CD40L-Dependent Pathway Is Active at Various Stages of Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Progression.

The inflammatory CD40-CD40L pathway is implicated in various autoimmune diseases, but the activity status of this pathway in various stages of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) progression is unknown. In this study, we used gene signatures of CD40L stimulation derived from human immature dendritic cells and naive B cells to assess the expression of CD40-downstream genes in synovial tissues from anti-citrullinated protein Ab-positive arthralgia, undifferentiated arthritis (UA), early RA, and established RA cohorts in comparison with healthy donors. Interestingly, the expression of and active full-length was increased in the disease tissues, whereas that of a dominant-negative isoform was decreased.

Impact of the Surgical Research Methodology Program on surgical residents' research profiles.

Objective: To evaluate whether implementing the formal Surgical Research Methodology (SRM) Program in the surgical residency curriculum improved research productivity compared with the preceding informal Research Seminar Series (RSS).

Methods: The SRM Program replaced the RSS in July 2009. In the SRM Program, the curriculum in Year-1 consisted of 12 teaching sessions on the principles of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics, whereas the focus in Year-2 was on the design, conduct, and presentation of a research project.

Designing a process for simulation-based annual nurse competency assessment.

The education council at Orlando Regional Medical Center identified a need to improve the annual nurse competency assessment. A revision process was implemented to improve the method and efficiency of assessing nurse competency. This process included evaluating population-specific competencies using simulation-based scenarios that were developed by a multidisciplinary team.