Is There a Difference in Effectiveness Between Nonoperative Treatments for Modified Garcia-Elias Scapholunate Ligament Injuries Stages 1 and 2?

Introduction Scapholunate interosseous ligament (SLIL) injuries result from falling on an outstretched hand. Studies have assessed the effectiveness of non-operative treatments, but none has compared different non-operative treatments. We analyze the effectiveness of casting and bracing/splinting based on patient reported outcomes (PRO). Methods Chart review was conducted on 1150 possible SLIL injury patients from 5 orthopaedic hand surgeons from a Midwestern, tertiary-care academic hospital system between 2021 and 2024. Two patient cohorts were divided based on treatment. PROs obtained were PROMIS Upper Extremity (UE) and Pain Interference (PI) pre-treatment and 2-3 months after. Patient improvement was calculated as difference between post- and pre-treatment PROMIS scores, with positive change in UE and negative change in PI indicating improvement. Statistical analysis was performed using paired t-tests comparing patient improvement between the two cohorts. Results 17 bracing/splinting and 15 casting patients met our inclusion criteria. Bracing/splinting PROMIS UE pre- and post-treatment differences is a mean of 3.47 (SD = 6.84) while casting average difference is 7 (SD = 13.01). Bracing/splinting PROMIS PI pre- and post-treatment differences is a mean of -4.82 (SD = 6.98) while casting average difference is -3.53 (SD = 10.03). PROMIS UE and PI comparisons yielded no significant differences (p = 0.34, p = 0.67, respectively). Conclusion Preliminary PROMIS results yielded no significant differences in the two treatments methods, suggesting nonoperative casting and bracing/splinting are all equally effective. Further analysis with a larger population is needed to confirm these findings and whether similar trends can be found with long-term SLIL outcomes

Synergistic Surgical Strategies: A Comparative Analysis of Combined Carpal Tunnel and Trigger Finger Release

Introduction: Since 1980, U.S. healthcare spending has outpaced GDP growth, while lagging outcomes, highlighting the need to evaluate cost-effectiveness of treating Trigger Finger Release (TFR) and Carpal Tunnel Release (CTR) simultaneously or sequentially. Methods: 36 Patients were recruited: 12 CTR and 12 TFR patients comprised the sequential cohort, while 12 patients who underwent simultaneous CTR and TFR comprised the simultaneous cohort. Costs were calculated utilizing time-dependent activity-based costing (TDABC), activity-based costing (ABC), and insurance claims data. Procedural times were tracked and multiplied by personnel per-minute salaries to determine direct variable labor costs. Direct variable costs for supplies and direct fixed costs came from insurance claims data. Indirect costs were calculated as 40% of all other costs. Patient outcomes were measured by differences in pre-operative and 3-month post-operative Patient-Reported Outcome Measures Information System (PROMIS) scores for Upper Extremity (UE), then multiplied by average life-years remaining, to calculate PROMIS-adjusted life-years (PALY). Dividing costs by PALYUE yielded respective average cost-effectiveness ratios (ACER). For the sequential cohort, methods were performed separately for each procedure, then averaged and summed. Results: The average cost was $8,555 for sequential and$6,139.73 for simultaneous CTR and TFR (p = .001). No significant difference was observed between sequential and simultaneous PROMISUE (4.21 vs 1.92, p=0.353). Simultaneous ACERUE ($12,319.85) was greater than sequential ACERUE ($7,819.61). Conclusion: Simultaneous CTR and TFR had significantly lower total costs. However, considering both total costs and patient outcomes (PALYUE) using ACER, sequential ACERUE was lower than simultaneous, indicating higher value for sequential CTR and TFR

Comparative Analysis of Y-Chromosome Data from Xinjiang and Ningxia Hui Populations with the Hui Population Nationwide

The Hui population, the third largest ethnic group in China, is dispersed throughout the country and has a history of assimilation with indigenous East Asians. Previous studies have primarily focused on Hui populations in specific regions, lacking comprehensive comparative analyses. This study analyzed 338 unrelated male individuals from Hui populations in Altay, Xinjiang Province, and Haiyuan or Tongxin, Ningxia Province, using 108 Y-chromosomal single-nucleotide polymorphisms and 24 Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats, comparing findings with data from 749 published individuals from Hui populations in 11 provinces and 997 published Eurasian populations. The analysis reveals that the national Hui population can be categorized into three groups: Hui_Northwestern, Hui_Northern, and Hui_Southern, supported by analysis of molecular variance and principal components analysis. In Xinjiang and Ningxia Provinces, the most prevalent Y-haplogroups in East Asian populations accounted for 53.8% and 59.1%, respectively, while common haplogroups in West Eurasian populations accounted for 46.2% and 40.9%, respectively. This suggests a mixed paternal origin from both East Asian and Eurasian populations in both study regions. High frequencies of haplogroups R1a1a1b2-Z93 and J-M304 were observed in the Hui populations studied, with the network of haplogroup J-M304 indicating a unique cluster within the western Asian subhaplogroup J2a-M410. The most recent common ancestor for this cluster was estimated to be approximately 1341.9 years ago. Additionally, the network of haplogroup R1a1a1b2-Z93 revealed similarities between northwestern Hui populations and Iranian/Turkic-speaking populations. Our study provides insights into the complexity of Hui populations on a national scale and sheds light on potential events and ancestral origins related to the formation of the Hui population

College Student Coping Strategies During COVID-19: Differences Across Gender, Ethnicity, and Academic Level

The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous stress in multiple ways for undergraduate college students in emergent adulthood, a period that is already challenging. This study examined the self-reported strategies undergraduate students used to cope with COVID-19-related stress across gender, ethnicity, and academic level using a mixed-method approach. Content analyses revealed four stress-coping strategies as reported by college students: behavioral control coping strategies and three nonbehavioral control coping strategies (including cognitive, informational , and emotional control strategies). Further quantitative analyses suggested that students utilized behavioral control coping strategies much more frequently than nonbehavioral control coping strategies. Additionally, we found that Hispanic/Latino students reported significantly more use of non-behavioral control coping strategies than non-Hispanic/Latino students did when controlling for gender and academic level. We also found a moderate positive relationship between academic level and nonbehavioral control coping strategy use, controlling for gender and ethnicity. The implications of these findings are further discussed

Slippers, Shoes, Clogs, Galoshes, and Boots: The History and Materiality of Footwear in European Fairy Tales

Using an object-oriented methodology, this article investigates the symbolic and cultural significance of footwear. Shoes are more than just accessories; they are symbols of desire, change, mobility, identity, and social status. This research examines how footwear links to social, cultural, and historical domains. Through an exploration of uses, formats, and materials, it reveals the intertextual relationships and latent meanings in fairy tales, shedding light on their lasting impact on human society

Communication Interventions for Families with Parental Cancer with Dependents: Findings from a Scoping Review

Background: Since 2019, invasive cancer diagnoses in people younger than 50-years-old have increased by 12.8%, which impacts people of child-bearing age. Currently, interventions in families of parents with cancer are focused primarily on the parent with cancer communicating with their dependents about the initial cancer diagnosis or at end-of-life through in-person interventions. Limited web-based interventions have been developed to increase communication across all family members (e.g., parents with cancer with coparents; children with their parents) about communicating the impact of cancer on the individual’s and family’s well-being cross the cancer trajectory, a key gap to improved outcomes in this population. Aims: This review provides a comprehensive summary of published literature on the types of family communication interventions when a parent has cancer with dependents and to identify and analyze the knowledge gaps regarding family communication interventions in this population. Methods: A comprehensive informationist-assisted search was done with seven databases. Two reviewers independently performed title/abstract and full-text reviews within Rayyan software system. Extraction was performed by two reviewers. Results: The 35 articles included investigated 24 different interventions. Most articles were published by European teams (45%). Fourteen articles (40%) evaluated interventions that included the entire family, with seven (20%) reported family theories and three (9%) delivered via the web. Most articles focused on the parent’s with cancer and the dependent’s outcomes (31%) and most interventions were aimed to increase communication at end-of-life (43%) or at early diagnosis (32%) with dependents in the breast cancer population. Linking Evidence to Action: In-person communication interventions have been developed to communicate with dependents about an early or terminal cancer diagnosis and the impact of the intervention on parent’s with cancer and children’s outcomes. No web-based interventions have been published that focus on the entire family, include family-level outcomes, or completed dyadic analysis across the family on the family-level outcomes to determine relationships. Web-based interventions are needed to address communication challenges for all family members affected by a cancer diagnosis, while supporting equitable access to such interventions

Spinning Bodies into Gold: Thread, Labor, and Choice in Karen Russell’s “Reeling for the Empire” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread

This article uses the tale of “Rumpelstiltskin” as a framing device to explore Paul Thomas Anderson’s feature film Phantom Thread (2017) and Karen Russell’s short story “Reeling for the Empire” (2013) as contemporary fairy tales that illuminate the relationship thread, production, and bodies have to exploitation, specifically in relation to gender. It argues that Anderson and Russell both draw on fairy tale to examine the murky exchanges embedded in advanced capitalist modes of production

A Hood Is Not a Hat: On Translating Fairy-Tale Fashion

This article explores the process of translating Ogawa Yōko’s short story, “Zukin kurabu” (The Riding Hood Club) from Japanese into English, with a focus on the theme of fashion, clothing, and costume, and against the backdrop of the history of Japanese translations of Perrault’s and the Grimms’ stories of “Little Red Riding Hood.” The article considers how the translation process itself may inform an investigation into fashion and sewing in fairy-tale retellings across languages and cultures. Translating this story, with reference to its accompanying illustrations, highlighted the complex functions of ideas of “Japanese-ness,” “Western-ness,” and gender in Japanese retellings of European fairy tales

Envisioning a Multicentric Future: Worlding Temporality in He Yunchang’s One Meter of Democracy and One Rib

Shaped by the power of global capitalism, “the world” has been understood as a spatialized map of economic networks and transportation lines—almost a synonym for “the globe.” Postcolonial theorist Pheng Cheah calls for a reconceptualization of “the world,” where literary works and similar projects influence our vision of the concept across time, arguing that efforts to temporalize “the world” contribute to the project of deimperialization by challenging existing hegemonies of world-making discourses. This article analyzes Chinese contemporary performance art as one context in which Cheah’s temporal turn is already being practiced and leveraged as a force for deimperialization. This article investigates two artistic works that highlight the discursive power of world-making myths and challenge their premises: One Meter of Democracy (一米民主 2010) and One Rib (一根肋骨 2008), both by award-winning Chinese artist He Yunchang (1967–). These two pieces reenact origin myths propagated by Western colonial powers, which normalize Western ideals of democracy and patriarchy. Through time-based performances of lasting changes in corporeality, such as lifelong injury and healing, He brings these tales out of mythological time and into a current, embodied, creative temporality that exhibits the myths’ constructed/artificial nature and highlights the reality that “the world” includes not only the West but also China, and not only states but also individual agents as coexisting and provisional centers of power. In this way, He challenges the Eurocentric narrative of globalized hierarchies and contributes to the formation of a decolonial “world” of dynamic multicentricity as proposed by performance scholar Meiling Cheng. These temporal interventions via world-making origin myths allow alternative perspectives to gain more nuanced recognition within the discourses that construct “the world” and world histories