Redundant and Cryptic Enhancer Activities of the Gene.

-regulatory sequences known as enhancers play a key role in regulating gene expression. Evolutionary changes in these DNA sequences contribute to phenotypic evolution. The gene, which is required for pigmentation, has emerged as a model system for understanding how -regulatory sequences evolve, providing some of the most detailed insights available into how activities of orthologous enhancers have diverged between species.

Feasibility of Emergency Department-initiated, Mobile Health Blood Pressure Intervention: An Exploratory, Randomized Clinical Trial.

Objectives: We aimed to assess the feasibility of a text messaging intervention by determining the proportion of emergency department (ED) patients who responded to prompted home blood pressure (BP) self-monitoring and had persistent hypertension. We also explored the effect of the intervention on systolic blood pressure (sBP) over time.

Methods: We conducted a randomized, controlled trial of ED patients with expected discharge to home with elevated BP.

The role of depression and social support on readmission rates within one year of traumatic injury.

Objective: Hospital readmission rates have become a quality metric-particularly in trauma and acute care, where up to one third of individuals with traumatic injury return to the hospital. Thus, identifying predictors of readmission is a priority in an effort to reduce readmissions. Based on previous theoretical work, this study tests the utility of social support and depression in predicting readmissions up to one year after initial injury.

Reach Out Churches: A Community-Based Participatory Research Pilot Trial to Assess the Feasibility of a Mobile Health Technology Intervention to Reduce Blood Pressure Among African Americans.

Innovative strategies are needed to reduce the hypertension epidemic among African Americans. Reach Out was a faith-collaborative, mobile health, randomized, pilot intervention trial of four mobile health components to reduce high blood pressure (BP) compared to usual care. It was designed and tested within a community-based participatory research framework among African Americans recruited and randomized from churches in Flint, Michigan.

Development and Validation of a Bilingual Stroke Preparedness Assessment Instrument.

Background And Purpose: Stroke preparedness interventions are limited by the lack of psychometrically sound intermediate end points. We sought to develop and assess the reliability and validity of the video-Stroke Action Test (video-STAT) an English and a Spanish video-based test to assess people's ability to recognize and react to stroke signs.

Methods: Video-STAT development and testing was divided into 4 phases: (1) video development and community-generated response options, (2) pilot testing in community health centers, (3) administration in a national sample, bilingual sample, and neurologist sample, and (4) administration before and after a stroke preparedness intervention.

Potential Direct Regulators of the Drosophila yellow Gene Identified by Yeast One-Hybrid and RNAi Screens.

The regulation of gene expression controls development, and changes in this regulation often contribute to phenotypic evolution. Drosophila pigmentation is a model system for studying evolutionary changes in gene regulation, with differences in expression of pigmentation genes such as yellow that correlate with divergent pigment patterns among species shown to be caused by changes in cis- and trans-regulation. Currently, much more is known about the cis-regulatory component of divergent yellow expression than the trans-regulatory component, in part because very few trans-acting regulators of yellow expression have been identified.

Stroke Ready Intervention: Community Engagement to Decrease Prehospital Delay.

Background: Time-limited acute stroke treatments are underused, primarily due to prehospital delay. One approach to decreasing prehospital delay is to increase stroke preparedness, the ability to recognize stroke, and the intention to immediately call emergency medical services, through community engagement with high-risk communities.

Methods And Results: Our community-academic partnership developed and tested "Stroke Ready," a peer-led, workshop-based, health behavior intervention to increase stroke preparedness among African American youth and adults in Flint, Michigan.

Creating a Novel Video Vignette Stroke Preparedness Outcome Measure Using a Community-Based Participatory Approach.

Evaluating the efficacy of behavioral interventions for rare outcomes is a challenge. One such topic is stroke preparedness, defined as inteventions to increase stroke symptom recognition and behavioral intent to call 911. Current stroke preparedness intermediate outcome measures are centered on written vignettes or open-ended questions and have been shown to poorly reflect actual behavior.

Lymphedema in a 7-year-old boy infected with Wuchereria bancrofti in Sierra Leone: a case report.

We present a case of congenital lymphedema in a 7-year-old boy in Sierra Leone with active filarial infection and penile edema. The genital edema with onset at 6 months of age may have been due to a congenital abnormality in lymphatic drainage. Other possible causes of childhood lymphedema, including Milroy's disease, are discussed.

μ-Opioid receptors within subregions of the striatum mediate pair bond formation through parallel yet distinct reward mechanisms.

The prairie vole is a socially monogamous rodent that is an excellent animal model for studies of the neurobiology of social attachment. Such studies have demonstrated that activation of reward circuitry during social interactions facilitates pair bond formation. Within this circuitry, μ-opioid receptors (MORs) modulate naturally rewarding behavior in an anatomically segregated manner; MORs located throughout the striatum (dorsal striatum, NAc core, and the entire NAc shell) are implicated in general motivational processes, whereas those located specifically within the dorsomedial NAc shell mediate positive hedonics (and are referred to as a "hedonic hotspot").