Efforts to address opioid-involved overdose fatalities have led to widespread implementation of various initiatives to taper (i.e., reduce or discontinue) opioid prescriptions despite a limited understanding of patients' experience. From 2019-2020, we recruited patients with chronic, non-cancer pain who had undergone a reduction in opioid daily dosage of ≥50 % in the past two years at Boston Medical Center or Michigan Medicine. Participants completed semi-structured interviews exploring health history, opioid use, and taper experiences. Inductive analysis, guided by theoretical conceptualizations of structural stigma, identified emergent themes. Among 41 participants, three elements of structural stigma were identified across participants' lives. First, participants identified themselves as overlooked subjects of the U.S. opioid crisis, who experienced overprescribing, subsequent stigmatization and surveillance of opioid use (e.g., toxicology screening, "pill counts"), and various tapering initiatives. ocesses are perceived to invalidate pain, endorse stereotypes, and label previously effective, acceptable treatment as inappropriate. Findings highlight how various tapering initiatives reinforce the devalued status of people living with chronic pain while also reducing patients' wellbeing and confidence in medical systems. Big events (i.e., unique historical disruptions) like the COVID-19 epidemic and its associated period of social distancing can transform social structures, social interactions, and social norms. Social distancing rules and the fear of infection have greatly reduced face-to-face interactions, increased loneliness, reduced ties to helping institutions, and may also have disrupted the opioid use behaviors of people who use drugs. This research used Reddit to examine the impact of COVID-19 on the social networks and social processes of people who use opioids. Data were collected from the social media forum, Reddit.com. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. (March 5, 2020, to May 13, 2020), 2,000 Reddit posts were collected from the two most popular opioid subreddits (r/OpiatesRecovery, r/Opiates). Posts were reviewed for relevance to COVID-19 and opioid use resulting in a final sample of 300. Thematic analysis was guided by the Big Events framework. The COVID-19 pandemic was found to create changes in the social networks and daily lives among persons who use opioids. Adaptions to these changes shifted social networks leading to robust social support and mutual aid on Reddit, including sharing and seeking advice on facing withdrawal, dealing with isolation, managing cravings, and accessing recovery resources. Reddit provided an important source of social support and mutual aid for persons who use opioids. Findings indicate online social support networks are beneficial to persons who use opioids, particularly during big events where isolation from other social support resources may occur. Reddit provided an important source of social support and mutual aid for persons who use opioids. Findings indicate online social support networks are beneficial to persons who use opioids, particularly during big events where isolation from other social support resources may occur.Community-driven responses are essential to ensure the adoption, reach and sustainability of evidence-based practices (EBPs) to prevent new cases of opioid use disorder (OUD) and reduce fatal and non-fatal overdoses. Most organizational approaches for selecting and implementing EBPs remain top-down and individually oriented without community engagement (CE). Moreover, few CE approaches have leveraged systems science to integrate community resources, values and priorities. This paper provides a novel CE paradigm that utilizes a data-driven and systems science approach; describes the composition, functions, and roles of researchers in CE; discusses unique ethical considerations that are particularly salient to CE research; and provides a description of how systems science and data-driven approaches to CE may be employed to select a range of EBPs that collectively address community needs. Finally, we conclude with scientific recommendations for the use of CE in research. Greater investment in CE research is needed to ensure contextual, equitable, and sustainable access to EBPs, such as medications for OUD (MOUD) in communities heavily impacted by the opioid epidemic. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/iberdomide.html A data-driven approach to CE research guided by systems science has the potential to ensure adequate saturation and sustainability of EBPs that could significantly reduce opioid overdose and health inequities across the US.Over the last 10 years, new techniques to administer surfactant have been promoted, based on their presumed lesser invasiveness and they have been generally called LISA (less invasive surfactant administration). We believe that the clinical potential of LISA techniques is currently overestimated. LISA lacks biological and pathophysiological background justifying its potential benefits. Moreover, LISA has been investigated in clinical trials without previous translational data and these trials are affected by significant flaws. The available data from these trials only allow to conclude that LISA is better than prolonged, unrestricted invasive ventilation with loosely described parameters, a mode of respiratory support that should be anyway avoided in preterm infants. We urge the conduction of high-quality studies to understand how to choose and titrate analgesia/sedation and optimize surfactant administration in preterm neonates. We offer a comprehensive, evidence-based review of the clinical data on LISA, their biases and the lack of physiopathology background. Thyroid dysfunction in patients with morbid obesity usually resolves after bariatric surgery. However, the role of diverse types of adipose tissue in the process remains unknown. We aim to investigate the effects of visceral and subcutaneous fat on thyroid function in a Chinese population with morbid obesity who underwent sleeve gastrectomy (SG). University hospital, Shanghai, China METHODS Repeated measurement data of thyroid hormone and body fat were collected at 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36 months after sleeve gastrectomy. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometer and quantitative computerized tomography (CT) were used to compute visceral fat and subcutaneous fat. Repeated measures correlation (rmmcorr) package was employed for correlation analysis with generalized additive mixed model (GAMM) determining the independent factors. Thyroid stimulating-hormone (TSH) showed notable decrease at 36 months after surgery, coupled with reduction of BMI (38.08 kg/cm versus 24.28 kg/cm ), C-reactive protein (CRP), visceral adipose tissue (786.