Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES/OBJECTIVE:Cornerstone therapies for metastatic prostate cancer include androgen deprivation and androgen receptor pathway inhibition, but cognitive impairment is a recognized, life-altering potential adverse effect of this treatment. Abiraterone acetate (AA), an androgen receptor pathway and CYP17A1 inhibitor, suppresses androgen synthesis and may contribute to cognitive changes. This cell culture-based study uses the BE(2)M17 human male neuroblastoma model to investigate AA-induced alterations in gene and protein expression that may underlie cognitive decline, laying the foundation for a mechanistic investigation aimed at identifying molecular targets to mitigate cognitive impairment in men with prostate cancer receiving androgen-directed therapies. MATERIALS AND METHODS/METHODS:BE(2)M17 cells were pretreated for 12 h with dihydrotestosterone (DHT; 5 nM) or vehicle control, then exposed to AA (0, 5, 10 µM, 24 h). RNA and protein were analyzed by qRT-PCR and Western blot for markers of amyloid processing, neuronal health, and mitochondrial function. RESULTS:= 0.0003). CONCLUSIONS:AA, alone or combined with DHT, disrupts key pathways involved in neuronal health, amyloid processing, and mitochondrial function. These findings suggest a potential mechanistic link between AA treatment and cognitive impairment.

Anaphylaxis is a rapid-onset, potentially life-threatening systemic allergic reaction that remains a significant clinical concern in pediatric practice. Food allergies are the most common trigger in children, and a substantial proportion of affected patients experience severe reactions. This review provides a practical, evidence-based framework for the diagnosis and management of IgE-mediated allergy in the pediatric setting, emphasizing recognition, treatment, and preparedness. Anaphylaxis is a clinical diagnosis based on established criteria, with age-specific presentations that may complicate recognition, particularly in infants and young children. Epinephrine is the cornerstone of treatment and the only therapy capable of reversing life-threatening respiratory and cardiovascular manifestations. Early epinephrine administration improves outcomes, yet real-world use remains suboptimal due to barriers such as needle aversion, device complexity, and access challenges. Pediatricians play a critical role in identifying at-risk patients, prescribing epinephrine, and reinforcing preparedness through education and individualized action plans across care settings. Integrating evolving therapeutic options with established best practices may help to address persistent gaps in care and improve outcomes for children at risk of anaphylaxis.

This study examines for whom and how Organizational Skills Training-Tier 2 (OST-T2, Nissley-Tsiopinis et al., 2024) works for students in grades 3 to 5 with organization, time management, and planning (OTMP) difficulties. The study: (1) investigates subgroup differences for the effect of OST-T2 on student homework and academic performance at post-intervention (about 14 weeks), short-term (about 22 weeks) and long-term follow-up (about 55 weeks); and (2) examines whether improvements in student OTMP skills at 14 weeks mediate the effect of OST-T2 on academic and homework performance at 22 weeks. The study used a cluster-randomized design with 22 schools; 182 students in moderation analyses and 133 in mediation analyses. Subgroup-defining variables were: (a) likely diagnosis of ADHD, (b) caregiver-reported child anxiety, (c) severity of baseline OTMP and homework problems, and (d) family socioeconomic level. Findings suggested that OST-T2 is more effective among children with higher anxiety levels as reported by caregivers. The difference in change scores between the high and low anxiety groups on the caregiver-rated metric of OTMP and homework problems was -0.76 (Cohen's d) at post-treatment (95% CI = -0.12, -1.21, p = .021), -0.66 at 22 weeks (95% CI = -0.08, -1.09, p = .017), and - 0.55 at 55 weeks (95% CI = -0.07, -1.03, p = .026). The analyses generally did not detect subgroup effects based on ADHD diagnostic status and families differing in socioeconomic levels. Results also suggested improvements in OTMP skills in response to OST-T2 are likely to signal downstream impact on student homework performance; estimated average causal mediation effect was -0.66 (95% CI = -1.27, -0.19, p < .001), whereas the average direct effect was only -0.07. Additional longitudinal research with larger samples on predefined subgroups is needed.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly being incorporated within healthcare, including medical education. Hematology-oncology (HO) is a complex field and AI is of great value in education and practice. We explored HO fellow's confidence and concerns with use of AI, AI training that HO fellows currently receive, and interest in future AI training. Multi-institutional survey administered to fellows in six adult HO programs. The survey was distributed electronically over one month with weekly reminders. Results were collected in RedCap and analyzed using R. 36 of 153 potential participants responded (23.5% response rate). Almost all (35, 97%) reported using AI. Fellows who reported using AI for work used it primarily for patient care (28, 82%) and/or research (29, 85%). Most were "somewhat confident" in the accuracy of AI-generated clinical information (25, 74%) and found AI "somewhat reliable" for clinical decision support (25, 74%). Respondents cited concerns about the use of AI in clinical practice, most often reliability of clinical data (32, 94%). Only one respondent (2.8%) received formal education on AI during fellowship and over who received informal training only reported its quality as "fair" or "poor" with 29 of these remaining 35 (83%) respondents interested in formal training. 31 fellows (86%) reported thinking AI would be important in their future career plans and 17 (49%) felt AI training should be required for HO fellows. While almost all HO fellows use AI, formal education in AI is rare in HO fellowship. Most fellows expressed interested in such training and believe that AI will be important in their careers, but also expressed concerns about use of AI, especially reliability of AI-generated clinical data. We plan to create formal curricula specific to HO training.

Neuroscience-inspired neural networks provide a promising framework for bridging biological principles and adaptive artificial intelligence systems. Here, we propose a novel synchronization-based synaptic learning rule for self-organizing probabilistic spiking neural networks (PSNNs) with feedback inhibition. In the proposed model, synaptic plasticity is regulated by the temporal synchronization of presynaptic spike activity of single neurons, enabling unsupervised adaptation of synaptic weights and network connectivity. We systematically investigated how feedback inhibition influences network dynamics, stability, synchronization, and pattern separation efficacy. The results revealed that moderate inhibition produces an optimal balance between excitatory and inhibitory activity, maximizing pattern separation while preventing both excessive excitation and over-suppression of network activity. Comparative analysis further demonstrated that the proposed synchronization-based learning mechanism outperforms conventional Hebbian learning in achieving efficient and stable pattern separation in this neural network. Finally, the trained network was embedded in a simulated autonomous agent navigating a two-dimensional environment, where it successfully identified and avoided a learned obstacle pattern. These findings highlight the critical role of inhibitory regulation and synchronization-driven plasticity in self-organizing spiking systems and support the potential application of biologically inspired learning mechanisms in computational neuroscience, neuromorphic computing, and cognitive robotics.

PURPOSE/UNASSIGNED:To determine whether exposure to antibiotics is associated with new-onset International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding of geographic atrophy (GA). METHODS/UNASSIGNED:This case-control study of patients ages sixty and older used health insurance claims data from the Merative MarketScan Research Databases. A total of 3254 cases with new-onset ICD coding of GA between 2019 and 2021 were matched by year to 3249 controls without GA using propensity scores estimated by age, hypertension, U.S. Census Bureau region, and Charlson Comorbidity Index. For cases, we analyzed prescription drug claims of antibiotics in the two years before GA diagnosis. For controls, we analyzed claims in the two years before a randomly selected eye examination. We calculated the odds of new-onset ICD coding of GA controlling for age-related macular degeneration risk factors. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:Exposure to any antibiotics (OR = 1.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11-1.41; P < 0.001), tetracyclines (OR = 1.18; 95% CI, 1.03-1.36; P = 0.021), quinolones (OR = 1.16; 95% CI, 1.03-1.31; P = 0.017), or broad-spectrum antibiotics (OR = 1.20; 95% CI, 1.07-1.34; P = 0.003) was associated with increased odds of new-onset ICD coding of GA. Greater cumulative day supply was associated with increasing odds, suggesting a dose-dependent relationship. CONCLUSIONS/UNASSIGNED:Exposure to antibiotics is associated with increased odds of new-onset ICD coding of GA. This association may be dose dependent. These findings suggest that antibiotic exposure could be a novel modifiable risk factor for GA, although this conclusion is tempered by potential confounding by health status or misclassification of GA and by multiple comparisons. Further investigation will be needed to validate these findings.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:This study aimed to examine associations of bisphenol and phthalate exposure with arterial stiffness among women of reproductive age. METHODS:Participants include 637 adult women enrolled in the New York University Children's Health and Environment Study (NYU CHES), a prospective pregnancy cohort. The concentrations of eight bisphenols and 22 phthalate metabolites were quantified in up to three spot urine samples. Primary outcomes included brachial artery distensibility (BrachD) and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) as measures of peripheral and central arterial stiffness, respectively, along with blood pressure assessed at repeated study visits up to seven years from exposure measures. Associations between averaged, log2-transformed, creatinine-standardized chemical concentrations and subclinical vascular outcomes of interest were examined using linear mixed-effects models. RESULTS:In covariate-adjusted models, a doubling of bisphenol A was positively associated with BrachD (0.09%/mmHg, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.02, 0.16), a doubling of bisphenol S was negatively associated with mean arterial pressure (MAP) (-0.52 mmHg, 95% CI = -0.98, -0.05), a doubling of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) metabolites was negatively associated with diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (-0.81 mmHg, 95% CI = -1.38, -0.23) and MAP (-0.83 mmHg, 95% CI = -1.45, -0.21), and a doubling of antiandrogenic phthalate metabolites was associated with 0.62 mmHg lower DBP (95% CI = -1.22, -0.03) and 0.66 mmHg lower MAP (95% CI = -1.30, -0.02). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:These findings suggest that routine exposure to bisphenols and DEHP may be associated with vasorelaxation, potentially related to these chemicals' estrogenic and/or antiandrogenic effects.

Working memory (WM), the transient storage and manipulation of information, is a cognitive function that can improve with training. Accumulating evidence suggests that sleep, particularly slow oscillations (SOs) that occur during nonrapid eye movement sleep, supports this improvement. Yet, how sleep and SOs in particular relate to neural processes supporting WM remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated how WM-related neural activity evolves across nocturnal sleep and how these changes relate to neural processing during SOs. Participants performed a WM task during fMRI before and after sleep, with simultaneous EEG-fMRI capturing neural activity during the first 2.5 hr of sleep. Our results showed significant overnight changes in WM-related activity, characterized by reduced recruitment of the dorsal precuneus during WM encoding/maintenance phases and frontal regions during the retrieval phase of WM. In addition, sleep increased item-specific reinstatement in a sensory processing region during WM. This pattern of results suggests a combined influence of sleep on enhancing sensory reinstatement while reducing potential top-down control (i.e., reduced parietal and frontal activity). Critically, SO-related activity was directly linked to overnight activity changes: Stronger SO activation in the premotor cortex and ventromedial pFC predicted greater overnight reductions in WM-related activity, and multivoxel analyses in the ventral attention network revealed a parallel relationship. These findings suggest that SOs play a critical role in WM function by facilitating the reorganization of WM-related processing.

PURPOSE/UNASSIGNED:The purpose was to identify the 100 most-cited scientific publications in ankle cartilage and provide an analysis of their main characteristics. METHODS/UNASSIGNED:The Web of Science (Clarivate) database was searched in April 2025 to obtain data and metrics on ankle cartilage research. The search list was sorted by the number of citations, and articles were included or excluded based on their relevance to ankle cartilage research. The information extracted for each article included the publication year, citation count, author's name, country of origin, journal name, article type, citation density and the level of evidence. RESULTS/UNASSIGNED:The 100 studies generated a total of 17,208 citations, with an average of 172 citations per article. The most-cited article was cited 489 times. The 100 studies included in this analysis were published between 1979 and 2018. In total, these articles represented 13 different countries of origin. The United States represented 38 of the 100 articles. The Netherlands, Italy and Germany followed with nine articles, and South Korea with seven articles. The most prevalent study designs were case series, and the most prevalent level of evidence was Level IV (69 studies). CONCLUSIONS/UNASSIGNED:The present research concludes that the 100 most-cited publications in cartilage lesions of the ankle research were cited a total of 17,208 times. Case series and cohort studies were among the most frequently used study designs with an overall relatively low-level of evidence. The present work may function as a reference standard to help direct orthopaedic providers to the 100 most-cited studies in cartilage lesions of the ankle. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE/UNASSIGNED:N/A.