Kaiser Permanente's Good Health & Great Hair Program: Partnering With Barbershops and Beauty Salons to Advance Health Equity in West Baltimore, Maryland.

Context: The Good Health & Great Hair program was developed by Kaiser Permanente in partnership with a network of trusted neighborhood barbershops and beauty salons in West Baltimore, Maryland.

Program: The initiative aimed to increase health awareness and knowledge and reduce health disparities by making no-cost health care services available beyond traditional health care settings in predominantly Black, historically redlined neighborhoods in West Baltimore.

Implementation: This initiative, established by an integrated health care system, is the first to utilize mobile health clinics into a holistic community health outreach program in partnership with barbershops and beauty salons to provide medical and social services to underserved populations.

Dysregulation of the interleukin-17A pathway in endometrial tissue from women with unexplained infertility affects pregnancy outcome following assisted reproductive treatment.

Study Question: Which transcriptomic alterations in mid-luteal endometrial scratch biopsies, taken prior to the assisted reproductive treatment (ART) treatment cycle are associated with unsuccessful pregnancy?

Summary Answer: Dysregulated interleukin-17 (IL-17) pathway components are demonstrated in women who fail to become pregnant after ART.

What Is Known Already: Implantation failure is now recognised as a critical factor in unexplained infertility and may be an important component of failed ART.

Study Design, Size, Duration: Using a prospective longitudinal study design, 29 nulliparous women with unexplained infertility undergoing ART were recruited between October 2016 and February 2018.

Hepatitis C Care Pathway Associated With Increased Screening, Confirmation, and Diagnosis Communication to Patients.

National policy initiatives and the advent of highly efficacious direct-acting antivirals set the stage to increase the identification and care of patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV). We implemented a multifaceted HCV care pathway, inclusive of automated screening alerts for all patients born between 1945 and 1965 as they are registered for appointments, reflex laboratory orders for positive HCV antibody results, and a care coordinator to facilitate diagnosis communication and engagement in follow-up care. We report the impact of that pathway on HCV screening, confirmation, diagnosis communication, and co-infection screening.

BINDER: computationally inferring a gene regulatory network for Mycobacterium abscessus.

Background: Although many of the genic features in Mycobacterium abscessus have been fully validated, a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory elements remains lacking. Moreover, there is little understanding of how the organism regulates its transcriptomic profile, enabling cells to survive in hostile environments. Here, to computationally infer the gene regulatory network for Mycobacterium abscessus we propose a novel statistical computational modelling approach: BayesIan gene regulatory Networks inferreD via gene coExpression and compaRative genomics (BINDER).

Zonisamide for Cluster Headache Prophylaxis: A Case Series.

Objective: There is very little literature surrounding the prophylactic use of zonisamide in cluster headaches. The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of zonisamide for prophylaxis of cluster headache in patients with chronic or episodic cluster headache.

Background: Both chronic and episodic cluster headaches are debilitating disorders which are often refractory to multiple prophylactic medication regimens.

Exploration of the unmet health care needs of people who inject drugs.

Background And Purpose: Access to adequate health care in the United States is often hindered by an individual's location, socioeconomic status, and lifestyle. Among those underserved are people who inject drugs (PWID), who are affected by stigma and discrimination. The purpose of this study was to describe the utilization of preventative health care services obtained by PWID.

Factors contributing to racial disparities in influenza vaccinations.

Background: Racial/ethnic disparities in rates of influenza vaccinations in the US remain an issue even among those with access, no out-of-pocket costs, and after adjusting for confounders. We used an approach called the Oaxaca-Blinder (OB) decomposition method to ascertain the contribution of covariates individually and in aggregate to the racial disparity in influenza vaccination.

Methods: We included members > = 18 years of age as of 05/01/2014 with continuous enrollment through 04/30/2015.

Normalizing covert surveillance: the subterranean world of policing.

In this article, I draw on data derived from an ethnographic field study of covert policing in the United Kingdom to demonstrate that the deployment of covert surveillance has become normalized, both in policing thought and operational practice. In a break with earlier patterns, the methods of covert surveillance are used extensively and are no longer regarded as a tactic of last resort. Covert policing is well anchored within organizational arrangements, empowered by a series of internal rationales mobilized to justify the expansion of covert tactics over and above more traditional, overt forms.

A katG S315T or an ahpC promoter mutation mediate Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistance to 2-thiophen carboxylic acid hydrazide, an inhibitor resembling the anti-tubercular drugs Isoniazid and Ethionamide.

Clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis are differentially susceptible to 2-Thiophen Hydrazide (TCH); however its mechanism of action or the reasons for that difference are unknown. We report herein that under our experimental conditions, TCH inhibits M. tuberculosis in solid but not in liquid medium, and that in spite of resembling Isoniazid and Ethionamide, it does not affect mycolic acid synthesis.

The Road to Hepatitis C Virus Cure: Practical Considerations from a Health System's Perspective.

Hepatitis C virus infection remains a significant global health problem. Many individuals are unaware of their infection or disease stage. Innovations in care that promote rapid and easy identification of at-risk populations for screening, comprehensive diagnostic screening, and triage to curative direct-acting antiviral medications will accelerate efforts to eradicate hepatitis C.

Risk factors for human-directed canine aggression in a referral level clinical population.

Risk factors for human-directed aggression were investigated using retrospective analysis of data from a referral-level clinical behaviour population in the UK. A sample of 200 cases involving human-directed canine aggression and 200 control cases involving no instance of human-directed aggression were selected at random from a population of 746 cases. The final model suggested that clinical cases with human-directed aggression were significantly younger than those presenting with other undesired behaviours (P=0.

Functional characterization of the Mycobacterium abscessus genome coupled with condition specific transcriptomics reveals conserved molecular strategies for host adaptation and persistence.

Background: Mycobacterium abscessus subsp. abscessus (MAB) is a highly drug resistant mycobacterium and the most common respiratory pathogen among the rapidly growing non-tuberculous mycobacteria. MAB is also one of the most deadly of the emerging cystic fibrosis (CF) pathogens requiring prolonged treatment with multiple antibiotics.

Intraductal carcinoma of prostate reporting practice: a survey of expert European uropathologists.

Background: It is unclear whether the reported variation in the diagnosis of intraductal carcinoma of the prostate (IDC-P) is due to variable interpretation of borderline morphology, use of different diagnostic criteria or both.

Aims: We sought to determine the degree of variation in the diagnostic criteria and reporting rules for IDC-P in prostate biopsies employed by expert uropathologists.

Methods: A questionnaire survey was circulated to 23 expert uropathologists from 11 European countries.

Streamlining Screening to Treatment: The Hepatitis C Cascade of Care at Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic States.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening is recommended for patients at risk and/or born during 1945-1965, but screening gaps persist. This new program screens target populations and enhances care linkage for chronically HCV-infected patients. Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic States created a comprehensive HCV screening pathway, supported by a HCV care coordinator.

High-throughput transcriptomics reveals common and strain-specific responses of human macrophages to infection with Mycobacterium abscessus Smooth and Rough variants.

Background: Mycobacterium abscessus (MAB) is an emerging pathogen causing pulmonary infections in those with inflammatory lung disorders, such as Cystic Fibrosis (CF), and is associated with the highest fatality rate among rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM). Phenotypically, MAB manifests as either a Smooth (MAB-S) or a Rough (MAB-R) morphotype, which differ in their levels of cell wall glycopeptidolipids (GPLs) and in their pathogenicity in vivo. As one of the primary immune cells encountered by MAB, we sought to examine the early transcriptional events within macrophages, following infection with both MAB-S or MAB-R.

Genome sequencing of the extinct Eurasian wild aurochs, Bos primigenius, illuminates the phylogeography and evolution of cattle.

Background: Domestication of the now-extinct wild aurochs, Bos primigenius, gave rise to the two major domestic extant cattle taxa, B. taurus and B. indicus.

Delineating transcriptional networks of prognostic gene signatures refines treatment recommendations for lymph node-negative breast cancer patients.

The majority of women diagnosed with lymph node-negative breast cancer are unnecessarily treated with damaging chemotherapeutics after surgical resection. This highlights the importance of understanding and more accurately predicting patient prognosis. In the present study, we define the transcriptional networks regulating well-established prognostic gene expression signatures.

Expanding Access to Care and Improving Quality in the Mid-Atlantic States Safety-Net Clinics: Kaiser Permanente's Community Ambassador Program.

The Community Ambassador Program (CAP) in the Mid-Atlantic States Region places Kaiser Permanente-employed nurse practitioners, midwives, and physician assistants to work in the safety-net clinics and share best practices through a long-term community collaboration. The authors conducted an evaluation of 18 safety-net clinics that participated in the CAP in 2012. The Community Ambassadors provided an estimated 32,249 encounters to 11,988 patients.

Fertility and genomics: comparison of gene expression in contrasting reproductive tissues of female cattle.

To compare gene expression among bovine tissues, large bovine RNA-seq datasets were used, comprising 280 samples from 10 different bovine tissues (uterine endometrium, granulosa cells, theca cells, cervix, embryos, leucocytes, liver, hypothalamus, pituitary, muscle) and generating 260 Gbases of data. Twin approaches were used: an information-theoretic analysis of the existing annotated transcriptome to identify the most tissue-specific genes and a de-novo transcriptome annotation to evaluate general features of the transcription landscape. Expression was detected for 97% of the Ensembl transcriptome with at least one read in one sample and between 28% and 66% at a level of 10 tags per million (TPM) or greater in individual tissues.

Acute childhood asthma in Galway city from 1985-2005: relationship to air pollution and climate.

We examine the relationship of air pollution and climatic variables to asthma admission rates of children in Galway city over a 21 year period. Paediatric asthma admissions were recorded from 1985-2005, and admission rates per thousand calculated for pre-school (1-4 years), school aged (5-14 years) and all children (1-14 years) on a monthly and annual basis. These data were compared to average monthly and annual climatic variables (rainfall, humidity, sunshine, wind speed and temperature) and black smoke levels for the city.

Relaxed selection drives a noisy noncoding transcriptome in members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex.

Related species are often used to understand the molecular underpinning of virulence through examination of a shared set of biological features attributable to a core genome of orthologous genes. An important but insufficiently studied issue, however, is the extent to which the regulatory architectures are similarly conserved. A small number of studies have compared the primary transcriptomes of different bacterial species, but few have compared closely related species with clearly divergent evolutionary histories.

(Non-)translational medicine: targeting bacterial RNA.

The rise and spread of antibiotic resistance is among the most severe challenges facing modern medicine. Despite this fact, attempts to develop novel classes of antibiotic have been largely unsuccessful. The traditional mechanisms by which antibiotics work are subject to relatively rapid bacterial resistance via mutation, and hence have a limited period of efficacy.

Identification and characterization of the genetic changes responsible for the characteristic smooth-to-rough morphotype alterations of clinically persistent Mycobacterium abscessus.

Mycobacterium abscessus is an emerging pathogen that is increasingly recognized as a relevant cause of human lung infection in cystic fibrosis patients. This highly antibiotic-resistant mycobacterium is an exception within the rapidly growing mycobacteria, which are mainly saprophytic and non-pathogenic organisms. M.