Integrating phenomic selection using single-kernel near-infrared spectroscopy and genomic selection for corn breeding improvement.

Phenomic selection using intact seeds is a promising tool to improve gain and complement genomic selection in corn breeding. Models that combine genomic and phenomic data maximize the predictive ability. Phenomic selection (PS) is a cost-effective method proposed for predicting complex traits and enhancing genetic gain in breeding programs.

Allelism of Uncharacterized Dwarf Mutants in Maize.

Gibberellic acid (GA) is a phytohormone that is important for plant growth and development. Mutants in GA biosynthesis, signaling and metabolism have been critical to understanding the role GA plays in plants. GA mutants have also revolutionized global production of staple crops such as rice, wheat, and barley.

Improving outcomes in intensified processing via optimization of the cell line development workflow.

As the industry continues to explore the benefits of continuous and intensified manufacturing, it is important to assure that the cell line development (CLD) workflows in practice today are well suited to generate clones that meet the unique challenges associated with these processes. Most cell lines used in intensified processes are currently developed using traditional fed-batch CLD workflows followed by adaptation of these cell lines to perfusion processes. This method maybe suboptimal as fed-batch CLD workflows select clones which produce high volumetric titers irrespective of cell growth rate and specific productivity (qP).

Advance Care Planning (ACP) in Medicare Beneficiaries with Heart Failure.

Background: Heart failure is a leading cause of death in the USA, contributing to high expenditures near the end of life. Evidence remains lacking on whether billed advance care planning changes patterns of end-of-life healthcare utilization among patients with heart failure. Large-scale claims evaluation assessing billed advance care planning and end-of-life hospitalizations among patients with heart failure can fill evidence gaps to inform health policy and clinical practice.

Entrustment Decision Making in the Intensive Care Unit: It's About More Than the Learner.

Background: The provision of graded supervision affording progressive autonomy is fundamental to the progression of a medical learner toward competency for independent practice; the decision of how much supervision versus autonomy to provide a trainee in the execution of clinical care constitutes an entrustment decision. Despite entrustment decision making occurring both daily in practice and summatively at points of matriculation through stages of medical training, the factors influencing entrustment decisions remain poorly understood across clinical contexts.

Objective: This study was designed to explore the central research question: How are entrustment decisions made in the medical intensive care unit (ICU)?

Methods: This qualitative case study used semistructured interviews with attending pulmonary and critical care physicians in the medical ICU at a major midwestern medical center to explore the entrustment decision-making process as it was enacted in the clinical environment.

Gaps in Patient-Centered Decision-Making Related to Complex Surgery: A Mixed-Methods Study.

Introduction: We sought to understand the perceptions of surgeons around patient preferred roles in decision-making and their approaches to patient-centered decision-making (PCDM).

Methods: A concurrent embedded mixed-methods design was utilized among a cohort of surgeons performing complex surgical procedures. Data were collected through online surveys.

Chemical and Genetic Modulation of Complex I of the Electron Transport Chain Enhances the Biotherapeutic Protein Production Capacity of CHO Cells.

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the cell line of choice for producing recombinant therapeutic proteins. Despite improvements in production processes, reducing manufacturing costs remains a key driver in the search for more productive clones. To identify media additives capable of increasing protein production, CHOZN GS cell lines were screened with 1280 small molecules, and two were identified, forskolin and BrdU, which increased productivity by ≥40%.

Association of Race/Ethnicity, Persistent Poverty, and Opioid Access Among Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancer Near the End of Life.

Background: Social determinants of health (SDoH) can impact access to healthcare. We sought to assess the association between persistent poverty (PP), race/ethnicity, and opioid access among patients with gastrointestinal cancer near the end-of-life (EOL).

Methods: SEER-Medicare patients with gastric, liver, pancreatic, biliary, colon, and rectal cancer were identified between 2008 and 2016 near EOL, defined as 30 days before death or hospice enrolment.

ADCC's Improving Goal Concordant Care Initiative: Implementing Primary Palliative Care Principles.

Background: High-quality, timely goals of care communication (GOCC) may improve patient and caregiver outcomes and promote care that is consistent with patient preferences.

Problem: Cancer patients, and their loved ones, appreciate GOCC; however, oncologists often lack formal communication training, institutional support and structures necessary to promote the delivery, documentation, and longitudinal follow-up of GOCC.

Proposed Solution: The Alliance of Dedicated Cancer Centers (ADCC), representing 10 U.

Effect of Perioperative Palliative Care on Health-Related Quality of Life Among Patients Undergoing Surgery for Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Involvement of palliative care specialists in the care of medical oncology patients has been repeatedly observed to improve patient-reported outcomes, but there is no analogous research in surgical oncology populations.

Objective: To determine whether surgeon-palliative care team comanagement, compared with surgeon team alone management, improves patient-reported perioperative outcomes among patients pursuing curative-intent surgery for high morbidity and mortality upper gastrointestinal (GI) cancers.

Design, Setting, And Participants: From October 20, 2018, to March 31, 2022, a patient-randomized clinical trial was conducted with patients and clinicians nonblinded but the analysis team blinded to allocation.

Psychological Distress in Young Adults with Acute Myeloid Leukemia Undergoing Induction Chemotherapy.

Young adults (YAs), aged 18-39 years, with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) navigate life disruptions amid an unpredictable illness trajectory. We conducted a secondary analysis of patient-reported outcomes for hospitalized YAs with high-risk AML receiving intensive chemotherapy, collected during a multisite randomized clinical trial. Of the 160 patients, 14 (8.

Paternal imprinting of dosage-effect defective1 contributes to seed weight xenia in maize.

Historically, xenia effects were hypothesized to be unique genetic contributions of pollen to seed phenotype, but most examples represent standard complementation of Mendelian traits. We identified the imprinted dosage-effect defective1 (ded1) locus in maize (Zea mays) as a paternal regulator of seed size and development. Hypomorphic alleles show a 5-10% seed weight reduction when ded1 is transmitted through the male, while homozygous mutants are defective with a 70-90% seed weight reduction.

De novo assembly and annotation of the CHOZN® GS genome supports high-throughput genome-scale screening.

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells have been used as the industry standard for the production of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies for several decades. Despite significant improvements in commercial-scale production processes and media, the CHO cell has remained largely unchanged. Due to the cost and complexity of whole-genome sequencing and gene-editing it has been difficult to obtain the tools necessary to improve the CHO cell line.

Advance care planning imperative: High-quality patient-centred goals of care.

Advance care planning (ACP) discussions aim to ensure goal-concordant care for patients with serious illness, throughout treatment and especially at the end of life. But recent literature has forced the field of palliative care to wrestle with the definition and impact of ACP. Are ACP discussions worthwhile? Is there a difference between ACP discussions early in a patient's illness versus discussions occurring later when a concrete medical care decision must be made? Here, we identify elements needed to answer these questions and describe how a multisite initiative will elucidate the value of discussing and documenting what matters most to patients.

Training to Promote Empathic Communication in Graduate Medical Education: A Shared Learning Intervention in Internal Medicine and General Surgery.

Background: Empathic communication skills have a growing presence in graduate medical education to empower trainees in serious illness communication.

Objective: Evaluate the impact, feasibility, and acceptability of a shared communication training intervention for residents of different specialties.

Design: A randomized controlled study of standard education v.

Communicating About Time-Limited Trials.

Time-limited trials (TLTs) are used in the management of critical care patients undergoing potentially nonbeneficial interventions to improve prognostication and build trust and consensus between family and intensivists. When these trials are not well defined and executed, discordant views of the patient's prognosis, conflict, and continuation of nonbeneficial care can arise. The mnemonic TIME (truth about uncertainty in prognosis, interval of time, measurement of improvement, and end or extend) can help facilitate clear communication surrounding TLTs.

Examining the Association of Billed Advance Care Planning With End-of-Life Hospital Admissions Among Advanced Cancer Patients in Hospice.

Background: Advance care planning (ACP), or the consideration and communication of care preferences for the end-of-life (EOL), is a critical process for improving quality of care for patients with advanced cancer. The incorporation of billed service codes for ACP allows for new inquiries on the association between systematic ACP and improved EOL outcomes.

Objective: Using the IBM MarketScan® Database, we conducted a retrospective medical claims analysis for patients with an advanced cancer diagnosis and referral to hospice between January 2016 and December 2017.

Improving newborn skin health: Effects of diaper care regimens on skin pH and erythema.

Background/objective: Newborn infant skin is functional but immature, and diapering products can play a significant role in infant diapered skin health. Previous work demonstrated a regimen consisting of a diaper with an emollient and apertures on the inner liner (topsheet) with an acidic, pH-buffered wipe (Regimen A) lowered newborn skin pH and reduced the enzymatic activity on skin post-stool cleaning versus a regimen without these features (Regimen B). This study extends these findings to determine the impact of Regimen A on diaper area erythema severity over a 2-week use period.

Effects of pre-mixed hydraulic calcium silicate putties on osteogenic differentiation of human dental pulp stem cells in vitro.

Objectives: An experimental tricalcium silicate and dicalcium silicate-containing endodontic putty has been designed to overcome the issue of reduced shelf life after exposure to atmospheric moisture during repeated opening of the container for clinical retrieval. The present study examined the effects of this experimental hydraulic putty on the mineralogenic characteristics of osteogenic lineage-committed human dental pulp stem cells (hDPSCs), by comparing the cellular responses with a commercially available putty (EndoSequence BC RRM Putty).

Methods: The osteogenic potential of hDPSCs that had been exposed to the putties was examined using quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction for osteogenic gene expressions and western blot for osteogenic protein expressions.

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Background: Patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) receiving intensive chemotherapy face a life-threatening illness, isolating hospitalization, and substantial physical and psychological symptoms. However, data are limited regarding risk factors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in this population.

Methods: The authors conducted a secondary analysis of data from 160 patients with high-risk AML who were enrolled in a supportive care trial.

COVID-19 Diagnostic Testing For All - Using Non-Dilutive Saliva Sample Collection, Stabilization and Ambient Transport Devices.

Unlabelled: COVID-19 testing is not accessible for millions during this pandemic despite our best efforts. Without greatly expanded testing of asymptomatic individuals, contact tracing and subsequent isolation of spreaders remains as a means for control. In an effort to increase RT-PCR assay testing for the presence of the novel beta-coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 as well as improve sample collection safety, GenTegra LLC has introduced two products for saliva collection and viral RNA stabilization: GTR-STM™ (GenTegra Saliva Transport Medium) and GTR-STMdk™ (GenTegra Saliva Transport Medium Direct to PCR).

Effectiveness of Integrated Palliative and Oncology Care for Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) receiving intensive chemotherapy experience substantial decline in their quality of life (QOL) and mood during their hospitalization for induction chemotherapy and often receive aggressive care at the end of life (EOL). However, the role of specialty palliative care for improving the QOL and care for this population is currently unknown.

Objective: To assess the effect of integrated palliative and oncology care (IPC) on patient-reported and EOL outcomes in patients with AML.