Cognitive behavioral digital therapeutic effects on distress and quality of life in patients with cancer: National randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Cancer-specific psychological interventions like cognitive behavioral stress management (CBSM) demonstrate distress (e.g., anxiety/depression) and quality of life (QoL) benefits.

A Case of Painful Visual Loss - Managing Orbital Compartment Syndrome in the Emergency Department.

Audience: Emergency medicine (EM) residents. This simulation curriculum may also be utilized for senior medical students conducting EM rotations.

Background: Ophthalmologic education represents only a small portion of medical school curriculums and continues to decrease over time, leaving physicians poorly equipped to diagnose and manage eye complaints.

Perioperative Management of Patients with Craniomaxillofacial Trauma.

Successful surgical management of patients with facial fractures requires a detailed preoperative evaluation and postoperative management that differs from elective surgical patients. This review presents evidence-based recommendations from the surgical and anesthesiology literature that address many of the clinical questions that arise during the perioperative management of this group of patients. Surgeons and anesthesiologists must work together at numerous points and make joint decisions, especially where airway and pain management challenges may arise.

Outcomes and Management of Infants Who Refer Newborn Hearing Screening.

Objectives: With the implementation of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening, early diagnosis and referral has been expedited. Many patients who refer screening pass subsequent testing with otoacoustic emissions (OAE) or auditory brainstem response (ABR). The objective of our study was to identify the incidence and etiology of hearing loss in infants who refer initial testing in an urban, tertiary care pediatric otolaryngology practice.

U.S. EPA oversight of pesticide traits in genetically modified plants and recent biotechnology innovation efforts.

Before pesticides can be sold in the United States, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must evaluate them thoroughly to ensure that they meet U.S. federal pesticide registration standards for human health and the environment.

Considerations and Regulatory Approaches in the USA and in the EU for dsRNA-Based Externally Applied Pesticides for Plant Protection.

Increasing pest and pathogen challenges as well as having fewer conventional pesticides to employ require innovative and sustainable solutions for plant protection. One group of pesticides that is in the pipeline and is expected to be subject to regulation and risk assessment procedures in the near future, is based on the natural gene silencing mechanism RNA interference (RNAi). These dsRNA-based products can be highly specific for a target organism due to the sequence-specific interaction between effective small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) and a complementary target RNA.

CRD-733, a Novel PDE9 (Phosphodiesterase 9) Inhibitor, Reverses Pressure Overload-Induced Heart Failure.

Background: Augmentation of NP (natriuretic peptide) receptor and cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) signaling has emerged as a therapeutic strategy in heart failure (HF). cGMP-specific PDE9 (phosphodiesterase 9) inhibition increases cGMP signaling and attenuates stress-induced hypertrophic heart disease in preclinical studies. A novel cGMP-specific PDE9 inhibitor, CRD-733, is currently being advanced in human clinical studies.

Summary of Discussions From the 2019 OECD Conference on RNAi Based Pesticides.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which double-stranded ribonucleic acid (dsRNA) molecules inhibit protein expression. In recent years, the application of dsRNA has been used in the development of agricultural products for pest control. The 2019 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Conference on RNAi Based Pesticides ("the Conference") brought together academic, industry, and government experts in various aspects of RNAi to discuss the current state of knowledge and topics to help in developing considerations for risk assessment.

Innovation and the regulation of products of agricultural biotechnology in the United States of America.

The policy of the United States government is to seek regulatory approaches, consistent with applicable laws, that protect health and the environment while reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens and avoiding unjustifiably inhibiting innovation, stigmatizing new technologies, or creating unnecessary trade barriers [Adapted from the National Strategy for Modernizing the Regulatory System for Biotechnology Products, Product of the Emerging Technologies Interagency Policy Coordination Committee's Biotechnology Working Group (OSTP 2016)]. U.S.

Preventing Egregious Ethical Violations in Medical Practice: Evidence-Informed Recommendations from a Multidisciplinary Working Group.

This article reports the consensus recommendations of a working group that was convened at the end of a 4-year research project funded by the National Institutes of Health that examined 280 cases of egregious ethical violations in medical practice. The group reviewed data from the parent project, as well as other research on sexual abuse of patients, criminal prescribing of controlled substances, and unnecessary invasive procedures that were prosecuted as fraud. The working group embraced the goals of making such violations significantly less frequent and, when they do occur, identifying them sooner and taking necessary steps to ensure they are not repeated.

ALS-associated mutant FUS induces selective motor neuron degeneration through toxic gain of function.

Mutations in FUS cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), including some of the most aggressive, juvenile-onset forms of the disease. FUS loss-of-function and toxic gain-of-function mechanisms have been proposed to explain how mutant FUS leads to motor neuron degeneration, but neither has been firmly established in the pathogenesis of ALS. Here we characterize a series of transgenic FUS mouse lines that manifest progressive, mutant-dependent motor neuron degeneration preceded by early, structural and functional abnormalities at the neuromuscular junction.

Improving the Quality of Radiation Treatment for Patients in Ontario: Increasing Peer Review Activities on a Jurisdictional Level Using a Change Management Approach.

Purpose: Peer review of radiation treatment (RT) plans is a key component of quality assurance programs in radiation medicine. A 2011 current state assessment identified considerable variation in the percentage of RT plans peer reviewed across Ontario's 14 cancer centers.In response, Cancer Care Ontario launched an initiative to increase peer review of plans for patients receiving radical intent RT.

The Symptoms of Trauma Scale (SOTS): An Initial Psychometric Study.

The Symptoms of Trauma Scale (SOTS) is a 12-item, interview-based, clinician-rated measure that assesses the severity of a range of trauma-related symptoms. This pilot study evaluated its use and psychometric properties in an outpatient setting that provides treatment to survivors of chronic interpersonal trauma. Thirty participants completed self-report measures of posttraumatic stress symptoms, depression, dissociation, self-esteem, and affect dysregulation; the participants also participated separately in a semistructured interview based on the SOTS conducted by 2 trained interviewers.

Skin/nail infections with the addition of pertuzumab to trastuzumab-based chemotherapy.

We report a series of breast cancer patients with invasive skin and nail infections with Staphylococcus species that we attribute to the addition of pertuzumab to trastuzumab-based therapy. With the suspicion of an increased incidence of cutaneous infection in patients treated with pertuzumab and trastuzumab-based chemotherapy, treating medical oncologists identified patients receiving therapy who experienced infection. Between March and October 2014, 18 patients treated with pertuzumab and trastuzumab-based chemotherapy were found to have 21 separate skin/nail infections.

A multi-site single-blind clinical study to compare the effects of STAIR Narrative Therapy to treatment as usual among women with PTSD in public sector mental health settings: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: This article provides a description of the rationale, design, and methods of a multisite clinical trial which evaluates the potential benefits of an evidence-based psychosocial treatment, STAIR Narrative Therapy, among women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to interpersonal violence who are seeking services in public sector community mental health clinics. This is the first large multisite trial of an evidence-based treatment for PTSD provided in the context of community settings that are dedicated to the treatment of poverty-level patient populations.

Methods: The study is enrolling 352 participants in a minimum of 4 community clinics.

Aberrant DNA methylation in ES cells.

Both mouse and human embryonic stem cells can be differentiated in vitro to produce a variety of somatic cell types. Using a new developmental tracing approach, we show that these cells are subject to massive aberrant CpG island de novo methylation that is exacerbated by differentiation in vitro. Bioinformatics analysis indicates that there are two distinct forms of abnormal de novo methylation, global as opposed to targeted, and in each case the resulting pattern is determined by molecular rules correlated with local pre-existing histone modification profiles.

Improving the use of intravenous bisphosphonates in women with breast cancer metastatic to bone.

The City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center has a long commitment to the creation of and adherence to treatment guidelines. The NCCN Opportunities for Improvement project provided the institution with a report card for adherence to the NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for Breast Cancer and the opportunity to determine reasons for nonconcurrence and improve concurrence rates. The institution focused on improving compliance with the use of intravenous bisphosphonates in women with metastatic bone disease.

Steroid-sensitive gene 1 is a novel cyclic GMP-dependent protein kinase I substrate in vascular smooth muscle cells.

NO, via its second messenger cGMP, activates protein kinase GI (PKGI) to induce vascular smooth muscle cell relaxation. The mechanisms by which PKGI kinase activity regulates cardiovascular function remain incompletely understood. Therefore, to identify novel protein kinase G substrates in vascular cells, a λ phage coronary artery smooth muscle cell library was constructed and screened for phosphorylation by PKGI.

Mutation of the protein kinase I alpha leucine zipper domain produces hypertension and progressive left ventricular hypertrophy: a novel mouse model of age-dependent hypertensive heart disease.

Hypertensive heart disease causes significant mortality in older patients, yet there is an incomplete understanding of molecular mechanisms that regulate age-dependent hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that the cGMP-dependent protein kinase G I alpha (PKGIα) attenuates hypertensive LVH by evaluating the cardiac phenotype in mice with selective mutations of the PKGIα leucine zipper domain. These leucine zipper mutant (LZM) mice develop basal hypertension.

Enhancing quality improvements in cancer care through CME activities at a nationally recognized cancer center.

Changing healthcare policy will undoubtedly affect the healthcare environment in which providers function. The current Fee for Service reimbursement model will be replaced by Value-Based Purchasing, where higher quality and more efficient care will be emphasized. Because of this, large healthcare organizations and individual providers must adapt to incorporate performance outcomes into patient care.