Cluster-randomized trial comparing organizationally tailored versus standard approach for integrating an evidence-based cancer control intervention into African American churches.

The field of implementation science has devoted increasing attention to optimizing the fit of evidence-based interventions to the organizational settings in which they are delivered. Institutionalization of health promotion into routine organizational operations is one way to achieve this. However, less is known about how to maximize fit and achieve institutionalization, particularly in settings outside of the healthcare system.

An Approach to Adapting a Community-Based Cancer Control Intervention to Organizational Context.

There has been increasing attention in implementation science to optimizing the fit of evidence-based interventions to the organizational settings where they are delivered. However, less is known about how to maximize intervention-context fit, particularly in community-based settings. We describe a new strategy to customize evidence-based health promotion interventions to community sites.

Can Women Facilitate Men's Prostate Cancer Screening Informed Decision-Making? The M-PACT Trial.

The M-PACT study compared an all-male with a mixed-sex intervention to increase informed decision-making for prostate cancer screening among African-American men in church settings. We recruited 262 men in 18 churches randomized to the two intervention approaches. Trained and certified lay peer community health advisors in each church led a series of four men's health workshops on informed decision-making for prostate cancer screening.

Recruitment and Participation of African American Men in Church-Based Health Promotion Workshops.

Health promotion interventions in African American communities are frequently delivered in church settings. The Men's Prostate Awareness Church Training (M-PACT) intervention aimed to increase informed decision making for prostate cancer screening among African American men through their churches. Given the significant proportion and role of women in African American churches, the M-PACT study examined whether including women in the intervention approach would have an effect on study outcomes compared with a men-only approach.

Informed Decision-Making and Satisfaction with a Church-Based Men's Health Workshop Series for African-American Men: Men-Only vs. Mixed-Gender Format.

Prostate cancer incidence and mortality are highest among African-American men, and coupled with the controversy around routine prostate cancer screening, reaching African-American men with interventions to help them make an informed decision about whether or not to be screened is critical. This study compares two approaches to delivering a church-based peer community health advisor intervention consisting of a series of four men's health workshops on informed decision-making for prostate cancer screening. In the men-only group, male community health advisors teach group workshops consisting only of men.

Development of the men's prostate awareness church training: church-based workshops for African American men.

This article describes the development of a spiritually based intervention to increase informed decision making for prostate cancer screening through African American churches. The intervention used spiritually themed health messages, incorporated women as supportive health partners, and included a health information technology component. The Men's Prostate Awareness Church Training Project followed a community-based participatory research process to develop educational materials, and training for 40 community health advisors to implement the 4-part prostate health workshop series that will be implemented in 20 churches.

A comparison of blow fly (Diptera: Calliphoridae) and beetle (Coleoptera) activity on refrigerated only versus frozen-thawed pig carcasses in Indiana.

To have large numbers of replicates in forensic entomology research, it is often necessary to freeze carcasses and thaw them before use in experiments. Research on the effects of freezing on decomposition is minimal in the literature and the effect that it has on insect (e.g.

Tumor-induced osteomalacia: lessons learned.

Tumor-induced osteomalacia is a rare acquired metabolic disorder characterized by hypophosphatemia and inappropriately low serum levels of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. Symptoms include chronic muscle and bone pain, weakness, and fatigue in association with a high risk of fragility fractures due to osteomalacia. The diagnosis is commonly delayed for years due to the nonspecific nature of the presenting symptoms, failure to include determination of serum phosphorus levels in blood chemistry testing, and difficulty in identifying the responsible tumor.

Predominance of T cells in the lymphocytic infiltrates of synovial tissues in rheumatoid arthritis.

Synovial tissues from 5 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were examined immunofluorescence microscopy for the presence of lymphocytes with either bone marrow-derived (B) or thymus-derived (T) surface markers. Five synovial tissues with severe to mild lymphocytic infiltrations by bright field microscopy were examined in parallel with immunofluorescence. B cells were identified with a pepsin-digested fluoresceinated anti-F (ab')2 antiserum and T cells were detected with a specific rabbit and anti-T lymphocyte antiserum.

Autoimmune disease etiology--a perplexing paradox or a turning leaf?

Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, or scleroderma have been considered to represent disorders associated with reaction of the patient's own immune system against self-antigens or body systems. In many such disorders, tissues involved show lesions or morphology indicating destructive inflammatory or reactive features clearly produced by or associated with cell-mediated or antibody-driven reactions of the patient against his own tissues. After an exhaustive search which has stretched back in time for at least the last five decades, we seem to understand how the immune system works better than previously.

Studies of serum C-reactive protein in systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: To examine the relationship of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) levels to other indicators of disease activity during the course of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Methods: In 124 patients serum CRP was measured retrospectively by ELISA and in some instances by radial immunodiffusion. Serum CRP levels were compared to laboratory, clinical, and radiographic assessments of disease activity.

Gene knockout of glycine transporter 1: characterization of the behavioral phenotype.

N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) activation requires both the binding of glutamate to its recognition site and occupancy of the strychnine insensitive glycine modulatory site (GMS). Pharmacological studies suggest that the glycine transporter, GlyT1, maintains subsaturating concentrations of glycine at synaptic NMDARs. To characterize further the role of GlyT1, we generated mice in which the gene encoding GlyT1 was inactivated by homologous recombination through insertion of a PGK-Neo cassette in place of exons 2 and 3.

Antibodies to microtubule-associated protein 2 in patients with neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus.

Objective: Microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP-2), a cellular protein restricted to neurons, is important in the control of cytoskeletal integrity and other neuronal functions. We undertook this study to examine the presence of autoantibodies to MAP-2 in neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE).

Methods: Sera from 100 patients with SLE, 74 patients with other neurologic disorders and injuries (including cerebrovascular accidents, brain trauma, brain tumors, and demyelinating disorders), and 60 normal controls were examined both by enzyme immunoassays and by Western immunoblotting for autoantibodies to MAP-2.

Valproate attenuates hyperactive and perseverative behaviors in mutant mice with a dysregulated dopamine system.

Background: Dopamine transporter (DAT) knockdown (KD) mice, with approximately 90% loss of expression of the DAT, allow for the examination of the behavioral consequences of a chronically dysregulated dopamine system. The DAT KD mice have hyperdopaminergic tone, are hyperactive, and show impaired response inhibition in a number of paradigms. We hypothesized that the DAT KD mice would also display deficits in prepulse inhibition (PPI) and would be perseverative in their locomotor behavior.

Dopamine D1 rather than D2 receptor agonists disrupt prepulse inhibition of startle in mice.

Although substantial literature describes the modulation of prepulse inhibition (PPI) by dopamine (DA) in rats, few reports address the effects of dopaminergic manipulations on PPI in mice. We characterized the effects of subtype-specific DA agonists in the PPI paradigm to further delineate the specific influences of each DA receptor subtype on sensorimotor gating in mice. The mixed D1/D2 agonist apomorphine and the preferential D1-family agonists SKF82958 and dihydrexidine significantly disrupted PPI, with differing or no effects on startle.

Differential effects of direct and indirect dopamine agonists on prepulse inhibition: a study in D1 and D2 receptor knock-out mice.

Stimulation of the dopamine (DA) system disrupts prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response. On the basis of rat studies, it appeared that DA D2 receptors (D2Rs) rather than D1 receptors (D1Rs) regulate PPI, albeit possibly in synergism with D1Rs. To characterize the DA receptor modulation of PPI in another species, we tested DA D1R and D2R mutant mice with direct and indirect DA agonists and with the glutamate receptor antagonist, dizocilpine (MK-801).

Neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus presenting as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

A 61-year-old woman with a history of photosensitive dermatitis and recurrent mouth ulcers presented with progressive weakness typical of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and subsequently underwent extensive neurologic and rheumatologic testing. We investigated whether ALS-like motor neuron disease associated with a positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) is really ALS or rather neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE). On neurologic evaluation, she had prominent bulbar involvement with dysarthria and dysphagia associated with profound lingual fasciculations and a denervating pattern on electromyogram.

Isoschizomers of the restriction endonuclease TaqI (T/CGA) requiring different metal ion concentrations and having a range of thermal stabilities from Thermus species from different continents.

One-hundred-and-fifty-two isolates of the genus Thermus, collected from hot springs on four continents, were screened for evidence of the presence of the thermophilic Type II restriction endonuclease TaqI (T/CGA). The presence of isoschizomers of TaqI in 27 of the isolates, originating from hot springs in New Zealand, Iceland, USA, Japan, mainland Portugal and the island of São Miguel in the Azores, is reported. Six of the TaqI-containing isolates from diverse geographical locations, identified by means of DNA/DNA homology and 16S rRNA sequence alignment as belonging to the Thermus species T.