Objectives: In 2016, Dallas Nephrology Associates recognized that the economic, humanistic, and societal burden of end-stage kidney disease was unsustainable and the fee-for-service model of reimbursement did not support a value-based care approach. We decided to be proactive by creating new workflows, education, and disease management so that patients could make well-informed choices, ultimately resulting in better outcomes.
Methods: Our shift toward value-based care focused on patient engagement, education, integrated infrastructure, collaboration, and monitoring of metrics associated with improved outcomes.
Many communities in southwestern Madagascar rely on a mix of foraging, fishing, farming, and herding, with cattle central to local cultures, rituals, and intergenerational wealth transfer. Today these livelihoods are critically threatened by the intensifying effects of climate change and biodiversity loss. Improved understanding of ancient community-environment dynamics can help identify pathways to livelihood sustainability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPer- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of synthetic chemicals known for their widespread presence and environmental persistence. Carbon-fluorine (C-F) bonds are major components among PFAS and among the strongest organic bonds, thus destroying PFAS may present significant challenge. Thermal treatment such as incineration is an effective and approved method for destroying many halogenated organic chemicals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLandfills manage materials containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from municipal solid waste (MSW) and other waste streams. This manuscript summarizes state and federal initiatives and critically reviews peer-reviewed literature to define best practices for managing these wastes and identify data gaps to guide future research. The objective is to inform stakeholders about waste-derived PFAS disposed of in landfills, PFAS emissions, and the potential for related environmental impacts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: TEEN HEED (Help Educate to Eliminate Diabetes) is a community-based youth participatory action research (YPAR) study in which prediabetic adolescents from a predominantly low-income, non-white neighborhood in New York City participated in a peer-led diabetes prevention intervention. The aim of the current analysis is to evaluate the TEEN HEED program through examination of multiple stakeholder perspectives to identify strengths and areas for improvement that may inform other YPAR projects.
Methods: We conducted 44 individual in-depth interviews with representatives from six stakeholder groups (study participants, peer leaders, study interns and coordinators, and younger and older community action board members).
Madagascar's unique biota is heavily affected by human activity and is under intense threat. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the conservation status of Madagascar's terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by presenting data and analyses on documented and predicted species-level conservation statuses, the most prevalent and relevant threats, ex situ collections and programs, and the coverage and comprehensiveness of protected areas. The existing terrestrial protected area network in Madagascar covers 10.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe feeding-related hormone, acyl-ghrelin, protects dopamine neurones in murine 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1, 2, 3, 6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-based models of experimental Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the potential protective effect of acyl-ghrelin on substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) dopaminergic neurones and consequent behavioural correlates in the more widely used 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) rat medial forebrain bundle (MFB) lesion model of PD are unknown. To address this question, acyl-ghrelin levels were raised directly by mini-pump infusion for 7 days prior to unilateral injection of 6-OHDA into the MFB with assessment of amphetamine-induced rotations on days 27 and 35, and immunohistochemical analysis of dopaminergic neurone survival.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patient engagement (PE) is critical to improving patient experience and outcomes, as well as clinician work life and lowering health care costs, yet health care organizations (HCOs) have limited guidance about how to support PE. The engagement capacity framework considers the context of engagement and examines precursors to engagement, including patients' self-efficacy, resources, willingness, and capabilities.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to explore clinician and patient perspectives related to mechanisms through with the HCOs can facilitate PE through the lens of the engagement capacity framework.
Kratom (, Korth.) is an evergreen tree that is indigenous to Southeast Asia. When ingested, kratom leaves or decoctions from the leaves have been reported to produce complex stimulant and opioid-like effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn the 12,000 years preceding the Industrial Revolution, human activities led to significant changes in land cover, plant and animal distributions, surface hydrology, and biochemical cycles. Earth system models suggest that this anthropogenic land cover change influenced regional and global climate. However, the representation of past land use in earth system models is currently oversimplified.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe health benefits of the natural polyphenol trans-resveratrol may play an important role in preventing a variety of diseases. Resveratrol has been shown to reduce blood pressure and improve metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity. Our previous studies examined the role of K channels in the vasorelaxation responses to trans-resveratrol in the rat tail artery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrodroplets have received increasing interest as practical platforms for high-throughput biochemical analysis. Typically, numerous discrete aqueous microdroplets containing biochemical targets are generated in a continuous oil phase and characterized using a flow-through configuration. Although this approach is capable of extremely high throughput, it is challenging to provide dynamic characterization of time-dependent reaction kinetics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) uncommonly metastasises to the heart. We present a case of new onset bilateral leg swelling and suspected right heart failure in a previously fit and healthy man, which on further investigation revealed a new diagnosis of HCC with extension into the inferior vena cava and right atrium. This case highlights the importance of considering alternative possibilities when physical examination does not match the initial clinical diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is a good indicator species for environmental contaminants because it does not migrate and its range covers a diversity of habitats, including metropolitan Atlanta, GA and the geographically isolated Hawaiian Islands. In addition, the cardinal is often found near people's homes, making it likely to be exposed to the same outdoor elements, including soil, groundwater, and air, that surrounding humans experience. In this study, blood serum concentrations of 12 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) were measured in 40 cardinals from Atlanta and 17 cardinals from the Big Island (Hawaii), HI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVascular reactivity was evaluated in three separate arteries isolated from rats after angiotensin II (Ang II) was infused chronically in two separate experiments, one using a 14-day high, slow-pressor dose known to produce hypertension and the other using a 7-day low, subpressor but hypertensive-sensitizing dose. There were three new findings. First, there was no evidence of altered vascular reactivity in resistance arteries that might otherwise explain the hypertension due to the high Ang II or the hypertensive-sensitizing effect of the low Ang II dose.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Urbanization has challenged many humanitarian practices given the complexity of cities. Urban humanitarian crises have similarly made identifying vulnerable populations difficult. As humanitarians respond to cities with chronic deficiencies in basic needs stressed by a crisis, identifying and prioritizing the most in need populations with finite resources is critical.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlob Chang Biol
November 2017
Land use for animal production influences the earth system in a variety of ways, including local-scale modification to biodiversity, soils, and nutrient cycling; regional changes in albedo and hydrology; and global-scale changes in greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations. Pasture is furthermore the single most extensive form of land cover, currently comprising about 22-26% of the earth's ice-free land surface. Despite the importance and variable expressions of animal production, distinctions among different systems are effectively absent from studies of land use and land cover change.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Smooth Muscle Res
December 2016
Our aims were to determine 1) if resveratrol's vasorelaxant action is greater in the distal (resistance) versus proximal (conductance) portion of the rat tail artery, and 2) if it can be blocked by agents known to block different potassium (K) channels in arterial smooth muscle. We found that its half-maximally effective concentration values were essentially identical (25 ± 3 versus 27 ± 3 μM) for relaxing adrenergically-precontracted rings prepared from distal versus proximal tissues. This does not confirm a previous report of greater relaxation in resistance versus conductance arteries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Smooth Muscle Res
December 2015
Type 2 diabetic men commonly experience erectile dysfunction for which phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitors like sildenafil (Viagra) are often recommended. By preventing degradation of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) in vascular smooth muscle, these inhibitors also enhance arterial vasorelaxant effects of nitric oxide donors (which stimulate cGMP synthesis). In the present work, we confirmed this enhancing effect after co-administration of sildenafil with nitroprusside to freshly-isolated rat tail arterial tissues.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Endoparasites with complex life cycles are faced with several biological challenges, as they need to occupy various ecological niches throughout their development. Host phenotypes that increase the parasite's transmission rate to the next host have been extensively described, but few mechanistic explanations have been proposed to describe their proximate causes. In this study we explore the possibility that host phenotypic changes are triggered by the production of mimicry proteins from the parasite by using an ecological model system consisting of the infection of the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) by the cestode Schistocephalus solidus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConsiderable concern has been raised regarding research reproducibility both within and outside the scientific community. Several factors possibly contribute to a lack of reproducibility, including a failure to adequately employ statistical considerations during study design, bias in sample selection or subject recruitment, errors in developing data inclusion/exclusion criteria, and flawed statistical analysis. To address some of these issues, several publishers have developed checklists that authors must complete.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNatural hybridization plays a key role in the process of speciation. However, anthropogenic (human induced) hybridization of historically isolated taxa raises conservation issues. Due to weak barriers to gene flow and the presence of endangered taxa, the whitefish species complex is an excellent study system to investigate the consequences of hybridization in conservation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program is an ambitious multibillion dollar initiative sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) organized around the mission of facilitating the improved quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of translational health sciences research across the country. Although the NIH explicitly requires internal evaluation, funded CTSA institutions are given wide latitude to choose the structure and methods for evaluating their local CTSA program. The National Evaluators Survey was developed by a peer-led group of local CTSA evaluators as a voluntary effort to understand emerging differences and commonalities in evaluation teams and techniques across the 61 CTSA institutions funded nationwide.
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