The Role of Defendant Gender and PTSD Diagnosis in a Battered Spouse Case.

A quarter of women and 11% of men report being survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) during their lifetimes in the United States. Despite being victims themselves, people who kill their IPV abuser can still be subject to criminal proceedings. Given this complexity, the law has employed battered spouse syndrome (BSS) as a tool used in some jurisdictions to support a claim that an IPV survivor killed in self-defense. A defendant who is attempting to claim self-defense using BSS may introduce testimony of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, a diagnosis of PTSD can pose problems in admission during litigation as the occurrence of a traumatic event is often what is being decided. The present study examined how college students, living on the U.S.-México border, perceive survivors-turned-defendants in a BSS mock trial. Specifically, we had each participant read a written trial transcript of a mock trial where gender of the defendant and clinical diagnosis of PTSD were manipulated. The current study hypothesized that jurors would be more lenient toward female defendants than male defendants (Hypothesis 1), jurors would be influenced by a PTSD diagnosis of the defendant (Hypothesis 2a-b), and female jurors would be more lenient than male jurors (Hypothesis 3). We also wanted to examine the impact of victim blaming, sexism, stigma of PTSD, and prior exposure to IPV on decision-making (Hypothesis 4a-d). Findings showed jurors were more lenient with female defendants than male defendants, however there was no effect of clinical diagnosis except on difficulty of decision. Implications of the role defendant gender has in decision-making is discussed.

Comparison of Morbidity and Retreatment After Urethral Bulking or Midurethral Sling at the Time of Pelvic Organ Prolapse Repair.

OBJECTIVE: To compare postprocedure retreatment rates for stress incontinence in patients who underwent either midurethral sling or urethral bulking at the time of concomitant repair of pelvic organ prolapse (POP). METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study using data from the Premier Healthcare Database. Using Current Procedural Terminology codes, we identified patients who were undergoing POP repair and concomitant urethral bulking or midurethral sling between the years 2001 and 2018. Patients who underwent concomitant nongynecologic surgery, Burch urethropexy, or oncologic surgery, and those who did not undergo concomitant POP and anti-incontinence surgery, were excluded. Additional data collected included patient demographics, hospital characteristics, surgeon volume, and comorbidities. The primary outcome was a repeat anti-incontinence procedure at 2 years, and the secondary outcome was the composite complication rate. RESULTS: Over the study period, 540 (0.59%) patients underwent urethral bulking, and 91,005 (99.41%) patients underwent midurethral sling. The rate of a second procedure within 2 years was higher for urethral bulking, compared with midurethral sling (9.07% vs 1.11%, P <.001); in the urethral bulking group, 4.81% underwent repeat urethral bulking and 4.81% underwent midurethral sling. In the midurethral sling group, 0.77% underwent repeat midurethral sling and 0.36% underwent urethral bulking. After adjusting for confounders, midurethral sling was associated with a decreased odds of a repeat anti-incontinence procedure at 2 years (adjusted odds ratio 0.11, 95% CI 0.08-0.16). The probability of any complication at 2 years was higher with urethral bulking (23.0% vs 15.0%, P <.001). CONCLUSION: Urethral bulking at the time of POP repair is associated with a higher rate of repeat procedure and postoperative morbidity up to 2 years after surgery.

An Institutional Evaluation of Race and Ethnic Diversity in Pre-clerkship Lectures.

The goal of this project was to assess the current state of racial and ethnic presentation in medical pedagogy using the pre-clerkship curriculum at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (CWRU SOM). We systematically reviewed 20,630 slides across the basic sciences curriculum from 2020 to 2022 for references to race, ethnicity, or photos of people of color. Results showed that race and ethnicity are overwhelmingly used as biological constructs and references lack appropriate historical context. In addition, this project constructed learning objectives that provide suggestions to shift medical discourse on race and ethnicity from contemplation to a state of solution.

"All in Breastfeeding": An Approach to Improving Breastfeeding Support at the Rainbow Center for Women and Children.

It has been well documented in the literature that breastfeeding has many benefits for mothers and their infants. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life and continued breastfeeding until the age of 1 or longer as desired by the mother and infant; however, many mothers face barriers to achieving this goal. More specifically, we noticed that at our Rainbow Center for Women and Children (the Center), few mothers were able to achieve exclusive or sustained breastfeeding. This study aimed to determine stakeholder views at the Center regarding barriers to breastfeeding in an underserved patient population and to develop a Breastfeeding Intervention Bundle from these responses to improve breastfeeding rates. We then surveyed participants including mothers, providers, and staff about support and comfort with knowledge gained over the period of the Intervention. While our study was unable to document a clear or sustained improvement in participant support or comfort related to breastfeeding over a 6-month period, we furthered our knowledge about barriers to breastfeeding and concluded that interventions to improve breastfeeding rates will likely need to be initiated at the systems level, not only at the individual patient and provider level, and with joint support from all stakeholders.

Erratum for Byukusenge et al., "Complete Genome Sequences of Four Bovine Coronavirus Isolates from Pennsylvania".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1128/genomeA.00467-18.].

Complete Genome Sequences of Four Bovine Coronavirus Isolates from Pennsylvania.

We report four full-genome sequences of bovine coronavirus (BCoV) isolates from dairy calves in Pennsylvania obtained in 2016 and 2017. BCoV is a pathogen of great importance to cattle health, and this is the first report of full-genome sequences of BCoV from PA cattle.

Optimising electrogenerated chemiluminescence of quantum dots via co-reactant selection.

We demonstrate that for quantum dot (QD) based electrochemiluminescence (ECL), the commonly used co-reactant does not perform as effectively as potassium persulfate. By exploiting this small change in co-reactant, ECL intensity can be enhanced dramatically in a cathodic-based ECL system. However, TPA remains the preferential co-reactant-based system for anodic ECL. This phenomenon can be rationalised through the relative energy-level profiles of the QD to the co-reactant in conjunction with the applied potential range. This work highlights the importance of understanding the co-reactant pathway for optimising the application of ECL to bioanalytical analysis, in particular for near-infrared (NIR) QDs which can be utilised for analysis in blood. Graphical Abstract Optimising ECL Production Through Careful Selection of Co-Reactions Based on Energetics Involved.