Comparative- and Cost-Effectiveness Research Determining the Optimal Intervention for Advancing Transgender Women With HIV to Full Viral Suppression (Text Me, Alexis!): Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Many transgender women with HIV achieve suboptimal advancement through the HIV Care Continuum, including poor HIV health care usage, retention in HIV medical care, and rates of viral suppression. These issues are exacerbated by comorbid conditions, such as substance use disorder, which is also associated with reduced quality of life, increased overdose deaths, usage of high-cost health care services, engagement in a street economy, and cycles of incarceration. Thus, it is critical that efforts to End the HIV Epidemic include effective interventions to link and retain transgender women in HIV care through full viral suppression.

Extended-release buprenorphine induction in opioid non-tolerant incarcerated individuals.

Background: Buprenorphine maintenance treatment remains unavailable in most jails in the US. We provide data on a four-day rapid sublingual buprenorphine (SL-B) induction strategy followed by a weekly dose of extended-release injectable buprenorphine (XR-B) with incarcerated individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) who were not opioid tolerant.

Methods: Between October 2020 to April 2024, = 65 individuals with an opioid use disorder in jails participating in a larger randomized, controlled trial received SL-B and XR-B prior to release.

A Pilot Study Evaluating the Feasibility and Efficacy of an In-Home Resonance-Based Electromagnetic Field Protection Device on Improving Markers of Health and Cognitive Function Among a Sample of Healthy Adults.

Background: The dramatic increase in exposure to non-native sources of electromagnetic fields (EMF) in recent years has given rise to numerous human health concerns. The near pervasive exposure to radiofrequency (RF) emanating from wireless technologies inside the home (e.g.

Structural housing elements associated with injuries in older adults in the USA.

Objective: To quantify the unintentional injuries associated with housing elements among older adults treated in US hospital emergency departments (EDs). To identify modifiable home hazards.

Methods: The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) coding manual was reviewed to identify all codes associated with housing elements that were permanently attached to a home.

Potent and specific antibiotic combination therapy against Clostridioides difficile.

Keratinicyclins and keratinimicins are recently discovered glycopeptide antibiotics. Keratinimicins show broad-spectrum activity against Gram-positive bacteria, while keratinicyclins form a new chemotype by virtue of an unusual oxazolidinone moiety and exhibit specific antibiosis against Clostridioides difficile. Here we report the mechanism of action of keratinicyclin B (KCB).

Pandemic Procedures: Adapting Problem-Solving Court (PSC) Operations and Treatment Protocols During COVID-19.

With an ongoing pandemic claiming hundreds of lives a day, it is unclear how COVID-19 has affected court operations, particularly problem-solving courts (PSCs) which have goals rooted in rehabilitation for participants in their programs. Even with practical recommendations from national organizations directing courts on how to manage COVID-19, whether and how PSCs met the needs of PSC participants during this time is underexplored. This study, drawn from a larger national study using a survey of PSC coordinators, examines the COVID-19 responses of PSCs to remain safely operational for participants.

Medication-Assisted Treatment in Problem-solving Courts: A National Survey of State and Local Court Coordinators.

Problem-solving courts (PSCs) are a critical part of a societal effort to mitigate the opioid epidemic's devastating consequences. This paper reports on a national survey of PSCs (N = 42 state-wide court coordinators; N = 849 local court coordinators) and examines the structural factors that could explain the likelihood of a local PSC authorizing medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and MAT utilization. Results of the analyses indicate that MAT availability at the county level was a significant predictor of the likelihood of local courts authorizing MAT.

Viewing Then Doing?: Problem-Solving Court Coordinators' Perceptions of Medications for Opioid Use Disorders from a Nationally Representative Survey in the United States.

Overdose deaths in the United States (U.S.) surpassed 100,000 in 2021.

Insights into Substrate Recognition by the Unusual Nitrating Enzyme RufO.

Nitration reactions are crucial for many industrial syntheses; however, current protocols lack site specificity and employ hazardous chemicals. The noncanonical cytochrome P450 enzymes RufO and TxtE catalyze the only known direct aromatic nitration reactions in nature, making them attractive model systems for the development of analogous biocatalytic and/or biomimetic reactions that proceed under mild conditions. While the associated mechanism has been well-characterized in TxtE, much less is known about RufO.

Development and use of a checklist for the implementation of medication for opioid use disorder in jails.

Background: In light of short lengths of stay and proximity to communities of release, jails are well-positioned to intervene in opioid use disorder (OUD). However, a number of barriers have resulted in a slow and limited implementation.

Methods: This paper describes the development and testing of a Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) Implementation Checklist developed as part of a Building Bridges project, a two-year planning grant which supported 16 US jail systems as they prepared to implement or expand MOUD services.

Biofeedback as an Adjunct or Alternative Intervention to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia.

Insomnia is highly prevalent and comorbid with many disorders. However, insomnia is underdiagnosed and undertreated in many populations. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is not appropriate or sufficient for some individuals.

Structural insights into inhibition of the drug target dihydroorotate dehydrogenase by bacterial hydroxyalkylquinolines.

Hydroxyalkylquinolines (HAQs) are ubiquitious natural products but their interactions with associated protein targets remain elusive. We report X-ray crystal structures of two HAQs in complex with dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH). Our results reveal the structural basis of DHODH inhibition by HAQs and open the door to downstream structure-activity relationship studies.

Computational Approaches: An Underutilized Tool in the Quest to Elucidate Radical SAM Dynamics.

Enzymes are biological catalysts whose dynamics enable their reactivity. Visualizing conformational changes, in particular, is technically challenging, and little is known about these crucial atomic motions. This is especially problematic for understanding the functional diversity associated with the radical -adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) superfamily whose members share a common radical mechanism but ultimately catalyze a broad range of challenging reactions.

Effect of Case Management on HIV Outcomes for Community Corrections Population: Results of an 18-Month Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Evidence-based interventions that engage community-dwelling, justice-involved, people living with HIV (PLWH) in care are urgently needed. Project Bridge, an intensive case management intervention, has demonstrated efficacy for linking PLWH to care transitioning from prison to the community. We assessed whether a modified Project Bridge model was effective for increasing rates of HIV treatment engagement, antiretroviral therapy receipt, and adherence for community-dwelling individuals supervised on probation and parole.

Long-term follow-up of individuals under community supervision who refused rapid HIV testing.

Many criminal justice-involved persons on probation or parole do not receive HIV testing despite being at an increased risk for infection and transmission. Between April, 2011 and May, 2012 in Baltimore, MD and Providence, RI, a two-group randomized controlled trial was conducted in order to examine the uptake of on-site rapid HIV testing compared to off-site referral-based HIV testing at a community clinic. Adults under community supervision were recruited to complete baseline assessments and then offered optional, free rapid-HIV testing.

A clinical protocol of a comparative effectiveness trial of extended-release naltrexone versus extended-release buprenorphine with individuals leaving jail.

This study is a randomized, open label, controlled trial of extended-release buprenorphine (XR-B; BRIXADI™ formulation) versus extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX) in Maryland jails. A 7-site, open-label, equivalence design will randomly assign 240 adults with a history of opioid use disorder (OUD), stratified by gender and jail, who are nearing release to one of two treatment arms: 1) XR-B in jail or 2) XR-NTX in jail, both followed by 6 monthly injections postrelease at a community treatment program. The primary aim is to determine the rate of pharmacotherapy adherence (number of monthly injections received) of XR-B compared to XR-NTX.

Longitudinal analysis of HIV-risk behaviors of participants in a randomized trial of prison-initiated buprenorphine.

Background: It has been estimated that approximately 15% of people who are incarcerated in the US have histories of opioid use disorder. Relapse to opioid use after release from prison poses a serious risk of HIV infection. Prison-initiated buprenorphine may help to reduce HIV infection given the association between opioid use and HIV-risk behaviors.

Adipose tissue quantification and primary graft dysfunction after lung transplantation: The Lung Transplant Body Composition study.

Background: Obesity is associated with an increased risk of primary graft dysfunction (PGD) after lung transplantation. The contribution of specific adipose tissue depots is unknown.

Methods: We performed a prospective cohort study of adult lung transplant recipients at 4 U.

How to Package Functional Medicine for Widespread Adoption.

Background: With the growing prevalence and cost burden of chronic disease, it has never been more important to disseminate the most promising approaches to replacing conventional disease management programs focused on long-term symptom management with models aimed at actual disease regression and long-term cost containment. Functional medicine offers a scalable and promising solution to this problem. There is a rapidly growing workforce of physicians and other health care practitioners who have invested in the training necessary to apply root-cause-focused functional medicine interventions with their patients.

Charting the Course to Success in the Era of Personalized Nutrition.

Background: The personalized nutrition industry is quickly gaining scale, momentum, and consumer visibility. Health care practitioners must ready themselves to evaluate and utilize new products, services, and technologies, that will be required in order to responsibly enable their patients to benefit from this new era of precision medicine. This paper seeks to accomplish two objectives: (1) establish a perspective on the application of personalized nutrition in clinical practice in light of the current state of the industry ecosystem and the underlying science; and (2) propose a specific course of action for practitioners seeking to develop and deliver personalized nutrition services to patients.

Expanding low-threshold buprenorphine to justice-involved individuals through mobile treatment: Addressing a critical care gap.

Background: Opioid use disorder (OUD) is highly prevalent among justice-involved individuals. While risk for overdose and other adverse consequences of opioid use are heightened among this population, most justice-involved individuals and other high-risk groups experience multiple barriers to engagement in opioid agonist treatment.

Methods: This paper describes the development of Project Connections at Re-Entry (PCARE), a low-threshold buprenorphine treatment program that engages vulnerable patients in care through a mobile van parked directly outside the Baltimore City Jail.

A randomized controlled trial of buprenorphine for probationers and parolees: Bridging the gap into treatment.

Background: Buprenorphine can be effective in a variety of community substance use treatment settings outside of methadone programs, including outpatient programs and medical practices. In these settings, it has been found to be effective in reducing opioid use and retaining patients in treatment. Despite its effectiveness and safety, it is rarely provided to individuals with opioid use disorders in probation and parole settings.

Tobacco and Alcohol on Television: A Content Analysis of Male Adolescents' Favorite Shows.

Introduction: Media tobacco and alcohol portrayals encourage adolescent substance use. Preventing adolescent initiation with these substances is critical, as they contribute to leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Television tobacco and alcohol portrayals have not been examined for more than 7 years.