Social foraging and the associated benefits of group-living in Cliff Swallows decrease over 40 years.

Animals that feed socially can sometimes better locate prey, often by transferring information about food that is patchy, dense, and temporally and spatially unpredictable. Information transfer is a potential benefit of living in breeding colonies where unsuccessful foragers can more readily locate successful ones and thereby improve feeding efficiency. Most studies on social foraging have been short-term, and how long-term environmental change affects both foraging strategies and the associated benefits of coloniality is generally unknown.

Drug Product Development and Case Studies for Patient Centric Pediatric Protein-based Therapeutics.

The user of a pediatric drug includes not only the patient, but also their caregiver and healthcare provider, including nurses, doctors, and pharmacists. Therefore, adopting a patient-centric approach that focuses on all users is critical for the development of pediatric drug products. This article outlines the quality target product profile parameters and a patient-centric approach for the development of pediatric protein-based therapies.

Unsupervised Exercise in Interstitial Lung Disease: A Delphi Study to Develop a Consensus Preparticipation Screening Tool for Lymphangioleiomyomatosis.

Background: Little research is available to provide practical guidance to health care providers for exercise preparticipation screening and referral of patients with interstitial lung diseases (ILDs), including lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), to participate in remote, unsupervised exercise programs.

Research Question: What exercise preparticipation screening steps are essential to determine whether a patient with LAM is medically appropriate to participate in a remote, unsupervised exercise program?

Study Design And Methods: Sixteen experts in LAM and ILD participated in a two-round modified Delphi study, ranking their level of agreement for 10 statements related to unsupervised exercise training in LAM, with an a priori definition of consensus. Additionally, 60 patients with LAM completed a survey of the perceived risks and benefits of remote exercise training in LAM.

Grandmaternal pre-pregnancy body mass index and infant birthweight: a mediation analysis of maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index.

The objectives of this study were to examine the total effect of grandmaternal [G0] pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) on infant [G2] birthweight z-score and to quantify the mediation role of maternal [G1] pre-pregnancy BMI. Data were extracted from the Nova Scotia 3G Multigenerational Cohort. The association between G0 pre-pregnancy BMI and G2 birthweight z-score and the mediated effect by G1 pre-pregnancy BMI were estimated using g-computation with adjustment for confounders identified using a directed acyclic graph and accounting for intermediate confounding.

Association between financial hardship and psychological burden and the role of social and mental health support: An observational study.

We aimed to assess the association between medical financial hardship and psychological burden and the moderating role of social and mental health support. 2021 United States National Health Interview Survey was used. Financial hardship was defined as having financial worry, material hardship, or cost-related care nonadherence.

Using comparative extinction risk analysis to prioritize the IUCN Red List reassessments of amphibians.

Assessing the extinction risk of species based on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List (RL) is key to guiding conservation policies and reducing biodiversity loss. This process is resource demanding, however, and requires continuous updating, which becomes increasingly difficult as new species are added to the RL. Automatic methods, such as comparative analyses used to predict species RL category, can be an efficient alternative to keep assessments up to date.

The Role of Telemedicine in Voice Therapy.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, our institution adopted telemedicine for voice therapy (VT) as an alternative to in-person sessions, which has been integrated into our routine practice following the pandemic. This study aims to explore factors influencing completion rates among the 2 methods. A retrospective chart review at a single tertiary care institution between 2019 and 2021 was conducted.

Extrapulmonary manifestations of pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Introduction: Extrapulmonary manifestations of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) may play a critical pathobiological role and a deeper understanding will advance insight into mechanisms and novel therapeutic targets. This manuscript reviews our understanding of extrapulmonary manifestations of PAH.

Areas Covered: A group of experts was assembled and a complimentary PubMed search performed (October 2023 - March 2024).

The effect of AZD9567 vs. prednisolone on glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: Results from a phase 2a clinical trial.

Aims: Corticosteroids are the treatment of choice for many inflammatory diseases but often lead to adverse effects, including hyperglycaemia. This study investigated the mechanisms driving differential effects on glucose control for AZD9567, an oral nonsteroidal selective glucocorticoid receptor modulator vs. prednisolone in 46 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The positive impact of conservation action.

Governments recently adopted new global targets to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity. It is therefore crucial to understand the outcomes of conservation actions. We conducted a global meta-analysis of 186 studies (including 665 trials) that measured biodiversity over time and compared outcomes under conservation action with a suitable counterfactual of no action.

Coping with COVID-19: Standing up a comprehensive behavioral health response to the pandemic.

Integrating behavioral health (BH) into disaster preparedness and response is essential to mitigate and address the BH impacts of disasters, support incident response personnel well-being, and to integrate disaster BH concepts into response strategies and communications. This article describes the development, implementation, and lessons learned from a statewide BH response to this disaster by the COVID-19 Behavioral Health Group (COVID-19 BHG). Operating within the Washington State Department of Health (WA DOH), the BHG is comprised of psychologists and psychiatrists with expertise in disaster BH and response, BH epidemiologists, data analysts, systems specialists, emergency managers, and other DOH staff.

Interventions addressing health-related social needs among patients with cancer.

Health-related social needs are prevalent among cancer patients; associated with substantial negative health consequences; and drive pervasive inequities in cancer incidence, severity, treatment choices and decisions, and outcomes. To address the lack of clinical trial evidence to guide health-related social needs interventions among cancer patients, the National Cancer Institute Cancer Care Delivery Research Steering Committee convened experts to participate in a clinical trials planning meeting with the goal of designing studies to screen for and address health-related social needs among cancer patients. In this commentary, we discuss the rationale for, and challenges of, designing and testing health-related social needs interventions in alignment with the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 5As framework.

Factors associated with the acceptability of Lopinavir/Ritonavir formulations among children living with HIV/AIDS attending care and treatment clinics in Mbeya and Mwanza, Tanzania.

Introduction: Children living with chronic illnesses are offered formulations based on manufacturer and distributor research. The aim of this study is to better understand the perspectives of children and their caregivers in accepting Lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) formulations.

Methods: 362 participants were recruited from two pediatric HIV/AIDS clinics in Mbeya and Mwanza, Tanzania, from December 2021 to May 2022.

Building a better model: abandon kitchen sink regression.

This paper critically examines 'kitchen sink regression', a practice characterised by the manual or automated selection of variables for a multivariable regression model based on p values or model-based information criteria. We highlight the pitfalls of this method, using examples from perinatal/neonatal medicine, and propose more robust alternatives. The concept of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) is introduced as a tool for describing and analysing causal relationships.

Characteristics of drug-involved black women under community supervision; implications for retention in HIV clinical trials and healthcare.

This study examined retention and its relationship to mental health, substance use, and social determinants of health in a randomized clinical trial of a behavioral HIV/sexually transmitted infection prevention intervention with drug-involved Black women ( = 348) under community supervision programs in New York City. Using secondary analysis, we used logistic models to test the association between factors related to mental health, substance use, and social determinants of health and follow-up assessment completion (three, six, and 12 months). Participants who were diagnosed with schizophrenia had lower odds of retention.

Inactivation of the paraventricular nucleus attenuates the cardiogenic sympathetic afferent reflex in the spontaneously hypertensive rat.

Background: Myocardial ischemia causes the release of bradykinin, which stimulates cardiac afferents, causing sympathetic excitation and chest pain. Glutamatergic activation of the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus (PVN) in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) drives elevated basal sympathetic activity. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that inactivation of the PVN attenuates the elevated reflex response to epicardial bradykinin in the SHR and that ionotropic PVN glutamate receptors mediate the elevated reflex.

Community-Academic Partnership: Intervention to Prepare Community Members for the End-of-Life Journey.

Despite research findings that rural Appalachians prefer to die at home, few people access palliative and hospice care services, and many report limited knowledge about palliative/end-of-life care resources. A community-academic partnership was formed to address this need. Train-the-trainer workshop and materials were co-developed.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Harvard Program Evaluation Practicum: 10 Years of Partnership in Public Health Program Evaluation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Division of Reproductive Health and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) Program Evaluation Practicum (CDC/HSPH Practicum) is a mutually beneficial workforce development partnership formed to provide state, local, and tribal public health organizations with an evaluation plan for a maternal and child health (MCH) program.

Sequencing and characterization of Helcococcus ovis: a comprehensive comparative genomic analysis of virulence.

Background: Helcococcus ovis (H. ovis) is an emerging bacterial pathogen that commonly causes opportunistic respiratory, mammary, and uterine infections across mammalian hosts. This study applied long- and short-read whole genome sequencing technologies to identify virulence factors in five H.

A remote monitoring-enabled home exercise prescription for patients with interstitial lung disease at risk for exercise-induced desaturation.

Rationale: Alternatives to center-based pulmonary rehabilitation are needed to improve patient access to this important therapy. A critical challenge to overcome is how to maximize safety of unsupervised exercise for at-risk patients. We investigated if a novel remote monitoring-enabled mobile health (mHealth) program is safe, feasible, and effective for patients who experience exercise-induced hemoglobin desaturation.