Understanding primary care provider's knowledge and perceptions of diabetes self-management education and support.

Objective: The American Diabetes Association Standards of Care recommends that individuals with diabetes receive self-management education, but the utilization of these services remains low. This study explores primary care providers' knowledge and perceptions of diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES).

Study Design: A convergent mixed methods study design grounded in the Theoretical Domains Framework was conducted with an initial provider survey, followed by semi-structured interview of a purposeful sub-sample of providers.

Primary Care of Adult Cancer Survivors.

By 2040, there will be an estimated 26 million cancer survivors in the United States. The essential components of survivorship care are (1) surveillance for cancer recurrence, (2) surveillance for new primary cancers, (3) management of physical and psychological long-term effects of treatment, (4) prevention or mitigation of late treatment effects, and (5) coordination of care between the oncology team and primary care clinicians. Recommendations for surveillance to detect recurrence vary with cancer type and stage at diagnosis.

Modeling delay of age at natural menopause with planned tissue cryopreservation and autologous transplantation.

Background: Ovarian tissue cryopreservation has been proven to preserve fertility against gonadotoxic treatments. It has not been clear how this procedure would perform if planned for slowing ovarian aging.

Objective: This study aimed to determine the feasibility of cryopreserving ovarian tissue to extend reproductive life span and delay menopause by autotransplantation near menopause.

Recapitulating human ovarian aging using random walks.

Mechanism(s) that control whether individual human primordial ovarian follicles (PFs) remain dormant, or begin to grow, are all but unknown. One of our groups has recently shown that activation of the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) pathway can slow follicular granulosa cell proliferation by activating cell cycle checkpoints. Those data suggest that the ISR is active and fluctuates according to local conditions in dormant PFs.

New Insights for Tracking Global and Local Trends in Exposure to Air Pollutants.

Over six million people die prematurely each year from exposure to air pollution. Current air quality metrics insufficiently monitor exposure to air pollutants. This gap hinders the ability of decisionmakers to address the public health impacts of air pollution.

Comorbidities associated with different levels of total cholesterol in male and female acute ischemic stroke patients.

Men and women differ in their clinical risk factors with respect to various predictors of severity in acute ischemic stroke (AIS). High cholesterol is a risk factor for AIS and the mechanism by which high cholesterol levels lead to an AIS is well established. However, the specific relationship between demographic, clinical risk factors, total cholesterol, and the resulting gender difference in AIS patients is yet to be investigated.

Moving Toward a Standardized National Family Medicine Subinternship Curriculum: Results From a CERA Clerkship Directors Survey.

Background And Objectives: Although the subinternship (sub-I) is considered integral in many medical schools' curricula, family medicine does not have standardized course recommendations. Given the variable nature of this clinical experience, this study investigated the potential role of a standardized sub-I curriculum in family medicine.

Methods: Questions about sub-Is were created and data were gathered and analyzed as part of the 2019 Council of Academic Family Medicine's (CAFM) Educational Research Alliance (CERA) survey of family medicine clerkship directors.

Design and Implementation of a Lifestyle Medicine Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education.

While scientific evidence demonstrates conclusive associations between unhealthy lifestyle behaviors and increased morbidity and mortality related to noncommunicable chronic diseases (NCDs), most physicians are not formally taught the root causes of NCDs nor how to counsel patients regarding their lifestyle behaviors for disease prevention and treatment. Since its inception in 2012, the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville has designed, developed, and implemented an innovative, formalized lifestyle medicine curriculum to provide required undergraduate medical student training with a graduating program-level goal to "Deliver total health care using lifestyle medicine to prevent and treat morbidity and mortality related to chronic diseases." The process was guided by the Association of American Medical Colleges' Core Entrustable Professional Activities (required for graduates entering residency) and aimed to satisfy the Quadruple Aim components of better outcomes, lower cost, improved patient experience, and improved physician experience.

Estimated Placental Volume and Gestational Age.

Objective: The objective of this study was to validate estimated placental volume (EPV) across a range of gestational ages (GAs).

Study Design: Three hundred sixty-six patients from 2009 to 2011 received ultrasound scans between 11 + 0 and 38 + 6 weeks GA to assess EPV. An EPV versus GA best fit curve was generated and compared with published normative curves of EPV versus GA in a different population.

Punitive laws, key population size estimates, and Global AIDS Response Progress Reports: An ecological study of 154 countries.

Introduction: UN global plans on HIV/AIDS have committed to reducing the number of countries with punitive laws criminalizing key populations. This study explores whether punitive laws are associated with countries' performance on targets set in the global plans.

Methods: The study used chi-square tests of independence to explore associations between legal status, key population size estimates, and HIV service coverage for 193 countries from 2007 to 2014.

Development of downstream processing to minimize beta-glucan impurities in GMP-manufactured therapeutic antibodies.

The presence of impurities or contaminants in biological products such as monoclonal antibodies (mAb) could affect efficacy or cause adverse reactions in patients. ICH guidelines (Q6A and Q6B) are in place to regulate the level of impurities within clinical drug products. An impurity less often reported and, therefore, lacking regulatory guideline is beta-glucan.

A Multidisciplinary Intervention Utilizing Virtual Communication Tools to Reduce Health Disparities: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Advances in technology are likely to provide new approaches to address healthcare disparities for high-risk populations. This study explores the feasibility of a new approach to health disparities research using a multidisciplinary intervention and advanced communication technology to improve patient access to care and chronic disease management. A high-risk cohort of uninsured, poorly-controlled diabetic patients was identified then randomized pre-consent with stratification by geographic region to receive either the intervention or usual care.

A multivariate distance-based analytic framework for connectome-wide association studies.

The identification of phenotypic associations in high-dimensional brain connectivity data represents the next frontier in the neuroimaging connectomics era. Exploration of brain-phenotype relationships remains limited by statistical approaches that are computationally intensive, depend on a priori hypotheses, or require stringent correction for multiple comparisons. Here, we propose a computationally efficient, data-driven technique for connectome-wide association studies (CWAS) that provides a comprehensive voxel-wise survey of brain-behavior relationships across the connectome; the approach identifies voxels whose whole-brain connectivity patterns vary significantly with a phenotypic variable.

The effects of edema and self-adherent wrap on the work of flexion in a cadaveric hand.

Purpose: Early motion protocols after flexor tendon repair often require hand therapy in edematous digits. Self-adherent wraps are used in the postoperative period to reduce edema. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the presence of a self-adherent wrap affected the work of flexion during early motion protocols.

Cone-beam reconstruction for the two-circles-plus-one-line trajectory.

The Kodak Image Station In-Vivo FX has an x-ray module with cone-beam configuration for radiographic imaging but lacks the functionality of tomography. To introduce x-ray tomography into the system, we choose the two-circles-plus-one-line trajectory by mounting one translation motor and one rotation motor. We establish a reconstruction algorithm by applying the M-line reconstruction method.

Accelerated solvent extraction of lignin from Aleurites moluccana (Candlenut) nutshells.

Lignin from candlenut shells was isolated using an ethanol-water accelerated solvent extraction method. Yields (based on Klason lignin) increased from about 14 to 33% as temperature increased from 100 to 195 °C and were also influenced by the amount of aqueous acid used to precipitate lignin from the extraction liquor. These yields were higher than could be obtained using a conventional dioxane-water acidolysis method.

Reference regions for beat-to-beat ECG data.

The QT interval is regarded as an important biomarker for the assessment of arrhythmia liability, and evidence of QT prolongation has led to the withdrawal and relabeling of numerous compounds. Traditional methods of assessing QT prolongation correct the QT interval for the length of the RR interval (which varies inversely with heart-rate) in a variety of ways. These methods often disagree with each other and do not take into account changes in autonomic state.

Quantitative assessment of tissue biomarkers and construction of a model to predict outcome in breast cancer using multiple imputation.

Missing data pose one of the greatest challenges in the rigorous evaluation of biomarkers. The limited availability of specimens with complete clinical annotation and quality biomaterial often leads to underpowered studies. Tissue microarray studies, for example, may be further handicapped by the loss of data points because of unevaluable staining, core loss, or the lack of tumor in the histospot.

The assessment of cervical foramina with oblique radiographs: the effect of film angle on foraminal area.

Study Design: Radiographic evaluation of cadaveric cervical spine specimens.

Objective: Assess reliability and reproducibility of foraminal dimensions obtained from cervical radiographs of varying obliquity and determine optimal angles for visualizing foramina at each cervical spine level.

Summary Of Background Data: Oblique radiographs may be considered to assess cervical foraminal dimensions and are generally obtained 45 degrees from the anteroposterior (AP) orientation.

Macrophages directly contribute to the exaggerated inflammatory response in cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator-/- mice.

Pulmonary infection with an exaggerated inflammatory response is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in cystic fibrosis (CF). The objective of this study was to determine whether differences in the innate immune system underlie the exaggerated immune response in CF. We established a model that recapitulates the exaggerated immune response in a CF mouse model by exposure to Pseudomonas aeruginosa LPS and assessed the pulmonary cellular and cytokine responses of wild-type (WT) and CF mice.

A fast Bayesian change point analysis for the segmentation of microarray data.

Motivation: The ability to detect regions of genetic alteration is of great importance in cancer research. These alterations can take the form of large chromosomal gains and losses as well as smaller amplifications and deletions. The detection of such regions allows researchers to identify genes involved in cancer progression, and to fully understand differences between cancer and non-cancer tissue.

Quantifying the effects of degeneration and other patient factors on lumbar segmental range of motion using multivariate analysis.

Study Design: Retrospective review and multivariate analysis.

Objectives: Assess lumbar spine segmental range of motion (ROM) with flexion/extension (F/E) radiographs and determine the relation to clinical variables.

Summary Of Background Data: Prior studies have investigated the roles of age and degeneration on lumbar segmental ROM only using univariate analyses.

Evaluation of a modified protocol for selective laser trabeculoplasty.

Purpose: To compare the intraocular pressure (IOP) response to a modified protocol for selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) to standard protocols for SLT and argon laser trabeculoplasty (ALT).

Materials And Methods: A retrospective study of 318 eyes of 284 patients diagnosed with either primary open angle, pigmentary or pseudoexfoliation glaucoma who underwent laser trabeculoplasty from September 1997 to September 2005. One hundred and two patients, who underwent a modified SLT protocol with 100 overlapping laser spots over 180 degrees of trabecular meshwork were compared with 89 patients who received SLT with 100 nonoverlapping spots over 360 degrees and another 127 patients who received ALT with 50 spots over 180 degrees.

Quantifying the effects of age, gender, degeneration, and adjacent level degeneration on cervical spine range of motion using multivariate analyses.

Study Design: Retrospective review and multivariate analysis.

Objective: Assess cervical spine segmental range of motion (ROM) with flexion/extension (F/E) radiographs and determine the relation to clinical variables.

Summary Of Background Data: Previous studies investigated the roles of age and degeneration on cervical ROM with univariate analyses.