Larval competition between the invasive Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae) and the Caribbean endemic Aedes mediovittatus (Diptera: Culicidae) from Puerto Rico, USA.

Competition between mosquito species during the larval phase is a well-established mechanism structuring container mosquito communities, with invasive species often outperforming natives. We assessed the competitive outcome between 2 species that occur on the island of Puerto Rico, the historic invasive Aedes aegypti (L.) and the endemic Aedes mediovittatus (Coquillett) (Diptera: Culicidae).

How an Intergenerational Book Club Can Prevent Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: A Pilot Study.

Older adults are at higher risk for social isolation because of widowhood, loss of friends, retirement, physical limitations, geographic relocation, and caregiving demands. Behavioral interventions aimed at increasing social contact may help to maintain cognition and prevent cognitive decline. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine a novel intervention for social isolation with an intergenerational book club that had weekly in-person and virtual meetings of college students and older adults.

A Tutorial for Speech-Language Pathologists: Physical Activity and Social Engagement to Prevent or Slow Cognitive Decline in Older Adults.

Purpose: This tutorial provides an overview of two behavioral approaches, physical activity and social engagement, to prevent or slow cognitive decline in older adults and to increase awareness in the field of speech-language pathology of the important role that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) play in an interprofessional team working with this population.

Method: A review of exercise science, neuroscience, and social science literature was used to synthesize evidence and to outline the impact of physical activity and social engagement on cognition. The following topics were explored: How do exercise and social engagement support cognition? What are modifiable risk factors of dementia? What is the impact of inactivity and isolation on cognition? What is the potential role of the SLP on an interprofessional team focusing on preventive measures for cognitive decline? What is the impact of physical exercise and social engagement on nursing home residents?

Results: Research increasingly points to the critical importance of physical activity and social engagement to prevent cognitive decline in normal aging and to slow cognitive decline associated with mild cognitive impairment and dementia.

Reinforcing Productivity in a Job-Skills Training Program for Unemployed Substance-Abusing Adults.

Chronically unemployed adults may benefit from intensive job-skills training; however, training programs do not always reliably engage participants in mastering skills. This study examined effects of voucher reinforcement for performance on a job-skills training program in the therapeutic workplace. Participants were four unemployed, substance abusing adults who earned monetary vouchers for working on programs targeting typing skills.

Effects of incentives for naltrexone adherence on opiate abstinence in heroin-dependent adults.

Aim: To test whether an incentive-based intervention that increased adherence to naltrexone also increased opiate abstinence.

Design: Post-hoc combined analysis of three earlier randomized controlled trials that showed individually that incentives for adherence to oral and to extended-release injection naltrexone dosing schedules increased naltrexone adherence, but not opiate abstinence.

Setting: Out-patient therapeutic work-place in Baltimore, MD, USA.

Bone-targeting radiopharmaceuticals for the treatment of bone-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer: exploring the implications of new data.

Background: Clinical features of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) are characterized by a high incidence of bone metastases, which are associated with impairment of quality of life, pain, skeletal-related events (SREs), and a negative impact on prognosis. Advances in the understanding of cancer cell-bone stroma interactions and molecular mechanisms have recently permitted the development of new agents.

Purpose: We review the merits, applications, and limitations of emerging data sets on bone-metastatic CRPC with a focus on radium-223, an α-emitting radiopharmaceutical, and its use in therapy for this disease.

Employment-based reinforcement of adherence to oral naltrexone in unemployed injection drug users: 12-month outcomes.

Oral naltrexone could be a promising relapse-prevention pharmacotherapy for recently detoxified opioid-dependent patients; however, interventions are often needed to promote adherence with this treatment approach. We recently conducted a study to evaluate a 26-week employment-based reinforcement intervention of oral naltrexone in unemployed injection drug users (Dunn et al., 2013).

Behavioral functions of stimuli signaling transitions across rich and lean schedules of reinforcement.

On multiple fixed-ratio schedules, pausing is extended at the start of a component ending in a small reinforcer (a lean component) but only when this component follows a component ending in a large reinforcer (a rich component). In two experiments, we assessed whether a stimulus correlated with a lean component is aversive and how its function is affected by the preceding component. In Experiment 1, pigeons responded on mixed fixed-ratio schedules ending in large or small reinforcers.

Employment-based reinforcement of adherence to oral naltrexone treatment in unemployed injection drug users.

Oral naltrexone has high potential for use as a relapse prevention pharmacotherapy for opiate dependence yet suffers from notoriously poor adherence. This study evaluated whether entry to a therapeutic workplace could reinforce adherence with oral naltrexone. Opiate-dependent and cocaine-using injection drug users were detoxified, inducted onto oral naltrexone, and randomly assigned to a contingency (n = 35) or prescription (n = 32) group for a 26-week period.

Suppressive and facilitative effects of shock intensity and interresponse times followed by shock.

Although response-dependent shock often suppresses responding, response facilitation can occur. In two experiments, we examined the suppressive and facilitative effects of shock by manipulating shock intensity and the interresponse times that produced shock. Rats' lever presses were reinforced on a variable-interval 40-s schedule of food presentation.

Employment-based reinforcement of adherence to an FDA approved extended release formulation of naltrexone in opioid-dependent adults: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Naltrexone provides excellent opioid blockade, but its clinical utility is limited because opioid-dependent patients typically refuse it. An injectable suspension of naltrexone for extended release (XR-NTX) was recently approved by the FDA for treatment of opioid dependence. XR-NTX treatment may require concurrent behavioral intervention to maximize adherence and effectiveness, thus we sought to evaluate employment-based reinforcement as a method of improving adherence to XR-NTX in opiate dependent adults.

Role of proteasome inhibition in sensitized transplant candidates.

Objective: To review this efficacy and safety of bortezomib, a proteasome inhibitor, in the setting of the sensitized transplant candidate.

Data Sources: The data used in this review were from articles published (PubMed) between 2000 to 2010. Additionally abstracts from medical meetings related to transplant were also used.

Employment-based reinforcement of adherence to depot naltrexone in unemployed opioid-dependent adults: a randomized controlled trial.

Aims: Naltrexone can be used to treat opioid dependence, but patients refuse to take it. Extended-release depot formulations may improve adherence, but long-term adherence rates to depot naltrexone are not known. This study determined long-term rates of adherence to depot naltrexone and whether employment-based reinforcement can improve adherence.

Proteasome inhibitor-based primary therapy for antibody-mediated renal allograft rejection.

Background: Rapid and complete elimination of donor-specific anti-human leukocyte antigen antibodies (DSA) during antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) is rarely achieved with traditional antihumoral therapies. Proteasome inhibitor-based therapy has been shown to effectively treat refractory AMR, but its use as a primary therapy for AMR has not been presented. Our initial experience with proteasome inhibition as a first-line therapy for AMR is presented.

The use of liquid latex for soot removal from fire scenes and attempted fingerprint development with Ninhydrin.

Throughout the United States, clearance rates for arson cases remain low due to fire's destructive nature, subsequent suppression, and a misconception by investigators that no forensic evidence remains. Recent research shows that fire scenes can yield fingerprints if soot layers are removed prior to using available fingerprinting processes. An experiment applying liquid latex to sooted surfaces was conducted to assess its potential to remove soot and yield fingerprints after the dried latex was peeled.

Proteasome inhibition for antibody-mediated rejection.

Purpose Of Review: The purpose of this review is to describe the biochemistry and physiology of proteasome inhibition and to discuss recent studies with proteasome inhibitor therapy in organ transplantation.

Recent Findings: Traditional antihumoral therapies do not deplete plasma cells, the source of antibody production. Proteasome inhibition depletes both transformed and nontransformed plasma cells in animal models and human transplant recipients.

De novo cancers arising in organ transplant recipients are associated with adverse outcomes compared with the general population.

Background: Transplant recipients are at increased risk of malignancy; however, the influence of transplantation on cancer outcomes has not been rigorously defined. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of transplantation on the outcomes of individual cancers.

Methods: De novo nonsmall cell lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, renal cell cancer (RCC), and malignant melanoma data in 635 adult (>18 years of age) transplant recipients (from the Israel Penn International Transplant Tumor Registry) were compared with data from 1,282,984 adults in the general population (from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database).

Reducing de novo donor-specific antibody levels during acute rejection diminishes renal allograft loss.

The effect of de novo DSA detected at the time of acute cellular rejection (ACR) and the response of DSA levels to rejection therapy on renal allograft survival were analyzed. Kidney transplant patients with acute rejection underwent DSA testing at rejection diagnosis with DSA levels quantified using Luminex single-antigen beads. Fifty-two patients experienced acute rejection with 16 (31%) testing positive for de novo DSA.

Proteasome inhibition reduces donor-specific antibody levels.

Background: Current antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) therapies (intravenous immunoglobulin, apheresis, rituximab, polyclonal antibodies) do not target the primary antibody producing B cells, that is, the plasma cell. We report the preliminary results from the first clinical experience with plasma cell targeted therapy with bortezomib. Bortezomib is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of plasma cell tumors (multiple myeloma).

Bortezomib provides effective therapy for antibody- and cell-mediated acute rejection.

Background: Current antihumoral therapies in transplantation and autoimmune disease do not target the mature antibody-producing plasma cell. Bortezomib is a first in class proteosomal inhibitor, that is Food and Drug Administration approved, for the treatment of plasma cell-derived tumors that is multiple myeloma. We report the first clinical experience with plasma cell-targeted therapy (bortezomib) as an antirejection strategy.

Corticosteroid elimination: the Cincinnati experience.

Elimination of corticosteroid-related morbidity has been a goal of transplant clinicians from the earliest days of renal transplantation more than 50 years ago. Over the past decade, this goal has begun to be realized. Herein, we describe our efforts to eliminate corticosteroid therapy from maintenance immunosuppression-efforts that have spanned 15 years and have included design and conduct of five multicenter trials and over ten single center trials with over 650 patients at the University of Cincinnati.

Immunomodulatory effects of human recombinant granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rhuGM-CSF): evidence of antitumour activity.

Human recombinant granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rhuGM-CSF) is traditionally used as supportive care for patients undergoing cytotoxic chemotherapy or haematopoietic cell progenitor mobilisation. Emerging evidence suggests rhuGM-CSF, through activity on monocytes and dendritic cells, acts as a potent modulator of immune responses and has the ability to recruit inflammatory cells and cytokines to local and systemic sites of infection. The immunomodulatory effects of rhuGM-CSF suggest the potential to enhance innate and acquired immune responses against tumour-related antigens.

Medication error identification is a key to prevention: a performance improvement approach.

The leadership of Memorial Hospital of Carbondale sponsored an interdisciplinary continuous quality improvement team effort to address medication errors. The need for increased awareness, documentation, and reporting of medication errors throughout the organization was identified as a priority through risk assessment. Ineffective reporting of medication errors occurred in all medication distribution categories: prescribing, transcribing, dispensing, and administration.

Perceived stressors and coping strategies of occupational therapy students.

Objectives: Occupational therapy students often perceive their curriculum to be stressful. Anecdotal reports have described occupational therapy students' stress and coping strategies during their academic education; this study quantifies students' perceptions.

Method: A questionnaire was used to survey 1,095 occupational therapy students representing the major geographical regions of the United States about perceived stress and coping strategies.

Child safety seat use for infants with Pierre Robin sequence.

Objective: To determine what child restraints would accommodate infants with Pierre Robin sequence who often require special attention in motor vehicle travel since microagnathia usually requires a prone position to keep the infant's airway open.

Research Design: Dynamic testing and clinical trial.

Setting: An Indiana children's hospital providing primary and tertiary care.