The user-centered design and development of a childhood and adolescent obesity Electronic Health Record tool, a mixed-methods study.

Background: Childhood and adolescent obesity are persistent public health issues in the United States. Childhood obesity Electronic Health Record (EHR) tools strengthen provider-patient relationships and improve outcomes, but there are currently limited EHR tools that are linked to adolescent mHealth apps. This study is part of a larger study entitled, CommitFit, which features both an adolescent-targeted mobile health application (mHealth app) and an ambulatory EHR tool.

Effectiveness of an mHealth App That Uses Financial Incentives and Gamification to Promote Health Behavior Change in Adolescents and Caregivers: Protocol for a Clinic-Based Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Adolescent and adult obesity continues to be a public health epidemic in the United States. Despite the popularity of mHealth apps with gamification among adolescents, there are insufficient studies to evaluate the efficacy of gamified mHealth apps and financial incentives to motivate sustained health behavior change in adolescents or their adult caregivers.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of gamification techniques and financial incentives used in the novel "CommitFit" mHealth app to motivate health behavior change and improve various mental and physical health metrics in adolescents and their caregivers.

mHealth app features that facilitate adolescent use for lifestyle management, and are endorsed by caregivers and health care providers.

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) apps are becoming a promising tool to motivate sustainable lifestyle and behavior changes, including modifications to diet and exercise. However, most current mHealth apps do not have meaningful, and sustained user acceptance, particularly, among adolescents. They perceive mHealth apps designed for adults to be tedious and visually unexciting, which discourage adolescent usage.

Clinician Needs for Electronic Health Record Pediatric and Adolescent Weight Management Tools: A Mixed-Methods Study.

Background:  Clinicians play an important role in addressing pediatric and adolescent obesity, but their effectiveness is restricted by time constraints, competing clinical demands, and the lack of effective electronic health record (EHR) tools. EHR tools are rarely developed with provider input.

Objectives:  We conducted a mixed method study of clinicians who provide weight management care to children and adolescents to determine current barriers for effective care and explore the role of EHR weight management tools to overcome these barriers.

Mixed-methods study of development and design needs for CommitFit, an adolescent mHealth App.

Background: Adolescent obesity remains a significant public health issue within the United States. Mobile application technology growth and popularity offer new opportunities for research and health improvement. The development of a consolidated mobile health application (mHealth app) for adolescents on these platforms has the potential to improve health outcomes.

Missouri's Fentanyl Problem: The China Connection.

Recently, Missouri has followed an overall upward trend in opioid overdose deaths. In 2018, Missouri was the state with the largest absolute and percentage increase in opioid-related overdose fatality rates per capita over the previous year (18.3% and 3.

Multidisciplinary education improves prescription of balanced crystalloids: a pilot study.

Objective: To assess the use of balanced and unbalanced crystalloids in adult surgical patients.

Method: Prospective study of 65 adult emergency general surgical admissions in a UK acute district general hospital, with a further 45 patients studied following educational interventions.

Results: 36.

School climate factors contributing to student and faculty perceptions of safety in select Arizona schools.

Background: To ensure that schools are safe places where students can learn, researchers and educators must understand student and faculty safety concerns. This study examines student and teacher perceptions of school safety.

Methods: Twenty-two focus groups with students and faculty were conducted in 11 secondary schools.

Ovarian ectopic pregnancy.

The authors report the rare case of a 25-year-old female who suffered from an ovarian ectopic pregnancy. She presented at 10 weeks gestation with a 1-day history of vaginal bleeding and lower abdominal discomfort. β-human chorionic gonadotropin concentration was 8538 IU/ml.

Wavelet denoising of vaginal pulse amplitude.

Vaginal pulse amplitude (VPA) has been the most commonly analyzed signal of the vaginal photoplethysmograph. Frequent, large, and variable-morphology artifacts typically have crowded this signal. These artifacts usually were corrected by hand, which may have introduced large differences in outcomes across laboratories.

Modulating the functional contributions of c-Myc to the human endothelial cell cyclic strain response.

This study addresses whether pathological levels of cyclic strain activate the c-Myc promoter, leading to c-Myc transcription and downstream gene induction in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) or human aortic endothelial cells (HAEC). mRNA and protein expression of c-Myc under physiological (6-10%) and pathological cyclic strain conditions (20%) were studied. Both c-Myc mRNA and protein expression increased 2-3-fold in HUVEC cyclically strained at 20%.

Gene expression of endothelial cells under pulsatile non-reversing vs. steady shear stress; comparison of nitric oxide production.

Pulsations in arterial blood flow expose the endothelium to diverse mechanical forces that may differentially regulate endothelial cell (EC) phenotype. We postulated that pulsatile non-reversing shear stress (typical of the common carotid artery), would produce a more "athero-protective" gene expression pattern compared with steady shear stress of the same mean value. Transcriptional analysis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) subjected to 24 h of pulsatile shear stress (average = 13 dyne/cm(2), range = 7-25 dyne/cm(2); 1 Hz) or steady shear stress (13 dyne/cm(2)) identified approximately 200 differentially expressed genes.

From theory to practice: school leaders' perspectives on resiliency.

Resiliency describes the ability of children to overcome adversity and become successful adults. School-based programs, strategies, or policies designed to enhance resiliency are relatively new. School administrators (n = 10) who had attended an informational meeting about a community-wide resiliency initiative were interviewed about their understanding of resiliency and their present and future plans to implement resiliency initiatives in their schools.

Short-term stability and prospective correlates of bullying in middle-school students: an examination of potential demographic, psychosocial, and environmental influences.

Stability and change of bullying over a four-month interval was examined in 516 middle school students (grades 6-8). The stability coefficient was .65 for the entire sample.

Assessment of drug abuse prevention curricula developed at the local level.

Public schools are a critical site for drug abuse prevention and education. Although in recent years prevention curriculum developers have been able to identify successful strategies, it is not clear how well these findings have been transferred to local schools. This article reports on a study of schools that have developed their own drug abuse prevention curriculum.

A computer-based violence prevention intervention for young adolescents: pilot study.

Technology must be explored as a means of teaching adolescents ways to resolve conflict without violence. This paper reports on the development and pilot testing of a multimedia tool (SMART Talk) that teaches anger management, perspective taking, and mediation skills using games, interactive assessment interviews, cartoons, and animation. Results indicate that SMART Talk is popular with both males and females, and its use increases knowledge and practice of prosocial behaviors.

Nine critical elements of promising violence prevention programs.

To identify approaches to school-based violence prevention that are most promising and those that may not be effective, a review of the literature was conducted. In addition, telephone interviews were conducted with 15 experts on topics related to school-based violence prevention. Nine critical ingredients of promising approaches to violence prevention were identified.

Using multimedia to teach conflict-resolution skills to young adolescents.

SMART Talk is a multimedia, computer-based violence-prevention intervention that employs games, simulations, graphics, cartoons, and interactive interviews to engage young adolescents in learning new skills to resolve conflicts without violence. Eight modules cover anger management, dispute resolution, and perspective taking. SMART Talk was pilot-tested in a small-city middle school during a three-week period.

Predicting adolescent problem use of marijuana: development and testing of a Bayesian model.

This paper reports on the development and testing of a risk assessment index for problem marijuana use designed to guide teenagers through an extensive computer-based support system intended to help them improve marijuana-related behaviors. Bayesian decision theory, used as the basis of the index development process, offers the advantage of building the index on subjective judgments of experts and does not require a large empirical data base. The index was found to predict an independent panel's ratings of teenager risk, and predict the marijuana use of 10th graders using self-reports of their profiles in the 7th grade.

Drug abuse prevention curricula in public and private schools in Indiana.

Recent research on drug education has focused on public schools. This study compares public school drug education programs with such efforts in private schools in one midwestern state. All schools in the state were asked to respond to a survey on curricula and training.

Content and teaching strategies in 10 selected drug abuse prevention curricula.

This paper reports on content and teaching strategies in 10 drug abuse prevention curricula available to public and private schools. While similarities existed among the curricula, they employed a range of content as well as strategies. Interactive teaching strategies needed to implement the curricula include full class discussion, small group activities, brainstorm, and role play.

CHESS: a computer-based system for providing information, referrals, decision support and social support to people facing medical and other health-related crises.

CHESS (the Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System) is an interactive, computer-based system to support people facing health-related crises or concerns. CHESS provides information, referral to service providers, support in making tough decisions and networking to experts and others facing the same concerns. CHESS will improve access to health and human services for people who would otherwise face psychological, social, economic or geographic barriers to receiving services.

DIADS: computer-based system for development of school drug prevention programs.

The Drug Information, Assessment and Decisions for Schools (DIADS) is a computer-based information and decisions support system for the development of school drug abuse prevention programs. DIADS provides access to a cost-effective planning resource that has information to programs about alcohol, other drugs, and prevention. Also, DIADS helps the school assess the effectiveness of its current prevention efforts using an expert-generated school assessment model containing fourteen factors.