Implementation Facilitators and Barriers for Primary Care Providers Prescribing Daily Oral PrEP to Adolescents in the United States.

Primary care providers (PCPs) are critical in prescribing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to adolescents at risk of HIV. More research is needed to identify facilitators and barriers PCPs encounter in prescribing PrEP to eligible adolescents post-Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. This online cross-sectional survey examined the PrEP implementation facilitators and barriers among a national sample of PCPs in the United States.

Olfactory dysfunction in aging and neurodegenerative diseases.

Alterations in olfactory functions are proposed to be early biomarkers for neurodegeneration. Many neurodegenerative diseases are age-related, including two of the most common, Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The establishment of biomarkers that promote early risk identification is critical for the implementation of early treatment to postpone or avert pathological development.

Standardization of Outpatient Procedure (STOP) Narcotics: A Prospective Non-Inferiority Study to Reduce Opioid Use in Outpatient General Surgical Procedures.

Background: There has been a dramatic rise in opioid abuse, and diversion of excess, unused prescriptions is a major contributor. We assess the impact of implementing a new standardized pain care bundle to reduce postoperative opioids in outpatient general surgical procedures.

Study Design: This study was designed to demonstrate non-inferiority for the primary end point: patient-reported average pain in the first 7 postoperative days.

An explanatory framework of teachers' perceptions of a positive mealtime environment in a preschool setting.

Attending a preschool center may help preschoolers with growth and development that encourage a healthy lifestyle, including sound eating behaviors. Providing a positive mealtime environment (PME) may be one of the keys to fostering a child's healthy eating habits in the classroom. However, a specific definition of a PME, the components of a PME, or directions on how to create one have not been established.

Unique presentation of testicular involvement in lymphomatoid granulomatosis.

Background: Lymphomatoid granulomatosis is a rare angiodestructive B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection. It predominantly affects the lungs, skin, liver, kidneys, spleen, and central nervous system. Testicular involvement has never previously been described.

Detection of marine toxins, brevetoxin-3 and saxitoxin, in seawater using neuronal networks.

There is a need for assay systems that can detect known and unanticipated neurotoxins associated with harmful algal blooms. The present work describes our attempt to monitor the presence of brevetoxin-3 (PbTx-3) and saxitoxin (STX) in a seawater matrix using the neuronal network biosensor (NNB). The NNB relies on cultured mammalian neurons grown over microelectrode arrays, where the inherent bioelectrical activity of the network manifested as extracellular action potentials can be monitored noninvasively.

Contrasting effects of insulin and cellular differentiation on expression of the novel insulin receptor substrate APS in skeletal muscle.

The novel insulin receptor substrate protein APS is highly expressed in insulin-sensitive tissues and plays an important role in insulin-mediated glucose uptake and GLUT4 translocation via the Cbl/CAP pathway. Tyrosine phosphorylation of APS leads to recruitment of c-Cbl and Crk, while overexpression of APS mutant inhibits GLUT4 translocation in response to insulin, but the regulation of APS expression in skeletal muscle has not been previously reported. L6 myoblasts were differentiated in 2% FBS and serum starved for 24h prior to stimulation for 24h with either insulin 1 microM (n=6), rosiglitazone 10 microM (n=6), resistin 500 nM (n=6) or the MAP kinase inhibitor PD098059 50 microM (n=6) for 30 min, followed by insulin 1 microM for 24h.

Mucusuria--an unusual manifestation of ileal adenocarcinoma: a case report and review of the literature.

Primary adenocarcinoma of the ileum is an uncommon gastrointestinal malignancy, the symptoms of which are often insidious in onset. This case history highlights the previously unreported finding of ileal adenocarcinoma presenting with mucusuria, caused by local invasion of the bladder in a 44-year-old male. A review of the literature is included to highlight the incidence, risk factors, clinical presentation, investigation, and current management of adenocarcinoma of the small bowel.

Apoptosis and chemotherapy for bladder cancer.

Purpose: We discuss the role of apoptosis, that is gene directed self-destruction of a cell, in the response of bladder transitional cell carcinoma cells to chemotherapy.

Materials And Methods: A directed MEDLINE literature search of apoptosis, bladder cancer and chemotherapy was performed to extract relevant information for review. The characteristics of apoptotic cells were defined and the methods in common use to detect these traits is described.

Cultured neuronal networks as environmental biosensors.

Contamination of water by toxins, either intentionally or unintentionally, is a growing concern for both military and civilian agencies and thus there is a need for systems capable of monitoring a wide range of natural and industrial toxicants. The EILATox-Oregon Workshop held in September 2002 provided an opportunity to test the capabilities of a prototype neuronal network-based biosensor with unknown contaminants in water samples. The biosensor is a portable device capable of recording the action potential activity from a network of mammalian neurons grown on glass microelectrode arrays.

Sensitivity of the neuronal network biosensor to environmental threats.

It is widely acknowledged that there is a critical need for broad-spectrum environmental threat detection. While cells/tissue-based biosensors have been discussed for many years as a means of meeting this critical need, these kinds of systems have met with logistic concerns, in particular with regard to stability. Our group has been working with cultured neuronal networks, which have the capacity to respond to a wide range of neuroactive compounds and are sufficiently robust to be shipped to end users.

Protein kinase C-beta inhibition and diabetic microangiopathy: effects on endothelial permeability responses in vitro.

Protein kinase C (PKC)-beta and other PKC isozymes have been implicated in the loss of endothelial barrier function in diabetic microangiopathy. The effects of a PKC-beta-specific inhibitor, LY379196, on hyperpermeability responses to high-glucose, angiotensin II, alpha-thrombin and endothelin-1 were evaluated using an in vitro model of human pulmonary artery endothelial cell monolayers. LY379196 attenuated the increase in transendothelial albumin flux induced by glucose 40 mM (e.

A portable microelectrode array recording system incorporating cultured neuronal networks for neurotoxin detection.

Cultured neuronal networks, which have the capacity to respond to a wide range of neuroactive compounds, have been suggested to be useful for both screening known analytes and unknown compounds for acute neuropharmacologic effects. Extracellular recording from cultured neuronal networks provides a means for extracting physiologically relevant activity, i.e.

Protein kinase C-epsilon mediates bradykinin-induced cyclooxygenase-2 expression in human airway smooth muscle cells.

We previously reported that proinflammatory mediator bradykinin (BK) induces cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 expression in human airway smooth muscle (HASM), but the mechanism is unknown in any biological system. Here, we studied the role of specific protein kinase C (PKC) isozyme(s) in COX-2 expression. Among the eight PKC isozymes present in HASM cells, the Ca2+-independent PKC-delta and -epsilon and the Ca2+-dependent PKC-alpha and -betaI were translocated to the nucleus upon BK stimulation.

Insulin action in skeletal muscle: isozyme-specific effects of protein kinase C.

Protein kinase C (PKC) is a family of multifunctional isozymes that plays an important role in the regulation of intracellular insulin signal transduction in various insulin-sensitive tissues. This article highlights current understanding on the mechanism of PKC-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle, a major target site for insulin-mediated glucose disposal. Initial, apparently contradictory findings on the role of PKC on insulin action can be explained on the basis that certain PKC isoforms (e.

Exendin-4 increases insulin sensitivity via a PI-3-kinase-dependent mechanism: contrasting effects of GLP-1.

The insulinotropic agent, exendin-4, is a long-acting analogue of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) which improves glucose tolerance in humans and animals with diabetes, but the underlying mechanisms and the effects of exendin-4 on peripheral (muscle/fat) insulin action are unclear. Previous in vivo and clinical studies have been difficult to interpret because of complex, simultaneous changes in insulin and glucagon levels and possible effects on hepatic metabolism. Thus, the comparative effects of exendin-4 and GLP-1 on insulin-stimulated 2-[3H]deoxyglucose (2-DOG) uptake were measured in fully differentiated L6 myotubes and 3T3-adipocytes, including co-incubation with inhibitors of the PI-3-kinase (wortmannin) and mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase (PD098059) pathways.