Impact of an Adaptive Worksite Diabetes Prevention Trial on Health Action Process Approach Outcomes Regarding Dietary Intake and Physical Activity.

Weight loss, through a reduction in energy intake and increase in energy expenditure, can reduce diabetes risk in people with prediabetes. However, lifestyle change can be challenging even with positive intentions. The Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) theoretical framework bridges the intention-behavior gap by targeting planning behaviors and strengthening efficacious beliefs for behavioral change.

Does intervention sequence impact self-regulatory and behavioral outcomes in an adaptive trial among adults with prediabetes?

Background: Lifestyle interventions can promote improvement in dietary intake and physical activity (PA), on average, by strengthening motivation, self-regulatory efforts, and commitment to behavioral change. However, maintenance of behavioral change is challenging, and slow responders during treatment often experience less overall success. Adaptive intervention sequences tailored to treatment response may be more effective in sustaining behavioral change.

Self-administered gerocognitive examination (SAGE) aids early detection of cognitive impairment at primary care provider visits.

Introduction: Current estimates indicate that up to 50-75% of dementia cases are undiagnosed at an early stage when treatments are most effective. Conducting robust accurate cognitive assessments can be time-consuming for providers and difficult to incorporate into a time-limited Primary Care Provider (PCP) visit. We wanted to compare PCP visits with and without using the self-administered SAGE to determine differences in identification rates of new cognitive disorders.

Weight loss maintenance following an augmented intervention for early slow weight loss responders: An adaptive trial.

Early slow weight loss during treatment is associated with less weight loss overall. The impact of an augmented intervention designed for early slow weight loss responders compared with a standard diabetes prevention intervention was evaluated following 12 months of treatment and 6 months of no contact. The impact of standard vs.

Randomized intervention and outpatient follow-up lowers 30-d readmissions for patients with hepatic encephalopathy, decompensated cirrhosis.

Background: We previously reported national 30-d readmission rates of 27% in patients with decompensated cirrhosis (DC).

Aim: To study prospective interventions to reduce early readmissions in DC at our tertiary center.

Methods: Adults with DC admitted July 2019 to December 2020 were enrolled and randomized into the intervention (INT) or standard of care (SOC) arms.

Remission of lupus nephritis: the trajectory of histological response in successfully treated patients.

Objective: This study investigated changes in kidney histology over time in patients with lupus nephritis (LN) undergoing immunosuppressive treatment.

Methods: Patients with proliferative±membranous LN were studied. After a diagnostic kidney biopsy (Bx1), patients had protocol biopsy 2 (Bx2) at 9 (6-15) months and protocol biopsy 3 (Bx3) at 42 (28-67) months.

Sex Differences in Early Weight Loss Success During a Diabetes Prevention Intervention.

Males often lose more weight than females during treatment, and early weight loss predicts weight loss longer-term. Yet, mechanisms for sex differences in early weight loss are unknown and were examined in this study. Adults≥21 years old with overweight or obesity and prediabetes (N=206) participated in a lifestyle intervention and completed baseline psychosocial questionnaires.

Impact of an augmented intervention on self-regulatory, dietary and physical activity outcomes in a diabetes prevention trial among adults with prediabetes.

Self-regulation can facilitate modifications in lifestyle to promote behavioral change. However, little is known about whether adaptive interventions promote improvement in self-regulatory, dietary, and physical activity outcomes among slow treatment responders. A stratified design with an adaptive intervention for slow responders was implemented and evaluated.

Managing concurrency in cyclical projects under stochastic task environments: Vaccine development projects during pandemics.

Aggressive overlapping of stochastic activities during phases of vaccine development has been critical to making effective vaccines for COVID-19 available to the public, at "pandemic" speed. In cyclical projects wherein activities can be overlapped, downstream tasks may need rework on account of having commenced prior to receiving requisite information that is only available upon completion of upstream task(s). We provide a framework to understand the interplay between stochastic overlap duration and rework due to overlap, and its impact on minimizing expected completion time for a cyclical project.

Impact of a Novel Diabetes Prevention Intervention for Early Slow Weight Loss Responders Among Adults With Prediabetes: An Adaptive Trial.

Objective: Some people are slower to respond during lifestyle interventions. An adaptive "rescue" intervention may improve outcomes among slow responders. The impact of a worksite rescue intervention for early slow responders was evaluated.

Which Is a Better Predictor of GFR Decline: 24-h Urine Protein or 24-h Protein-Creatinine Ratio? An Exploration of the MDRD Study Data.

Background: Proteinuria is a known risk factor for progression of chronic kidney disease. Proteinuria magnitude can be estimated by measuring spot urine protein-to-creatinine ratio (least accurate), 24-h urine collection for protein (24 P), or 24-h protein-creatinine ratio (24 PCR). The MDRD study found that 24 P measured at baseline was the strongest single predictor of the rate of GFR decline during study follow-up.

Biome-microbiome interactions in peri-implantitis: A pilot investigation.

Background: Dental implants replace missing teeth in at least 100 million people, yet over one million implants fail every year due to peri-implantitis, a bacterially induced inflammatory disease. Our ability to treat peri-implantitis is hampered by a paucity of information on host-microbiome interactions that underlie the disease. Here, we present the first open-ended characterization of transcriptional events at the mucosal-microbial interface in the peri-implant crevice.

Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination: longitudinal cohort testing for the early detection of dementia conversion.

Background: Significant cognitive changes as individuals' age are not being identified in a timely manner, delaying diagnosis and treatments. Use of brief, multi-domain, self-administered, objective cognitive assessment tools may remove some barriers in assessing and identifying cognitive changes. We compared longitudinal Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE) test scores to non-self-administered Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores in 5 different diagnostic subgroups.

The Effect of Donepezil on Problem-solving Ability in Individuals With Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Pilot Study.

Background: Clinical trials involving individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have reported mixed results for the effects of cholinesterase inhibitors on cognitive outcomes. Our previous work demonstrated that a visuospatial problem-solving task was sensitive to non-memory impairments in individuals with MCI.

Objective: To determine whether the same task is also sensitive to the effects of cholinesterase inhibitors in individuals with amnestic MCI (aMCI).

The Influence of an Elastase-Sensitive Complement C5 Variant on Lupus Nephritis and Its Flare.

Introduction: A C5 polymorphism (rs17611, 2404G>A) exists where the G allele associates with enhanced C5a-like production by neutrophil elastase. This cohort study investigated the influence of this polymorphism as a risk factor for lupus nephritis (LN), and on C5a and membrane attack complex (MAC) levels in LN during flare.

Methods: A cohort of lupus patients (n = 155) was genotyped for the 2404G>A polymorphism.

Anna Karenina and the subgingival microbiome associated with periodontitis.

Background: Although localized aggressive periodontitis (LAP), generalized aggressive periodontitis (GAP), and chronic periodontitis (CP) are microbially driven diseases, our inability to separate disease-specific associations from those common to all three forms of periodontitis has hampered biomarker discovery. Therefore, we aimed to map the genomic content of, and the biological pathways encoded by, the microbiomes associated with these clinical phenotypes. We also estimated the extent to which these biomes are governed by the Anna Karenina principle (AKP), which states that eubiotic communities are similar between individuals while disease-associated communities are highly individualized.

Prevalence of cancer and the benign call rate of afirma gene classifier in F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography positive cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules.

Background: F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) positive (PET+) cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules (ITNs) have variable cancer risk in the literature. The benign call rate (BCR) of Afirma Gene Classifier (Gene Expression Classifier, GEC, or Genome Sequence Classifier, GSC) in (PET +) ITNs is unknown.

Methods: This is a retrospective study at our institution of all patients with (PET+) ITNs (Bethesda III/IV) from 1 January 2010 to 21 May 2019 who underwent Afirma testing and/or surgery or repeat FNA with benign cytology.

Differentiating Staphylococcus infection-associated glomerulonephritis and primary IgA nephropathy: a mass spectrometry-based exploratory study.

Staphylococcus infection-associated glomerulonephritis (SAGN) and primary IgA nephropathy (IgAN) are separate disease entities requiring different treatment approaches. However, overlapping histologic features may cause a diagnostic dilemma. An exploratory proteomic study to identify potential distinguishing biomarkers was performed on formalin fixed paraffin embedded kidney biopsy tissue, using mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) (n = 27) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) (n = 64), on four main diagnostic groups-SAGN, primary IgAN, acute tubular necrosis (ATN) and normal kidney (baseline transplant biopsies).

Association Between Urinary Epidermal Growth Factor and Renal Prognosis in Lupus Nephritis.

Objective: To evaluate the role of urinary epidermal growth factor (EGF) as a biomarker of chronic kidney damage in lupus nephritis (LN).

Methods: A proteomics approach was used to identify urinary EGF as a biomarker of interest in a discovery cohort of patients with LN. The expression of urinary EGF was characterized in 2 large multiethnic LN cohorts, and the association between urinary EGF levels at the time of flare and kidney outcomes was evaluated in a subset of 120 patients with long-term follow-up data.

Adverse effects of electronic cigarettes on the disease-naive oral microbiome.

Six percent of Americans, including 3 million high schoolers, use e-cigarettes, which contain potentially toxic substances, volatile organic compounds, and metals. We present the first human study on the effects of e-cigarette exposure in the oral cavity. By interrogating both immunoinflammatory responses and microbial functional dynamics, we discovered pathogen overrepresentation, higher virulence signatures, and a brisk proinflammatory signal in clinically healthy e-cigarette users, equivalent to patients with severe periodontitis.

Urinary Soluble CD163: a Novel Noninvasive Biomarker of Activity for Lupus Nephritis.

Background: Clinical distinction between patients with lupus nephritis who have active inflammation or chronic kidney damage is challenging. Studies have shown soluble CD163, which derives from cleavage of the CD163 M2c macrophage receptor and can be quantified in urine, correlates with active lupus nephritis.

Methods: We measured urine CD163 at lupus nephritis flares in patients from a Mexican cohort and cross-sectional and longitudinal United States cohorts.

The aggregation paradox for statistical rankings and nonparametric tests.

The relationship between social choice aggregation rules and non-parametric statistical tests has been established for several cases. An outstanding, general question at this intersection is whether there exists a non-parametric test that is consistent upon aggregation of data sets (not subject to Yule-Simpson Aggregation Paradox reversals for any ordinal data). Inconsistency has been shown for several non-parametric tests, where the property bears fundamentally upon robustness (ambiguity) of non-parametric test (social choice) results.