportion of physicians willing to extubate increased across years since graduation, with the greatest differences occurring across the residency years (69 % to 86 %). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Clinical experience was an important determinant of physicians' willingness to perform multiple patient requests at the end of life, with substantial changes in attitudes occurring during residency training. More research is needed to determine whether dedicated clinical exposure for physicians in training influences attitudes.

Systematic review: Health-related characteristics of elderly hospitalized adults and nursing home residents associated with short-term mortality.

OBJECTIVES: To identify the domains of health-related characteristics of older hospitalized adults and nursing home residents most strongly associated with short-term mortality. DESIGN: Systematic review. SETTING: Studies published in English in MEDLINE, Scopus, or Web of Science before August 1, 2010. PARTICIPANTS: Prospective studies consisting of persons aged 65 and older that evaluated the association between at least one health-related participant characteristic and mortality within a year in multivariable analysis. MEASUREMENTS: All health-related characteristics associated with mortality in multivariable analysis were extracted and categorized into domains. The frequency, with all studies combined, with which particular domains were associated with mortality in multivariable analysis was determined. RESULTS: Thirty-three studies (28 in hospitalized individuals, five in nursing home residents) reported a large number of characteristics associated with mortality that could be categorized in seven domains: cognitive function, disease diagnosis, laboratory values, nutrition, physical function, pressure ulcers, and shortness of breath. Measures of physical function and nutrition were the domains most frequently associated with mortality up to 1 year from the time of evaluation for hospitalized individuals and nursing home residents; measures of physical function, cognitive function, and nutrition were the domains most frequently associated with in-hospital mortality for hospitalized individuals. CONCLUSION: Of a large number of health-related characteristics of older persons shown to be associated with short-term mortality, measures of nutrition, physical function, and cognitive function were the domains of health most frequently associated with mortality. These domains provide easily measurable factors that may serve as helpful markers for individuals at high mortality risk.

Determining the structure of L-arginine and other organic molecules.

The time is now: Very real opportunities that now exist for determining the crystal structures of organic molecules using sophisticated techniques for the analysis of powder X-ray diffraction data are highlighted herein. The application of these techniques has recently led to the first crystal structure determination reported for L-arginine.

Protection Afforded by Fluoroquinolones in Animal Models of Respiratory Infections with Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, and Francisella tularensis.

Successful treatment of inhalation anthrax, pneumonic plague and tularemia can be achieved with fluoroquinolone antibiotics, such as ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin, and initiation of treatment is most effective when administered as soon as possible following exposure. Bacillus anthracis Ames, Yersinia pestis CO92, and Francisella tularensis SCHU S4 have equivalent susceptibility in vitro to ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin (minimal inhibitory concentration is 0.03 µg/ml); however, limited information is available regarding in vivo susceptibility of these infectious agents to the fluoroquinolone antibiotics in small animal models. Mice, guinea pig, and rabbit models have been developed to evaluate the protective efficacy of antibiotic therapy against these life-threatening infections. Our results indicated that doses of ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin required to protect mice against inhalation anthrax were approximately 18-fold higher than the doses of levofloxacin required to protect against pneumonic plague and tularemia. Further, the critical period following aerosol exposure of mice to either B. anthracis spores or Y. pestis was 24 h, while mice challenged with F. tularensis could be effectively protected when treatment was delayed for as long as 72 h postchallenge. In addition, it was apparent that prolonged antibiotic treatment was important in the effective treatment of inhalation anthrax in mice, but short-term treatment of mice with pneumonic plague or tularemia infections were usually successful. These results provide effective antibiotic dosages in mice, guinea pigs, and rabbits and lay the foundation for the development and evaluation of combinational treatment modalities.