Best Practice Recommendations: User Acceptance Testing for Systems Designed to Collect Clinical Outcome Assessment Data Electronically.

Implementing clinical outcome assessments electronically in clinical studies requires the sponsor and electronic clinical outcome assessment (eCOA) provider to work closely together to implement study-specific requirements and ensure consensus-defined best practices are followed. One of the most important steps is for sponsors to conduct user acceptance testing (UAT) using an eCOA system developed by the eCOA provider. UAT provides the clinical study team including sponsor or designee an opportunity to evaluate actual software performance and ensure that the sponsor's intended requirements were communicated clearly and accurately translated into the system design, and that the system conforms to a sponsor-approved requirements document based on the study protocol.

Geographic source estimation using airborne plant environmental DNA in dust.

Information obtained from the analysis of dust, particularly biological particles such as pollen, plant parts, and fungal spores, has great utility in forensic geolocation. As an alternative to manual microscopic analysis of dust components, we developed a pipeline that utilizes the airborne plant environmental DNA (eDNA) in settled dust to estimate geographic origin. Metabarcoding of settled airborne eDNA was used to identify plant species whose geographic distributions were then derived from occurrence records in the USGS Biodiversity in Service of Our Nation (BISON) database.

A Strategy to Ensure Faculty Engagement When Assessing a Concept-Based Curriculum.

Background: The faculty of an undergraduate nursing program decided to undertake a major curriculum overhaul, transitioning from a curriculum based on the biomedical model to a concept-based curriculum. However, shortly after the new curriculum was implemented, faculty identified many issues with how and when the concepts were being taught.

Method: In response to the early implementation issues, a conceptual grid was developed to guide assessment of the new curriculum.

Beyond methylphenidate: nonstimulant medications for youth with ADHD.

Objective: This review was conducted to provide information on nonstimulant medications used to treat ADHD.

Method: Previous investigations on several groups of nonstimulant medications were reviewed, and a discussion of antidepressants, antihypertensives, atypical antipsychotics, anticonvulsants, and cholinergic agents is included.

Results: The results of this review provide information on several viable options of treatment in situations in which the use of a stimulant would be inappropriate or in situations in which stimulants have provided limited effectiveness.