High-throughput UPLC-ESI/MSMS method for simultaneous measurement of the urinary metabolites of volatile organic compounds and tobacco alkaloids.

Human exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) poses significant health risks, contributing to cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, and cancer. Measurement of VOC metabolites (VOCm) in urine by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is a preferred method for VOCm analysis; however, existing methods encounter challenges related to sensitivity, throughput, and analyte coverage. In addition to VOCm, the measurement of tobacco alkaloids (TAm) is critical to account for tobacco use in population-based studies.

Potential of phosphodiesterase 4B inhibition in the treatment of progressive pulmonary fibrosis.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is often regarded as the archetypal progressive fibrosing interstitial lung disease (ILD). The term "progressive pulmonary fibrosis" (PPF) generally describes progressive lung fibrosis in an individual with an ILD other than IPF. Both IPF and PPF are associated with loss of lung function, worsening dyspnea and quality of life, and premature death.

The Green Heart Project: Objectives, Design, and Methods.

The Green Heart Project is a controlled, community-based clinical trial to evaluate the effects of increasing greenery on community health. The study was initiated in 2018 in a low-to-middle-income residential area of nearly 30,000 racially diverse residents in Louisville, KY. Community engagement was maintained throughout the project, with feedback integrated into its design and implementation.

Rate of non-metastatic solid tumor progression following critical illness: a prospective cohort study of UK Biobank participants.

Objective: To determine whether admission to critical care is associated with subsequent disease progression in patients with non-metastatic solid tumors.

Methods: This observational cohort study of UK Biobank participants identified those diagnosed with solid tumors and survived hospitalization. Two cohorts were identified based on critical care admission and new metastatic disease as reported at UK Biobank follow-up visits, or primary or secondary care records were compared.

The association between perceived neighborhood safety and cardiovascular disease risk factors.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of mortality in the U.S. accounting for 1 in 4 deaths each year.

Clinical perspectives in bronchiectasis management.

Non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis is a chronic inflammatory airway disease that results in permanent lung damage and can correlate with considerable clinical and economic burden. There are gaps in knowledge surrounding bronchiectasis, for which there are no published US-based treatment guidelines or FDA-approved therapies. Given the current challenges and gaps in care, the authors of this article convened for an AJMC® roundtable in March 2024.

Intra-neighborhood associations between residential greenness and blood pressure.

Introduction: Previous investigations have reported that individuals living in greener neighborhoods have better cardiovascular health. It is unclear whether the effects reported at large geographic scales persist when examined at an intra-neighborhood level. The effects of greenness have not been thoroughly examined using high-resolution metrics of greenness exposure, and how they vary with spatial scales of assessment or participant characteristics.

Individual NMDA receptor GluN2 subunit signaling domains differentially regulate the postnatal maturation of hippocampal excitatory synaptic transmission and plasticity but not dendritic morphology.

N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) at hippocampal excitatory synapses undergo a late postnatal shift in subunit composition, from an initial prevalence of GluN2B subunit incorporation to a later predominance of GluN2A. This GluN2B to GluN2A shift alters NMDAR calcium conductance dynamics and intracellular molecular signaling that are individually regulated by distinct GluN2 signaling domains and temporally align with developmental alterations in dendritic and synaptic plasticity. However, the impacts of individual GluN2B to GluN2A signaling domains on neuronal development remain unknown.

Cardiovascular Health Effects and Synthetic Cooling Agents in E-cigarettes Labeled as 'clear' Marketed in Massachusetts After the Tobacco Product Flavoring Ban.

Introduction: Massachusetts (MA) enacted statewide regulation on all flavored tobacco products in June 2020. Thereafter, electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) labeled 'clear' emerged on the market. We aimed to combine cardiovascular health effects with chemical analysis of 'clear' e-cigarettes.

Greenspaces And Cardiovascular Health.

Accumulating evidence suggests that living in areas of high surrounding greenness or even brief exposures to areas of high greenery is conducive to cardiovascular health, which may be related to the environmental, social, psychological, and physiological benefits of greenspaces. Recent data from multiple cross-sectional, longitudinal, and cohort studies suggest that living in areas of high surrounding greenness is associated with a lower risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. High levels of neighborhood greenery have been linked also to a decrease in the burden of cardiovascular disease risk factors as reflected by lower rates of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes.

Dynamic SARS-CoV-2 surveillance model combining seroprevalence and wastewater concentrations for post-vaccine disease burden estimates.

Background: Despite wide scale assessments, it remains unclear how large-scale severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccination affected the wastewater concentration of the virus or the overall disease burden as measured by hospitalization rates.

Methods: We used weekly SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentration with a stratified random sampling of seroprevalence, and linked vaccination and hospitalization data, from April 2021-August 2021 in Jefferson County, Kentucky (USA). Our susceptible ( ), vaccinated ( ), variant-specific infected ( and ), recovered ( ), and seropositive ( ) model ( ) tracked prevalence longitudinally.

Biological Sex as a Moderator of Work Determinants of Health: Implications for Work and Stress.

This study examined whether biological sex moderates the relationship between experiences of workplace culture and urinary levels of catecholamines and their metabolites. We conducted a series of regression analyses (predictors: 3-methoxytyramine (3MT), 5-hydroxyindolacetic (5HIAA), and dopamine (DA); outcomes: employee engagement and workplace culture) in a sample of 218 participants. Compared to men, women rated workplace culture less positively ( = -0.

Evaluation of urinary limonene metabolites as biomarkers of exposure to greenness.

Exposure to plants is known to improve physical and mental health and living in areas of high vegetation is associated with better health. The addition of quantitative measures of greenness exposure at individual-level to other objective and subjective study measures will help establish cause-and-effect relationships between greenspaces and human health. Because limonene is one of the most abundant biogenic volatile organic compounds emitted by plants, we hypothesized that urinary metabolites of inhaled limonene can serve as biomarkers of exposure to greenness.

The Green Heart Project: Objectives, Design, and Methods.

The Green Heart Project is a community-based trial to evaluate the effects of increasing greenery on urban environment and community health. The study was initiated in 2018 in a low-to-middle-income mixed-race residential area of nearly 28,000 residents in Louisville, KY. The 4 square mile area was surveyed for land use, population characteristics, and greenness, and assigned to 8 paired clusters of demographically- and environmentally matched "target" (T) and adjacent "control" (C), clusters.

Enhancing household soybean processing and utilization in the Eastern Province of Zambia, a concurrent triangulation study design.

The purpose of this study was to establish best ways of improving household soybean processing and utilization in selected districts in the Eastern Province of Zambia. This was a concurrent triangulation study design, nested with a cross sectional survey and barrier analysis. Up to 1,237 households and 42 key informants participated in the quantitative and qualitative studies respectively.

Phase Ib trial of inhaled iloprost for the prevention of lung cancer with predictive and response biomarker assessment.

Introduction: Iloprost, a prostacyclin analog, has lung cancerpreventive activity in preclinical models and improved dysplasia in former smokers in a phase IIb trial. Oral iloprost is currently unavailable. We performed a phase Ib trial of inhaled iloprost in former smokers to assess tolerance and compliance.

Telemedicine-based inspiratory muscle training and walking promotion with lung cancer survivors following curative intent therapy: a parallel-group pilot randomized trial.

Purpose: Following curative-intent therapy of lung cancer, many survivors experience dyspnea and physical inactivity. We investigated the feasibility, acceptability, safety, and potential efficacy of inspiratory muscle training (IMT) and walking promotion to disrupt a postulated "dyspnea-inactivity" spiral.

Methods: Between January and December 2022, we recruited lung cancer survivors from Kaiser Permanente Colorado who completed curative-intent therapy within 1-6 months into a phase-IIb, parallel-group, pilot randomized trial (1:1 allocation).

Reducing Acute Hospitalizations at High-Performing CPC+ Primary Care Practice Sites: Strategies, Activities, and Facilitators.

Purpose: Despite evidence suggesting that high-quality primary care can prevent unnecessary hospitalizations, many primary care practices face challenges in achieving this goal, and there is little guidance identifying effective strategies for reducing hospitalization rates. We aimed to understand how practices in the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) program substantially reduced their acute hospitalization rate (AHR) over 2 years.

Methods: We used Bayesian analyses to identify the CPC+ practice sites having the highest probability of achieving a substantial reduction in the adjusted Medicare AHR between 2016 and 2018 (referred to here as AHR high performers).

Global Profiling of Urinary Mercapturic Acids Using Integrated Library-Guided Analysis.

Urinary mercapturic acids (MAs) are often used as biomarkers for monitoring human exposures to occupational and environmental xenobiotics. In this study, we developed an integrated library-guided analysis workflow using ultraperformance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. This method includes expanded assignment criteria and a curated library of 220 MAs and addresses the shortcomings of previous untargeted approaches.

Lung cancer survivors' views on telerehabilitation following curative intent therapy: a formative qualitative study.

Objectives: To inform personalised home-based rehabilitation interventions, we sought to gain in-depth understanding of lung cancer survivors' (1) attitudes and perceived self-efficacy towards telemedicine; (2) knowledge of the benefits of rehabilitation and exercise training; (3) perceived facilitators and preferences for telerehabilitation; and (4) health goals following curative intent therapy.

Design: We conducted semi-structured interviews guided by Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory and used directed content analysis to identify salient themes.

Setting: One USA Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The Role of Perceived Neighborhood Cohesion in the Association between Depressive Symptoms and Cigarette Smoking.

Background: Greater depression has been linked to increased smoking rates. However, the mechanisms underlying this association are not fully understood. It is possible that high perceived neighborhood cohesion may serve as one such mechanism given its associations with decreased depression and smoking.