Utilizing mentorship education to promote a culturally responsive research training environment in the biomedical sciences.

There is an urgent and compelling need for systemic change to achieve diversity and inclusion goals in the biomedical sciences. Because faculty hold great influence in shaping research training environments, faculty development is a key aspect in building institutional capacity to create climates in which persons excluded because of their ethnicity or race (PEERs) can succeed. We present a mixed methods case study of one institution's efforts to improve mentorship of PEER doctoral students through mentorship education workshops for faculty.

A randomized controlled trial of a novel home-based palliative care program: A report of a trial that could not be completed.

Background: In response to a growing need for accessible, efficient, and effective palliative care services, we designed, implemented, and evaluated a novel palliative care at home (PC@H) model for people with serious illness that is centered around a community health worker, a registered nurse, and a social worker, with an advanced practice nurse and a physician for support. Our objectives were to measure the impact of receipt of PC@H on patient symptoms, quality of life, and healthcare utilization and costs.

Methods: We enrolled 136 patients with serious illness in this parallel, randomized controlled trial.

Offshore detention: cross-sectional analysis of the health of children and young people seeking asylum in Australia.

Objective: To describe the health and well-being of children and young people (CYP) seeking asylum subjected to Australia's immigration policy of indefinite mandatory detention on Nauru.

Design: Cross-sectional analysis of a cohort of CYP seeking asylum.

Setting: Australian paediatric clinicians from 10 health services completed detailed health assessments around the time of transfer from Nauru, mostly to Australia.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with obesity: A review of programmes for children and young people aged 5-17 years.

A literature review of overweight and obesity prevention and management programmes for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children 5-17 years to inform a co-design weight management intervention in an urban Aboriginal community. Systematic searching of PubMed, Science Direct, Lowitja LitSearch and hand-searching of references, government and Aboriginal websites. Programmes were categorised as including nutrition and food literacy, cooking skills, health education and cultural components.

Longitudinal Education and Career Outcomes of a Cancer Research Training Program for Underrepresented Students: The Meharry-Vanderbilt-Tennessee State University Cancer Partnership.

This study examined longitudinal education and career outcomes of the Meharry-Vanderbilt-Tennessee State University Cancer Partnership, the longest-running National Cancer Institute (NCI) Comprehensive Partnerships in Advancing Cancer Health Equity (CPACHE) program site in the United States. Degree completion rates were calculated and progression along the entire postsecondary "pipeline" was quantified for 204 participants recruited between 2011 and 2020. For participants who had entered the workforce, career outcomes were also analyzed.

Ethics and governance for a multi-site study in Australia: Navigating the snakes and ladders.

Multi-site research studies are essential if we are to conduct national research across all Australian jurisdictions. There is widespread agreement among clinicians and researchers that obtaining essential approvals to conduct multi-site research studies in Australia can be complex, bureaucratic and time consuming. Although there is inherent value in the review process, resources and months of valuable research time are often expended long before the study has begun.

The use of extensively hydrolysed and amino acid feeds beyond cow's milk allergy: a national survey.

Background: Extensively hydrolysed formulas (EHFs) and amino acid formulas (AAFs) with proven hypoallergenicity are used for children suffering from cow's milk allergy, when breast milk is not available. However, these feeds are often used in other medical conditions where tolerance and absorption of whole protein is affected, frequently without assessment of efficacy. This practice survey assessed the use of these feeds in paediatric conditions other than cow's milk allergy; aiming to describe the population, growth parameters and micronutrient status.

Asylum seeking children and adolescents in Australian immigration detention on Nauru: a longitudinal cohort study.

Introduction: Immigration detention has a profound and negative impact on the physical health, mental health, development and social-emotional well-being of children, adolescents and their families. Australian clinicians will report results from detailed health and well-being assessments of asylum seeking children and adolescents who have experienced prolonged immigration detention.

Methods And Analysis: This is a national, multicentre study with a longitudinal cohort design that will document health and well-being outcomes of the children and adolescents who have been detained in offshore detention on the remote island of Nauru.

Predictors of Discharge Against Medical Advice in a Tertiary Paediatric Hospital.

Background: Patients who discharge against medical advice (DAMA) from hospital carry a significant risk of readmission and have increased rates of morbidity and mortality. We sought to identify the demographic and clinical characteristics of DAMA patients from a tertiary paediatric hospital.

Methods: Data were extracted retrospectively from electronic medical records for all inpatient admissions over a 5-year period.

The GRE over the entire range of scores lacks predictive ability for PhD outcomes in the biomedical sciences.

The association between GRE scores and academic success in graduate programs is currently of national interest. GRE scores are often assumed to be predictive of student success in graduate school. However, we found no such association in admission data from Vanderbilt's Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity (IMSD), which recruited historically underrepresented students for graduate study in the biomedical sciences at Vanderbilt University spanning a wide range of GRE scores.

Hypertension management guidelines update and research on the importance of blood pressure control.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 65 million adults in America have hypertension (HTN) and fewer than half of those 65 million people have their blood pressure (BP) under control. More than 1,000 deaths occur each day related to HTN and Americans are at an increased risk of complications related to uncontrolled BP such as heart failure, stroke, myocardial infarction, and kidney disease (). Data from the National Home and Hospice Survey, which is conducted by the CDC, indicate that 41% of home care patients have HTN ().

Personal Network Characteristics of Youth in Substance Use Treatment: Motivation for and Perceived Difficulty of Positive Network Change.

Background: Among youth in substance use treatment, peer substance use consistently predicts worse treatment outcomes. This study characterized personal (egocentric) networks of treated youth and examined predictors of adolescents' motivation and perceived difficulty in making changes in the peer network to support recovery.

Methods: Adolescents (aged 14-18; N = 155) recruited from substance use treatment reported on substance use severity, motivation to abstain from substance use, abstinence goals such as "temporary abstinence," motivation and perceived difficulty in reducing contact with substance-using peers, and personal network characteristics.

Renal consequences of parenteral nutrition.

Parenteral nutrition (PN) can be described as the "Intravenous administration of nutrients necessary to sustain life in those who would otherwise have died or suffered serious disease". PN is indicated in children who cannot be fully fed by the oral or intestinal route, usually as a result of intestinal failure. Intradialytic parenteral nutrition (IDPN) is rarely indicated in children on dialysis and does not confer a benefit over enteral supplements in the compliant patient with adequate intestinal function.

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy.

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding.

Cells expressing the C/EBPbeta isoform, LIP, engulf their neighbors.

Descriptions of various processes that lead to cell-in-cell structures have been reported for decades. The exact molecular mechanism(s) of their formation and the physiological significance of cell-in-cell structures remain poorly understood. We had previously shown that an isoform of the CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta (C/EBPbeta) transcription factor, liver-enriched inhibitory protein (LIP), induces cell death in human breast cancer cells and stimulates autophagy.

Negative regulation of C/EBPbeta1 by sumoylation in breast cancer cells.

Sumoylation is a post-translational modification that is oftentimes deregulated in diseases such as cancer. Transcription factors are frequent targets of sumoylation and modification by SUMO can affect subcellular localization, transcriptional activity, and stability of the target protein. C/EBPbeta1 is one such transcription factor that is modified by SUMO-2/3.

C/EBPβ's role in determining Ras-induced senescence or transformation.

Introduction of activated Ras into normal cells leads to senescence, a tumor suppressive mechanism, whereas expression of this oncogene in many immortalized cell lines leads to transformation. Studying the signaling differences in cells that undergo Ras-induced senescence versus Ras transformation may shed light on potential therapeutic targets in the treatment of cancer. C/EBPβ is a transcription factor necessary for both Ras-induced senescence and Ras transformation.

Genomic profiling of C/EBPβ2 transformed mammary epithelial cells: a role for nuclear interleukin-1β.

C/EBPβ is essential for mammary gland growth and development and has been associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer. Overexpression of C/EBPβ2 in MCF10A cells results in a variety of cancer phenotypes including EMT and ErbB independence. IL1β is dramatically upregulated in MCF10A-C/EBPβ2 cells but there is little, if any, processing to the mature 17 kD form.

Regulation of C/EBPbeta1 by Ras in mammary epithelial cells and the role of C/EBPbeta1 in oncogene-induced senescence.

Overexpression of Ras(V12) in MCF10A cells, an immortalized mammary epithelial cell line, leads to transformation of these cells. We demonstrate that this is accompanied by degradation of C/EBPbeta1. C/EBPbeta is a transcription factor in which three protein isoforms exist because of alternative translation at three in-frame methionines.

The C/EBPbeta isoform, liver-inhibitory protein (LIP), induces autophagy in breast cancer cell lines.

Autophagy is a process involving the bulk degradation of cellular components in the cytoplasm via the lysosomal degradation pathway. Autophagy manifests a protective role in stressful conditions such as nutrient or growth factor depletion; however, extensive degradation of regulatory molecules or organelles essential for survival can lead to the demise of the cell, or autophagy-mediated cell death. The role of autophagy in cancer is complex with roles in both tumor suppression and tumor promotion proposed.

C/EBPbeta-2 confers EGF-independent growth and disrupts the normal acinar architecture of human mammary epithelial cells.

Background: The transcription factor, C/EBPbeta, is a key regulator of growth and differentiation in the mammary gland. There are three different protein isoforms of C/EBPbeta. C/EBPbeta-1 and -2 are transactivators, and differ by only 23 N-terminal amino acids present in beta-1 only.

Regulation of BRCA2 gene expression by the SLUG repressor protein in human breast cells.

The expression of the breast cancer susceptibility protein BRCA2 is highly regulated in human breast, ovary, and pancreatic cells. BRCA2 is not expressed in the non-dividing cells, and expression is cell cycle stage-dependent and is elevated in the sporadic cancer cells. Mutational analysis of the upstream sequence of the human BRCA2 gene revealed an E2-box-containing silencer at the -701 to -921 position.

Modification of CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-beta by the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) family members, SUMO-2 and SUMO-3.

CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-beta (C/EBP beta) activator isoforms, C/EBP beta-1 and C/EBP beta-2, differ by only 23 amino acids in the human; however, evidence is accumulating that these transcription factors are functionally distinct. Here we demonstrate that C/EBP beta-1, but not C/EBP beta-2, is conjugated to the small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) family members, SUMO-2 and SUMO-3 despite the fact that the SUMO target consensus is present in both isoforms of this transcription factor. This conjugation is dependent on the integrity of the extreme N terminus of C/EBP beta-1 and requires lysine 173 in the human protein.