Switch-Independent 3A: An Epigenetic Regulator in Cancer with New Implications for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNA, play a crucial role in the regulation of gene expression and are pivotal in biological processes like apoptosis, cell proliferation, and differentiation. SIN3a serves as a scaffold protein and facilitates interactions with transcriptional epigenetic partners and specific DNA-binding transcription factors to modulate gene expression by adding or removing epigenetic marks. However, the activation or repression of gene expression depends on the factors that interact with SIN3a, as it can recruit both transcriptional activators and repressors.

Single-Cell Analysis of Contractile Forces in iPSC-Derived Cardiomyocytes: Paving the Way for Precision Medicine in Cardiovascular Disease.

Induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (iPSC-CMs) hold enormous potential in cardiac disease modeling, drug screening, and regenerative medicine. Furthermore, patient-specific iPSC-CMS can be tested for personalized medicine. To provide a deeper understanding of the contractile force dynamics of iPSC-CMs, we employed Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) as an advanced detection tool to distinguish the characteristics of force dynamics at a single cell level.

Threats to the Internal Validity of Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Research in Healthcare.

The article defines, describes, and discusses the seven threats to the internal validity of experiments discussed by Donald T. Campbell in his classic 1957 article: history, maturation, testing, instrument decay, statistical regression, selection, and mortality. These concepts are said to be threats to the internal validity of experiments because they pose alternate explanations for the apparent causal relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable of an experiment if they are not adequately controlled.

The t-test: An Influential Inferential Tool in Chaplaincy and Other Healthcare Research.

The t-test developed by William S. Gosset (also known as Student's t-test and the two-sample t-test) is commonly used to compare one sample mean on a measure with another sample mean on the same measure. The outcome of the t-test is used to draw inferences about how different the samples are from each other.

Studying Associations in Health Care Research.

This article discusses some of the types of relationships observed in healthcare research and depicts them in graphic form. The article begins by explaining two basic associations observed in chemistry and physics (Boyles' Law and Charles' Law), and illustrates how these associations are similar to curvilinear and linear associations, respectively, found in healthcare. Graphs of curvilinear associations include morbidity curves and survival and mortality curves.

Measures of variability in chaplaincy, health care, and related research.

This article discusses statistical measures of variability in relation to measures of central tendency and levels of measurement. Three measures of variability used in healthcare research (the range, the interquartile range, and the standard deviation) are described and compared, including their uses and limitations. The article describes how each of the three measures is calculated, and it provides a step-by-step example of calculating the sums of squares, variance, and standard deviation.

Measures of central tendency in chaplaincy, health care, and related research.

The three measures of central tendency are discussed in this article: the mode, the median, and the mean. These measures of central tendency describe data in different and important ways, in relation to the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio) used to obtain the data. The results of published research studies, thought experiments, and graphs of frequency and percentage distributions of data are used as examples to demonstrate and explain the similarities and differences among these summary measures of data.

Independent, dependent, and other variables in healthcare and chaplaincy research.

This article begins by defining the term variable and the terms independent variable and dependent variable, providing examples of each. It then proceeds to describe and discuss synonyms for the terms independent variable and dependent variable, including treatment, intervention, predictor, and risk factor, and synonyms for dependent variable, such as response variables and outcomes. The article explains that the terms extraneous, nuisance, and confounding variables refer to any variable that can interfere with the ability to establish relationships between independent variables and dependent variables, and it describes ways to control for such confounds.

Operational definitions in research on religion and health.

This article summarizes the historical development of operational definitions and discusses their application to research on religion and health, and their importance for research, in general. The diversity of religious concepts that have been operationalized is described, as well as the development of multi-dimensional self-report measures of religion specifically designed for use in health research. The operational definitions of a variety of health concepts are also described, including the development of multi-dimensional self-report measures of health.

Fundamentals of measurement in health care research.

This article discusses levels of measurement and their application to research and practice in health care. The concept of levels of measurement was codified in a seminal article by S. S.

Research designs and making causal inferences from health care studies.

This article summarizes the major types of research designs used in healthcare research, including experimental, quasi-experimental, and observational studies. Observational studies are divided into survey studies (descriptive and correlational studies), case-studies and analytic studies, the last of which are commonly used in epidemiology: case-control, retrospective cohort, and prospective cohort studies. Similarities and differences among the research designs are described and the relative strength of evidence they provide is discussed.

Spiritual coping and anxiety in palliative care patients: a pilot study.

Patients often rely on spirituality to cope with anxiety, yet it is not known if spiritual coping actually helps patients deal with anxiety. The present study was designed, therefore, to examine this relationship. A series of patients who were referred to the palliative care team at New York University, Langone Medical Center (N = 44) were interviewed about their spiritual coping and anxiety.

A methodological analysis of chaplaincy research: 2000-2009.

The present article presents a comprehensive review and analysis of quantitative research conducted in the United States on chaplaincy and closely related topics published between 2000 and 2009. A combined search strategy identified 49 quantitative studies in 13 journals. The analysis focuses on the methodological sophistication of the studies, compared to earlier research on chaplaincy and pastoral care.

Testing the efficacy of chaplaincy care.

The current article reviews the research conducted in the United States on the clinical practice of chaplains with patients and family members, referrals to chaplains, patient satisfaction with chaplaincy services, and the limited literature on the efficacy of chaplain interventions. It also discusses the methodological limitations of studies conducted on these topics and makes suggestions for improving future chaplaincy research. The authors conclude that past studies have not adequately defined chaplain interventions, nor sufficiently documented the clinical practice of chaplains, and that more and better designed studies are needed to test the efficacy of chaplaincy interventions.

2009 Spiritual Care Collaborative survey results on continuing education.

Continuing education for chaplains, pastoral counselors and clinical pastoral educators is important for maintaining and advancing professional competency. Pastoral professionals who visited the Spiritual Care Collaborative (SCC) website to register for a conference were asked to complete a questionnaire on continuing education. Results of the survey show that continuing education, both in-person and through electronic means, were clearly ranked as the most important activities the SCC partner organizations could provide in the future.

Complementary alternative medicine practices used by religious professionals.

Religious professionals completed an online survey of their use of health related practices currently known as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). They indicated how often they engaged in these practices and how often they had used these practices when helping other people. The majority of religious professionals used at least one of the practices when alone and when helping other people.

Change in pastoral skills, emotional intelligence, self-reflection, and social desirability across a unit of CPE.

Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is experiential learning of the art and science of pastoral care. CPE students increase capacities in psychological strengths such as self-awareness and empathy, and improve skills in interpersonal and inter-professional relationships. Previous research has documented different kinds of change and experiences for students depending on the length of the CPE unit (short/intensive vs.

Adapting psychosocial intervention research to urban primary care environments: a case example.

Purpose: We wanted to describe the unique issues encountered by our research team in testing an intervention to reduce perinatal depression in real-world community health centers.

Method: We used a case study of an experience in conducting a randomized controlled trial designed to test the effectiveness of a low-cost multimodal psychosocial intervention to reduce prenatal and postpartum depression. Low-income minority women (N = 187) with low-risk pregnancies were randomly assigned to the intervention or treatment as usual.

Depression and negative life events among pregnant African-American and Hispanic women.

Depression, social support, and life events were assessed in a sample of African-American and Hispanic women (N = 148) with uncomplicated pregnancies. Over half (51%) showed elevated depressive symptoms. Overall, women had fewer social supports and more negative life events than found in previous studies.