Helping Educators Learn Pediatric Pain Assessment and Intervention Needs Program (HELP PAIN): Program Development with Community Partners.

Background/objectives: This paper details the development of the Helping Educators Learn Pediatric Pain Assessment and Intervention Needs (HELP PAIN) program.

Methods: HELP PAIN is an 8 h live training program for school providers (e.g.

The Impact of a Brief Educational Seminar on Pediatric Pain-focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for School Providers.

Objectives: Pediatric chronic pain is common and can be detrimental to children's social, emotional, and school functioning. Nonpharmacological approaches to chronic pain, like cognitive- behavioral therapy (CBT), can be effective. Schools could provide children with chronic pain access to these interventions.

ComPACT (Competency-Based Peer-Assisted Coaching and Tutoring): A Proposed Curricular Framework for Near-Peer Tutoring in Medical Education.

Near-peer tutoring (NPT) programs greatly prepare tutors for future teaching roles. However, without a comprehensive curricular framework, institutions may not adequately track the knowledge and skills tutors gain from these programs. We propose a competency-based peer-assisted coaching and tutoring (ComPACT) framework that captures tutors' progression as educators and supports their training through a community of practice.

A Proposed Cost-Benefit Analysis of Adult EFNEP Utilizing Biomarkers of Chronic Disease Risk.

Objective: To assess whether the adult Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is a cost-effective intervention that generates sustained improvement in biomarkers of chronic disease risk.

Design: A longitudinal quasi-experimental design with 2 parallel arms (untreated comparison vs EFNEP) and 4 waves of data collection (pretest, posttest, 6 months, and 12 months after completion).

Setting: Eligible adult EFNEP community settings in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, and Washington.

Gene expression asymmetry in Parkinson's Disease; variation of and gene expression levels are correlated with hemisphere specific severity.

Parkinson's Disease (PD) develops unilaterally, which may be related to brain hemispheric differences in gene expression. Here we measured bulk RNA-seq levels in neuronal nuclei obtained from prefrontal cortex postmortem brain samples from males and females with PD and from healthy controls. Left and right hemispheres from each brain were related the side of symptom onset and compared.

Parkinson's disease risk enhancers in microglia.

Genome-wide association studies have identified thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms that associate with increased risk for Parkinson's disease (PD), but the functions of most of them are unknown. Using assay for transposase-accessible chromatin (ATAC) and H3K27ac chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) sequencing data, we identified 73 regulatory elements in microglia that overlap PD risk SNPs. To determine the target genes of a "risk enhancer" within intron two of , we used CRISPR-Cas9 to delete the open chromatin region where two PD risk SNPs reside.

DNA strand asymmetry generated by CpG hemimethylation has opposing effects on CTCF binding.

CpG methylation generally occurs on both DNA strands and is essential for mammalian development and differentiation. Until recently, hemimethylation, in which only one strand is methylated, was considered to be simply a transitory state generated during DNA synthesis. The discovery that a subset of CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) binding sites is heritably hemimethylated suggests that hemimethylation might have an unknown biological function.

The Parkinson's disease variant rs356182 regulates neuronal differentiation independently from alpha-synuclein.

One of the most significant risk variants for Parkinson's disease (PD), rs356182, is located at the PD-associated locus near the alpha-synuclein (α-syn) encoding gene, SNCA. SNCA-proximal variants, including rs356182, are thought to function in PD risk through enhancers via allele-specific regulatory effects on SNCA expression. However, this interpretation discounts the complex activity of genetic enhancers and possible non-conical functions of α-syn.

Alpha-synuclein negatively controls cell proliferation in dopaminergic neurons.

As researchers grapple with the mechanisms and implications of alpha-synuclein (α-syn) in neuropathology, it is often forgotten that the function(s) of α-syn in healthy cells remain largely elusive. Previous work has relied on observing α-syn localization in the cell or using knockout mouse models. Here, we address the specific role of α-syn in human dopaminergic neurons by disrupting its gene (SNCA) in the human dopaminergic neuron cell line, LUHMES.

Post-GWAS knowledge gap: the how, where, and when.

Genetic risk for complex diseases very rarely reflects only Mendelian-inherited phenotypes where single-gene mutations can be followed in families by linkage analysis. More commonly, a large set of low-penetrance, small effect-size variants combine to confer risk; they are normally revealed in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), which compare large population groups. Whereas Mendelian inheritance points toward disease mechanisms arising from the mutated genes, in the case of GWAS signals, the effector proteins and even general risk mechanism are mostly unknown.

Changing the Criminal Justice System Response to Sexual Assault: An Empirical Study of a Participatory Action Research Project.

In jurisdictions throughout the United States, thousands of sexual assault kits (SAKs; also known as a "rape kits") have not been submitted by the police for forensic DNA testing. DNA evidence may be helpful to sexual assault investigations and prosecutions by identifying perpetrators, revealing serial offenders through DNA matches across cases, and exonerating those who have been wrongly accused. This paper describes a longitudinal action research project conducted in Detroit, Michigan after that city discovered approximately 11,000 untested sexual assault kits in a police department storage facility.

Prospects for predictive modeling of transition cow diseases.

Transition cow diseases can negatively impact animal welfare and reduce dairy herd profitability. Transition cow disease incidence has remained relatively stable over time despite monitoring and management efforts aimed to reduce the risk of developing diseases. Dairy cattle disease risk is monitored by assessing multiple factors, including certain biomarker test results, health records, feed intake, body condition score, and milk production.

Microglia affect α-synuclein cell-to-cell transfer in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease.

Background: Cell-to-cell propagation of α-synuclein (α-syn) aggregates is thought to contribute to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD) and underlie the spread of α-syn neuropathology. Increased pro-inflammatory cytokine levels and activated microglia are present in PD and activated microglia can promote α-syn aggregation. However, it is unclear how microglia influence α-syn cell-to-cell transfer.

MCF-7 as a Model for Functional Analysis of Breast Cancer Risk Variants.

Background: Breast cancer genetic predisposition is governed by more than 142 loci as revealed by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). The functional contribution of these risk loci to breast cancer remains unclear, and additional post-GWAS analyses are required.

Methods: We identified active regulatory elements (enhancers, promoters, and chromatin organizing elements) by histone H3K27 acetylation and CTCF occupancy and determined the enrichment of risk variants at these sites.

Predicting physical activity among urban adolescent girls: A test of the health promotion model.

The purpose of this study was to test hypothesized relationships of the health promotion model (HPM) as a means of predicting moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) among urban, adolescent girls. A secondary analysis of baseline data from a group randomized controlled trial was conducted. The study involved eight urban schools in the Midwestern United States.

How to Right a Wrong: Empirically Evaluating Whether Victim, Offender, and Assault Characteristics can Inform Rape Kit Testing Policies.

Hundreds of thousands of previously untested sexual assault kits (SAKs) have been uncovered in police property storage facilities across the United States, representing a national failure in institutional response to sexual assault. Faced with this discovery, jurisdictions must now decide if and how they should test these kits. Some stakeholders have suggested prioritizing kits for testing by victim, offender, or assault characteristics, based on the belief that these characteristics can predict the likely utility of DNA testing.

Parkinson's disease genetic risk in a midbrain neuronal cell line.

In genome-wide association studies of complex diseases, many risk polymorphisms are found to lie in non-coding DNA and likely confer risk through allele-dependent differences in gene regulatory elements. However, because distal regulatory elements can alter gene expression at various distances on linear DNA, the identity of relevant genes is unknown for most risk loci. In Parkinson's disease, at least some genetic risk is likely intrinsic to a neuronal subpopulation of cells in the brain regions affected.

The Five Dimensions of Parkinson's Disease Genetic Risk.

Genome-wide association studies of Parkinson's disease have revealed polymorphic variants associated with closely mapped genes of interest. We propose here that those genes may only represent the tip of an iceberg of regulatory effects and do not necessary reflect disease relevance. To usefully interpret a risk locus, one needs to consider 5 dimensions of information, which represent the three-dimensional structure of chromatin (dimensions #1- 3), which is locally variable across time (dimension #4), and, most importantly, dependent on cell type and context (dimension #5).

Comparing the Psychometric Properties of Two Physical Activity Self-Efficacy Instruments in Urban, Adolescent Girls: Validity, Measurement Invariance, and Reliability.

This study compared the psychometric properties of two self-efficacy instruments related to physical activity. Factorial validity, cross-group and longitudinal invariance, and composite reliability were examined. Secondary analysis was conducted on data from a group randomized controlled trial investigating the effect of a 17-week intervention on increasing moderate to vigorous physical activity among 5th-8th grade girls ( = 1,012).

Feeding Practices and Infant Growth: Quantifying the Effects of Breastfeeding Termination and Complementary Food Introduction on BMI z-Score Growth Velocity through Growth Curve Models.

Background: Infant feeding practices are a focus of early obesity prevention. We tested whether infant growth velocity increased after breastfeeding termination and complementary food introduction.

Methods: Our secondary analysis included a sample of 547 mother-infant dyads from a longitudinal randomized controlled trial conducted in Michigan and Colorado.

Parkinson's disease-associated genetic variation is linked to quantitative expression of inflammatory genes.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have linked dozens of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with Parkinson's disease (PD) risk. Ascertaining the functional and eventual causal mechanisms underlying these relationships has proven difficult. The majority of risk SNPs, and nearby SNPs in linkage disequilibrium (LD), are found in intergenic or intronic regions and confer risk through allele-dependent expression of multiple unknown target genes.

Identifying elder abuse & neglect among family caregiving dyads: A cross sectional study of psychometric properties of the QualCare scale.

Background/objectives: Universal screening for elder abuse and neglect is a current controversy in geriatrics, fueled by the lack of evidence on valid and reliable instruments. Since each U.S.

Forward Head Posture and Activation of Rectus Capitis Posterior Muscles.

Context: Rectus capitis posterior (RCP) muscles have physical attachments to the pain-sensitive spinal dura. Atrophy of these muscles is associated with chronic headache in some patients. The authors suspect that the significance of atrophy in the RCP muscles has been undervalued because the functional role of these muscles is not well defined.

Comparing Standard and Selective Degradation DNA Extraction Methods: Results from a Field Experiment with Sexual Assault Kits.

Unlabelled: A growing number of U.S. cities have large numbers of untested sexual assault kits (SAKs) in police property facilities.

Enrichment of risk SNPs in regulatory regions implicate diverse tissues in Parkinson's disease etiology.

Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of Parkinson's disease (PD) revealed at least 26 risk loci, with associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in non-coding DNA having unknown functions in risk. In order to explore in which cell types these SNPs (and their correlated surrogates at r(2) ≥ 0.8) could alter cellular function, we assessed their location overlap with histone modification regions that indicate transcription regulation in 77 diverse cell types.