College of American Pathologists' laboratory standards for next-generation sequencing clinical tests.

Context: The higher throughput and lower per-base cost of next-generation sequencing (NGS) as compared to Sanger sequencing has led to its rapid adoption in clinical testing. The number of laboratories offering NGS-based tests has also grown considerably in the past few years, despite the fact that specific Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988/College of American Pathologists (CAP) laboratory standards had not yet been developed to regulate this technology.

Objective: To develop a checklist for clinical testing using NGS technology that sets standards for the analytic wet bench process and for bioinformatics or "dry bench" analyses.

Medical home implementation and trends in diabetes quality measures for AN/AI primary care patients.

Aims: Patient-centered medical home (PCMH) principles including provider continuity, coordination of care, and advanced access align with healthcare needs of patients with Type II diabetes mellitus (DM-II). We investigate changes in trend for DM-II quality indicators after PCMH implementation at Southcentral Foundation, a tribal health organization in Alaska.

Methods: Monthly rates of DM-II incidence, hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) measurements, and service utilization were calculated from electronic health records from 1996 to 2009.

Cardiorespiratory Response to Exercise before and after Pulmonary Valve Replacement in Patients with Repaired Tetralogy of Fallot: A Retrospective Study and Systematic Review of the Literature.

Objective: To describe and analyze the cardiopulmonary responses to exercise for patients with repaired tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) before and after pulmonary valve replacement (PVR) and compare our results with those in the literature.

Methods: Between 1973 and 2012, 278 patients had a first-time PVR after TOF repair. During their evaluations, 76 patients (27%) had exercise testing before PVR, and 63 (23%) had at least one test after PVR.

Targeting burn prevention in Ukraine: evaluation of base knowledge in burn prevention and first aid treatment.

Burn prevention has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a topic in need of further investigation and education throughout the world, with an increased need in low-income countries. It has been noted that implementing educational programs for prevention in high income countries has aided in lowering the rate of burn injuries. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the current education level of knowledge of prevention and first aid treatment of scald burns.

18F-FDG-PET/CT is of limited value in primary staging of early stage cervical cancer.

Purpose: To assess the clinical benefit of 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (18F-FDG-PET/CT) in evaluating pelvic lymph nodes in patients with early stage cervical cancer (FIGO stage 1a–1b1), who have magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-defined lymph node negative disease, with histopathologic results as the reference standard.

Materials And Methods: We assessed one hundred and seventy nine sequential 18F-FDG-PET/CT scans in women with newly diagnosed cervical carcinoma between January 2009 and September 2011. 47 of these patients had early stage disease (FIGO stage 1a–1b1) with no suspicious lymph nodes on MRI.

Clinical outcomes and improved survival in patients with protein-losing enteropathy after the Fontan operation.

Background: Patients with protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) following the Fontan operation have a reported 50% mortality at 5 years after diagnosis.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to review outcomes in patients with PLE following the Fontan operation.

Methods: From 1992 to 2010, 42 patients (55% male) with PLE following the Fontan operation were identified from clinical databases at the Mayo Clinic.

Interventions for reducing extinction risk in chytridiomycosis-threatened amphibians.

Wildlife diseases pose an increasing threat to biodiversity and are a major management challenge. A striking example of this threat is the emergence of chytridiomycosis. Despite diagnosis of chytridiomycosis as an important driver of global amphibian declines 15 years ago, researchers have yet to devise effective large-scale management responses other than biosecurity measures to mitigate disease spread and the establishment of disease-free captive assurance colonies prior to or during disease outbreaks.

Impaired selenoprotein expression in brain triggers striatal neuronal loss leading to co-ordination defects in mice.

Secisbp2 [SECIS (selenocysteine insertion sequence)-binding protein 2] binds to SECIS elements located in the 3'-UTR region of eukaryotic selenoprotein mRNAs. It facilitates the incorporation of the rare amino acid selenocysteine in response to UGA codons. Inactivation of Secisbp2 in hepatocytes greatly reduced selenoprotein levels.

Global health: burn outreach program.

The objective of this article is to outline the elements of an international burn care outreach program in a resource-constrained country. The program has grown from a collaborative effort with Ukrainian physicians and healthcare officials. With this collaboration, a multipronged approach has been developed to address the gaps in burn care as discovered by years of interaction with the medical community in Ukraine.

Urbanization impacts on mammals across urban-forest edges and a predictive model of edge effects.

With accelerating rates of urbanization worldwide, a better understanding of ecological processes at the wildland-urban interface is critical to conserve biodiversity. We explored the effects of high and low-density housing developments on forest-dwelling mammals. Based on habitat characteristics, we expected a gradual decline in species abundance across forest-urban edges and an increased decline rate in higher contrast edges.

Fontan conversion: identifying the high-risk patient.

Background: Patients with atriopulmonary Fontan tend to undergo conversion to total cavopulmonary connections secondary to arrhythmias or poor flow dynamics. However, the ideal candidate is unknown.

Methods: Between December 1994 and May 2011, 70 patients (40 males [57%]) underwent Fontan conversion.

Life history influences how fire affects genetic diversity in two lizard species.

'Fire mosaics' are often maintained in landscapes to promote successional diversity in vegetation with little understanding of how this will affect ecological processes in animal populations such as dispersal, social organization and re-establishment. To investigate these processes, we conducted a replicated, spatiotemporal landscape genetics study of two Australian woodland lizard species [Amphibolurus norrisi (Agamidae) and Ctenotus atlas (Scincidae)]. Agamids have a more complex social and territory structure than skinks, so fire might have a greater impact on their population structure and thus genetic diversity.

The trajectory of dispersal research in conservation biology. Systematic review.

Dispersal knowledge is essential for conservation management, and demand is growing. But are we accumulating dispersal knowledge at a pace that can meet the demand? To answer this question we tested for changes in dispersal data collection and use over time. Our systematic review of 655 conservation-related publications compared five topics: climate change, habitat restoration, population viability analysis, land planning (systematic conservation planning) and invasive species.

Cardiac and multiorgan transplantation for end-stage congenital heart disease.

Objective: To report our single-center experience with patients who had cardiac and multiorgan transplantation for end-stage congenital heart disease (CHD).

Patients And Methods: We reviewed records for all patients with CHD who had undergone heart transplantation at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, from November 1, 1990, through June 30, 2012. Patients with cardiomyopathy were excluded, unless CHD was present.

Fathers' accounts of struggle and growth in early adulthood: an exploratory study of disadvantaged men.

This chapter explores how fatherhood prompts struggle and growth in the psychological, social, and economic changes associated with the transition to adulthood. Little is known about these connections, especially for disadvantaged Latino and White fathers who live in small and mid-sized American communities. We draw on eight in-depth focus groups with 48 fathers (27 Latino and 21 White) who have children in low-income schools in a small and mid-sized American community.

Hyperphagia: current concepts and future directions proceedings of the 2nd international conference on hyperphagia.

Objective: Hyperphagia is a central feature of inherited disorders (e.g., Prader-Willi Syndrome) in which obesity is a primary phenotypic component.

2013 College of Diplomates of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry Annual Meeting: pediatric cardiology: an overview.

Congenital heart defects can be classified as those characterized by a left to right shunt, a right to left shunt, obstruction to flow from the heart, or abnormalcies of myocardial contraction and relaxation. Left to right shunts include atrial and ventricular septal defects, and patent ductus arteriosus. Right to left shunts include transposition of the great arteries, tetralogy of Fallot, tricuspid atresia among others.

Improving burn care and preventing burns by establishing a burn database in Ukraine.

Background: Burns are a challenge for trauma care and a contribution to the surgical burden. The former Soviet republic of Ukraine has a foundation for burn care; however data concerning burns in Ukraine has historically been scant. The objective of this paper was to compare a new burn database to identify problems and implement improvements in burn care and prevention in this country.

Do higher dispositions for empathy predispose males toward careers in nursing? A descriptive correlational design.

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to understand male nursing students' empathy traits compared with other university students using the systematizing quotient and empathizing quotient questionnaires.

Conclusion: Female students have higher empathizing traits than male students. However, when male nursing students were compared with the general population of other male students, they revealed higher empathy traits 3.

Alterations of attention and emotional processing following childhood-onset damage to the prefrontal cortex.

The prefrontal cortex (PFC), especially the medial sector, plays a crucial role in emotional processing. Damage to this region results in impaired processing of emotional information, perhaps attributable to an inability to initiate and maintain attention toward emotional materials, a process that is normally automatic. Childhood onset damage to the PFC impairs emotional processing more than adult-onset PFC damage.

A fully synthetic and biochemically validated phosphatidyl inositol-3-phosphate hapten via asymmetric synthesis and native chemical ligation.

We report the synthesis and biochemical validation of a phosphatidyl inositol-3 phosphate (PI3P) immunogen. The inositol stereochemistry was secured through peptide-catalyzed asymmetric phosphorylation catalysis, and the subsequent incorporation of a cysteine residue was achieved by native chemical ligation (NCL). Conjugation of the PI3P hapten to maleimide-activated keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) provided a PI3P immunogen, which was successfully used to generate selective PI3P antibodies.