Let's Talk About Dying: An Educational Pilot Program to Improve Providers' Competency in End-Of-Life Discussions.

Introduction: Advance care planning (ACP) conversations occur infrequently due to lack of provider confidence-level, education, and workplace support for gaining skills in initiating goals of care and end-of-life discussions.

Methods: A 3-month quality improvement project was carried out between October 2021 to January 2022 using a short, accessible virtual presentation on provider initiation of goals of care conversations. A pre-test/post-test design was implemented using the End-of-Life Professional Caregiver Survey and frequency of ACP documentation of surgical intensive care unit providers.

Clerkship Experiences During Medical School: Influence on Specialty Decision.

Objective: Clinical rotations during medical school are the time when most students select their specialty. Limited or lack of exposure could deter students from certain sub-specialties, and thus, insight into the selection process is essential. This study assesses the role of limited clinical rotations and perception of students on specialty selection.

Team-Based Learning in the Surgery Clerkship: Impact on Student Examination Scores, Evaluations, and Perceptions.

Objective: There is little evidence for effectiveness of team-based learning (TBL) in specialties such as Surgery. We developed and instituted TBLs in surgery clerkship and compared National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Surgery Subject Exam scores before and after implementation. We also analyzed students' feedback for their perception of TBLs.

The cellular mastermind(?)-mechanotransduction and the nucleus.

Cells respond to mechanical stimulation by activation of specific signaling pathways and genes that allow the cell to adapt to its dynamic physical environment. How cells sense the various mechanical inputs and translate them into biochemical signals remains an area of active investigation. Recent reports suggest that the cell nucleus may be directly implicated in this cellular mechanotransduction process.

Cellular mechanosensing: getting to the nucleus of it all.

Cells respond to mechanical forces by activating specific genes and signaling pathways that allow the cells to adapt to their physical environment. Examples include muscle growth in response to exercise, bone remodeling based on their mechanical load, or endothelial cells aligning under fluid shear stress. While the involved downstream signaling pathways and mechanoresponsive genes are generally well characterized, many of the molecular mechanisms of the initiating 'mechanosensing' remain still elusive.

Factors affecting physical activity behavior in urban adults with arthritis who are predominantly African-American and female.

Background And Purpose: Physical activity and exercise play a critical role in the management of arthritis. Understanding the factors affecting physical activity and exercise behavior is a necessary first step toward identifying the needs of, and intervention strategies for, people with arthritis. The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting physical activity and exercise behavior in urban subjects with osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).