American Society of Hematology 2020 guidelines for sickle cell disease: transfusion support.

Background: Red cell transfusions remain a mainstay of therapy for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), but pose significant clinical challenges. Guidance for specific indications and administration of transfusion, as well as screening, prevention, and management of alloimmunization, delayed hemolytic transfusion reactions (DHTRs), and iron overload may improve outcomes.

Objective: Our objective was to develop evidence-based guidelines to support patients, clinicians, and other healthcare professionals in their decisions about transfusion support for SCD and the management of transfusion-related complications.

End points for sickle cell disease clinical trials: patient-reported outcomes, pain, and the brain.

To address the global burden of sickle cell disease (SCD) and the need for novel therapies, the American Society of Hematology partnered with the US Food and Drug Administration to engage the work of 7 panels of clinicians, investigators, and patients to develop consensus recommendations for clinical trial end points. The panels conducted their work through literature reviews, assessment of available evidence, and expert judgment focusing on end points related to: patient-reported outcomes (PROs), pain (non-PROs), the brain, end-organ considerations, biomarkers, measurement of cure, and low-resource settings. This article presents the findings and recommendations of the PROs, pain, and brain panels, as well as relevant findings and recommendations from the biomarkers panel.

Stereotypical behaviors in chimpanzees rescued from the african bushmeat and pet trade.

Many orphaned chimpanzees whose mothers are illegally killed for their meat (bushmeat) in Africa are sold as pets or kept caged at hotels and businesses to attract tourists. As a result of being separated from their mothers and other chimpanzees at an early age, and spending years in impoverished captive conditions, some of these individuals engage in abnormal behaviors, including stereotypically scratching at their flesh and repetitively rocking back and forth. This paper presents case studies of Poco and Safari, two chimpanzees who were rescued by sanctuaries after living alone on display for humans at businesses for the first 7 to 8 years of their lives.

The effects of an oral health intervention on caregivers of Head Start children.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an oral health educational intervention on knowledge and behavior-specific cognitions and affect in caregivers of children from 2 to 5 years of age. This was a descriptive study, with a convenience sample of 425 Head Start caregivers who attended one of 18 oral health educational programs throughout Miami-Dade County. Four research questions addressed the relationship between the oral health educational intervention and prior related behavior, personal factors, behavior-specific cognitions and affect, knowledge, and intent.

Spatial learning and memory as a function of age in the dog.

Spatial learning and memory were studied in dogs of varying ages and sources. Compared to young dogs, a significantly higher proportion of aged dogs could not acquire a spatial delayed nonmatching-to-sample task. A regression analysis revealed a significant age effect during acquisition.