Pilot of a bowel habit assessment tool to enable early identification of infection.

Objective: To develop a symptom assessment tool to assist health care providers with discussing bowel habits in a sensitive and accurate method.

Design: Pre and Post education survey.

Setting: 180 bed academically affiliated Veterans Affairs Hospital.

Internal Consistency and Application of a Mentee Survey to Assess Mentor Competencies in an Academic Medical Center across Demographic Groups.

The National Academies of Science stresses the importance of research mentoring. We assessed the internal consistency and application of a novel 33 item mentor evaluation survey and explored differences across subgroups. The survey was administered annually to mentees.

Evidence-Based Strategies to Enhance Weight Management Programs for Adult Military Beneficiaries: A Narrative Review.

Introduction: Overweight and obesity trends are on the rise among both civilian and military beneficiaries. The purpose of this narrative review was to evaluate nutrition, behavioral, lifestyle, pharmacotherapy, and alternative approaches to weight management (WM) among adults with a focus toward identifying gaps and evidence-based strategies that could support or enhance current and future WM programming among military adult beneficiaries.

Materials And Methods: A trained research team identified publications (January 2013-January 2020) for abstract review using key search terms and inclusion criteria.

CottonGen: The Community Database for Cotton Genomics, Genetics, and Breeding Research.

Over the last eight years, the volume of whole genome, gene expression, SNP genotyping, and phenotype data generated by the cotton research community has exponentially increased. The efficient utilization/re-utilization of these complex and large datasets for knowledge discovery, translation, and application in crop improvement requires them to be curated, integrated with other types of data, and made available for access and analysis through efficient online search tools. Initiated in 2012, CottonGen is an online community database providing access to integrated peer-reviewed cotton genomic, genetic, and breeding data, and analysis tools.

The Breeding Information Management System (BIMS): an online resource for crop breeding.

In this era of big data, breeding programs are producing ever larger amounts of data. This necessitates access to efficient management systems to keep track of cross, performance, pedigree, geographical and image-based data, as well as genotyping data. In this article, we report the progress on the Breeding Information Management System (BIMS), a free, secure and online breeding management system that allows breeders to store, manage, archive and analyze their private breeding data.

An innovative educational program for addressing health disparities in translational cancer research.

North Carolina Central University (NCCU) and Duke Cancer Institute implemented an NCI-funded Translational Cancer Disparities Research Partnership to enhance translational cancer research, increase the pool of underrepresented racial and ethnic group (UREG) researchers in the translational and clinical research workforce, and equip UREG trainees with skills to increase diversity in clinical trials. The Cancer Research Education Program (C-REP) provided training for UREG graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at Duke and NCCU. An innovative component of C-REP is the Translational Immersion Experience (TIE), which enabled Scholars to gain knowledge across eight domains of clinical and translational research (clinical trials operations, data monitoring, regulatory affairs, UREG accrual, biobanking, community engagement, community outreach, and high-throughput drug screening).

Tripal MegaSearch: a tool for interactive and customizable query and download of big data.

Tripal MegaSearch is a Tripal module for querying and downloading biological data stored in Chado. This module allows site users to select data types, restrict the dataset by applying various filters and then customizing fields to view and download through a single interface. Set by site administrators, example data types include gene, germplasm, marker, map, QTL, genotype, phenotype and expression data.

Tripal and Galaxy: supporting reproducible scientific workflows for community biological databases.

Online biological databases housing genomics, genetic and breeding data can be constructed using the Tripal toolkit. Tripal is an open-source, internationally developed framework that implements FAIR data principles and is meant to ease the burden of constructing such websites for research communities. Use of a common, open framework improves the sustainability and manageability of such as site.

Tripal MapViewer: A tool for interactive visualization and comparison of genetic maps.

Tripal is an open-source, resource-efficient toolkit for construction of genomic, genetic and breeding databases. It facilitates development of biological websites by providing tools to integrate and display biological data using the generic database schema, Chado, together with Drupal, a popular website creation and content management system. Tripal MapViewer is a new interactive tool for visualizing genetic map data.

Perspectives on Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) Research, Clinical Management and Community Engagement from the Duke IBC Consortium.

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is an understudied and aggressive form of breast cancer with a poor prognosis, accounting for 2-6% of new breast cancer diagnoses but 10% of all breast cancer-related deaths in the United States. Currently there are no therapeutic regimens developed specifically for IBC, and it is critical to recognize that all aspects of treating IBC - including staging, diagnosis, and therapy - are vastly different than other breast cancers. In December 2014, under the umbrella of an interdisciplinary initiative supported by the Duke School of Medicine, researchers, clinicians, research administrators, and patient advocates formed the Duke Consortium for IBC to address the needs of patients in North Carolina (an ethnically and economically diverse state with 100 counties) and across the Southeastern United States.

15 years of GDR: New data and functionality in the Genome Database for Rosaceae.

The Genome Database for Rosaceae (GDR, https://www.rosaceae.org) is an integrated web-based community database resource providing access to publicly available genomics, genetics and breeding data and data-mining tools to facilitate basic, translational and applied research in Rosaceae.

A 2-Year Holistic Health and Stress Intervention: Results of an RCT in Clergy.

Introduction: This study sought to determine the effect of a 2-year, multicomponent health intervention (Spirited Life) targeting metabolic syndrome and stress simultaneously.

Design: An RCT using a three-cohort multiple baseline design was conducted in 2010-2014.

Setting/participants: Participants were United Methodist clergy in North Carolina, U.

Safe storage time for reprocessed flexible endoscopes: a systematic review.

Background: Flexible endoscopes are used to diagnose and treat gastrointestinal and pulmonary diseases. They have narrow, internal channels which are used to insert instruments, air and water into hollow organs and to remove tissues and secretions. Since endoscopes are contaminated during use and have heat sensitive components that cannot be sterilized, they are reprocessed with cleaning and high-level disinfection to destroy microorganisms.

A multisite, community oncology-based randomized trial of a brief educational intervention to increase communication regarding complementary and alternative medicine.

Background: The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is widespread, yet there is relatively little discussion regarding its use between oncology patients and their health care practitioners.

Methods: This multisite randomized trial examined the efficacy of an educational intervention designed to encourage oncology nurses to discuss CAM use with their patients. A total of 175 nurses completed questionnaires about discussing CAM use with patients at baseline and 2 months after the intervention.

Active lifestyle offsets HRT-induced suppression of T cell reactivity to mitogens.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to investigate the combined impact of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and active lifestyle on the phenotypic profile and in vitro activities of specific immune cells in postmenopausal women.

Methods: Healthy postmenopausal women aged 45-70 were assigned to one of four groups: (a) HRT/sedentary (n = 9); (b) HRT/active (n = 12); (c) no HRT/sedentary (n = 10); and (d) no HRT/active (n = 9). Blood samples were collected from each subject on 3 days within 1 week.

N-acetyl transferase 2 genotypes, meat intake and breast cancer risk.

Heterocyclic amines (HAs) are carcinogens produced by high-temperature cooking of meat and animal protein; metabolism of HA is influenced by polymorphisms in the N-acetyltransferase-2 (NAT-2) gene. Data from a variety of sources suggest that HA may play a role in human carcinogenesis. We examined the associations between meat intake and cooking method, acetylator genotype and breast cancer risk in a sub-cohort of 32,826 women in the Nurses' Health Study who gave a blood sample in 1989-1990.

Vitamin D receptor genotype and the risk of bone fractures in women.

Several studies have confirmed an initial report of a relation between bone density and polymorphic forms of the calcitriol (vitamin D) receptor gene, whereas others have failed to find an association. We examined whether variants of the vitamin D receptor gene are associated with the risk of bone fracture, using a nested case-control analysis within the Nurses' Health Study cohort. The study women all were Caucasian and were 43-69 years of age when they provided a blood sample.

A prospective study of N-acetyltransferase genotype, red meat intake, and risk of colorectal cancer.

Carcinogenic heterocyclic amines are activated by N-acetyltransferase (NAT) enzymes, encoded by NAT1 and NAT2, to genotoxic compounds that can form DNA adducts in the colon epithelium. We have examined the relation of polymorphisms in the genes coding for both enzymes to risk of colorectal cancer and the gene-environment interaction with red meat intake among participants in the prospective Physicians' Health Study. Baseline blood samples from 212 men subsequently diagnosed with colorectal cancer during 13 years of follow-up were genotyped, along with 221 controls.

Vitamin D receptor polymorphisms, circulating vitamin D metabolites, and risk of prostate cancer in United States physicians.

Prostatic cells express vitamin D receptor (VDR), which mediates the functions of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. Two recent case-control studies suggested strong inverse associations between two VDR polymorphisms, TaqI and poly(A), and risk of prostate cancer. These two and a third polymorphism, BsmI, are closely linked.

Biased short tract repair of palindromic loop mismatches in mammalian cells.

Mismatch repair of palindromic loops in the presence or absence of single-base mismatches was investigated in wild-type and mismatch-binding defective mutant Chinese hamster ovary cells. Recombination intermediates with a maximum heteroduplex DNA (hDNA) region of 697 bp contained a centrally located, phenotypically silent 12-base palindromic loop mismatch, and/or five single-base mismatches. In wild-type cells, both loops and single-base mismatches were efficiently repaired (80-100%).

A prospective study of NAT2 acetylation genotype, cigarette smoking, and risk of breast cancer.

Polymorphisms in the N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) gene are determinants of the rate of metabolic activation of carcinogenic compounds such as aryl aromatic amines. Homozygosity for any combination of three variant alleles in Caucasians defines 'slow' acetylators; presence of one or two wild-type alleles characterizes 'rapid' acetylators. Although most previous studies have not observed an overall elevation in risk of breast cancer among slow acetylators, a recent study observed that cigarette smoking was associated with a large increase in risk of breast cancer among slow acetylators.

Mismatch repair by efficient nick-directed, and less efficient mismatch-specific, mechanisms in homologous recombination intermediates in Chinese hamster ovary cells.

Repair of single-base mismatches formed in recombination intermediates in vivo was investigated in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Extrachromosomal recombination was stimulated by double-strand breaks (DSBs) introduced into regions of shared homology in pairs of plasmid substrates heteroallelic at 11 phenotypically silent mutations. Recombination was expected to occur primarily by single-strand annealing, yielding predicted heteroduplex DNA (hDNA) regions with three to nine mismatches.

Relationships between running economy and temporal EMG characteristics of bi-articular leg muscles.

Relationships between running economy (RE; submaximal VO(2) for a given running speed) and the temporal EMG characteristics of bi-articular leg muscles were quantified in a group of well-trained runners. Nine subjects completed three test sessions: a determination of maximal aerobic demand (VO(2)max); an accommodation session at the experimental speed of 4.13 m.