CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that subclinical carotid atherosclerosis in midlife may contribute to later-life brain atrophy and cognitive vulnerability, particularly in verbal fluency, among American Indians.

Rac1 is a small GTPase that regulates cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation processes crucial for development. Mutations in specific guanine nucleotide exchange factors and GTPases that regulate Rac1 are associated with Adams-Oliver syndrome (AOS), a syndrome characterized by congenital scalp defects and limb truncations. Rac1 deletion in mouse embryonic limb ectoderm causes limb truncation. However, the etiology of Rac1-associated cranial defects is unknown. To investigate the...

It has long been debated whether non-avian dinosaurs went extinct abruptly or gradually at the end-Cretaceous (66 million years ago), because their fossil record at this time is mostly limited to northern North America. We constrain a dinosaur-rich unit to the south, the Naashoibito Member in New Mexico, to the very latest Cretaceous (~66.4 to 66.0 million years), preserving some of the last-known non-avian dinosaurs. Ecological modeling shows that North American terrestrial vertebrates...

People often engage in substance use during sexual activity, and substance-involved sexual assault survivors are also likely to engage in this behavior in their lifetimes and post-assault. However, most literature frames this behavior as a "sexual risk" behavior when attributed to sexual assault survivors and has not asked survivors directly about their substance-involved sex. Using a sex positive framework, the current study used qualitative interviews (N = 34) to investigate a diverse,...

CONCLUSIONS: In the first examination of the impact of h-index on radiation oncology promotion, a higher h-index is a statistically significant predictor of academic promotion among radiation oncologists. Given limited statistical power to detect differences by demographic characteristics and ongoing underrepresentation of certain groups compared with the population, ongoing work to ensure fair access to opportunities for all remains important.