Lack of variations in the salamander chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans, at its alleged origin: Updating its Japanese distribution with new evidence.

The chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans [Bsal] is causing declines in the amphibian populations. After a decade of mapping the pathogen in Europe, where it is causing dramatic outbreaks, and North America, where its arrival would affect to the salamander's biodiversity hotspot, little is known about its current status in Asia, from presumably is native. Japan has several species considered as potential carriers, but no regulation is implemented against Bsal spreading.

Validating the Communicating Care Needs Tool for HIV (CCNT-HIV).

Health literacy has been identified as an influential factor affecting the HIV care continuum and HIV epidemic, but recent systematic reviews found mixed relationships between health literacy and HIV medication adherence. This may be partially due to discrepancies between health literacy conceptualizations, health literacy measures, and the lifeworld, day-to-day challenges that persons with HIV (PWH) face as they seek and receive care. To address these challenges, a new health literacy tool, Communicating Care Needs Tool for HIV (CCNT-HIV), was developed.

Simple production of resilin-like protein hydrogels using the Brevibacillus secretory expression system and column-free purification.

Resilin, an insect structural protein, has excellent flexibility, photocrosslinking properties, and temperature responsiveness. Recombinant resilin-like proteins (RLPs) can be fabricated into three-dimensional (3D) structures for use as cell culture substrates and highly elastic materials. A simplified, high-yielding production process for RLPs is required for their widespread application.

Immediate Glucose-Lowering Effect After the First Administration of Dulaglutide: A Retrospective, Single-Center, Observational Study.

Introduction: Dulaglutide is a long-acting glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist that is administered once weekly for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. However, the immediate glucose-lowering effect of dulaglutide after the first administration and the factors affecting the efficacy of the drug remain unclear.

Methods: This study was a retrospective and observational study of 80 subjects with type 2 diabetes conducted in a hospitalized setting.

Health Literacy and Health Communication Training for Underserved Patients and Informal Family Caregivers.

Communication training effectiveness for health care providers has been well documented, however patient and caregiver training may present a prime opportunity to mitigate communication challenges that provider-only training cannot. The aim of this study is to describe the multi-step process of adapting a national, provider, health communication training program (COMFORT) for use with underserved patients and caregivers who (1) are not regular consumers within health care systems and/or (2) do not have ready access to providers. We examine three iterations of training feedback for implementation in future training.

Projection range of eDNA analysis in marshes: a suggestion from the Siberian salamander () inhabiting the Kushiro marsh, Japan.

Background: Freshwater ecosystems are rapidly declining. The Siberian salamander () which inhabits the Kushiro marsh in Hokkaido, Japan has lost some habitat due to human activity. There are many challenges associated with conventional monitoring methods, including cost, the need for specialist personnel, environmental impact, and ability to detect the presence of this species; thus, we investigated the feasibility of using environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis to detect its presence and identify its breeding grounds.

Promoting Transformative Community Change for Equitable Health: Peer Education and Intervention for Pre-Exposure HIV Prophylaxis.

Many new HIV infections occur through individuals who are unaware of their HIV status. HIV disparities are more prevalent among underserved populations, and the number of new cases in the U.S.

A student-driven HIV/PrEP communication intervention using a modified social network strategy.

Objective: The authors examined college students' experiences of providing peer-education, using the modified Social Network Strategy (SNS).

Participants: Ninety-six college students participated this project during the 2018 academic year, drawn from a large, Mid-Southern urban university.

Methods: Students who administered the HIV-PrEP health intervention completed a cross-sectional assessment about their experiences in the project.

Providing Support for Caregiver Communication Burden: Assessing the Plain Language Planner Resource As a Nursing Intervention.

Objective: To elicit informal caregiver feedback about an mHealth resource and it's potential as a nurse-delivered intervention for caregiver communication support.

Data Sources: Four focus groups with current oncology caregivers that involved caregiver use of the resource and response to a video demonstrating the resource as a nursing intervention. A brief assessment of the resource was collected for triangulation of data.

"Not Homeless Yet. I'm Kind of Couch Surfing": Finding Identities for People at a Homeless Shelter.

The meanings of homelessness are fluid and socially constructed, providing resources and limitations for individuals to negotiate their identities and relationships in everyday life. In this study, we examine the strategies and corresponding resources utilized by people who are homeless to cope with the labeling of a homeless identity and to redefine their identities. We used constant comparative analysis to examine in-depth interviews with 16 participants (male = 11, female = 5) who access a local homeless shelter in the southwest United States for resources.

Conceptualizing the Pathways and Processes Between Language Barriers and Health Disparities: Review, Synthesis, and Extension.

While many may view language barriers in healthcare settings (LBHS) as a simple, practical problem, they present unique challenges to theoretical development and practice implications in healthcare delivery, especially when one considers the implications and impacts of specific contextual factors. By exploring the differences of contextual factors in the US and Japan, this review explores and highlights how such differences may entail different impacts on patients' quality of care and require different solutions. I conduct narrative review through library database, Google Scholar, and CiNii (a Japanese library database) with multiple search terms, including language barriers, healthcare, medical interpreter, and immigrant.

[Assessment for the image interpretation of 111In-ibritumomab tiuxetan in the phase II study of 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan in patients with relapsed or refractory indolent B-cell lymphoma].

Prior to the 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan (Y2B8) therapy, imaging is performed to verify the expected biodistribution of 111In-ibritumomab tiuxetan (In2B8). In order to determine the indication of radioimmunotherapy with Y2B8, the interpretation criteria for altered biodistribution of In2B8 was established. A phase II study of Y2B8 in patients with relapsed or refractory indolent B-cell lymphoma was performed in nine institutions in Japan.

Sentinel lymph node biopsy examination for breast cancer patients with clinically negative axillary lymph nodes after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Background: The feasibility and accuracy of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy examination for breast cancer patients with clinically node-negative breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) have been investigated under the administration of a radiocolloid imaging agent injected intradermally over a tumor. In addition, conditions that may affect SLN biopsy detection and false-negative rates with respect to clinical tumor response and clinical nodal status before NAC were analyzed.

Methods: Seventy-seven patients with stages II and III breast cancer previously treated with NAC were enrolled in the study.

Phase I study of radioimmunotherapy with an anti-CD20 murine radioimmunoconjugate ((90)Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan) in relapsed or refractory indolent B-cell lymphoma.

We conducted a phase I study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of radioimmunotherapy with yttrium-90-ibritumomab tiuxetan (Y2B8) in Japanese patients with relapsed or refractory indolent B-cell lymphoma. Indium-111-labeled ibritumomab tiuxetan (In2B8; 3.5 or 5 mCi [129.

Phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase localized on the plasma membrane is essential for yeast cell morphogenesis.

Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-biphosphate (PtdIns(4,5)P2), an important element in eukaryotic signal transduction, is synthesized either by phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase (PtdIns(4)P 5K) from phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate (PtdIns(4)P) or by phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate 4-kinase (PtdIns(5)P 4K) from phosphatidylinositol 5-phosphate (PtdIns(5)P). Two Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes, MSS4 and FAB1, are homologous to mammalian PtdIns(4)P 5Ks and PtdIns(5)P 4Ks. We show here that MSS4 is a functional homolog of mammalian PtdIns(4)P 5K but not of PtdIns(5)P 4K in vivo.

Comparison of Tc-99m pertechnetate with Tl-201 and Ga-67 scintigraphy of malignant soft-tissue tumors.

Tc-99m pertechnetate scintigraphy was compared with Tl-201 chloride and Ga-67 citrate to evaluate the avidity of Tc-99m pertechtate for malignant soft-tissue tumors. Twenty-three patients with malignant soft-tissue tumors underwent scintigraphic studies. All 23 received Tc-99m and Tl-201, whereas 14 also were injected with Ga-67.

Thallium-201 scintigraphy to assess effect of chemotherapy in osteosarcoma.

Unlabelled: Imaging results in patients with high-grade osteosarcoma of the extremities were reviewed to determine whether scintigraphic appearance correlated with histologic response to preoperative chemotherapy.

Methods: Histologically, the percent tumor necrosis in specimens from 30 patients were classified into three grades: grade 1 = necrosis less than 60%, grade 2 = 60%-89% necrosis and grade 3 = diffuse necrosis greater than 90% based upon whole transverse sections. Scintigraphically, we analyzed 201TI uptake before and after preoperative chemotherapy.

[99mTc pertechnetate scintigraphy for malignant soft-tissue tumors].

The purpose of this study was to investigate the accumulation of technetium-99m pertechnetate (99mTc) in malignant soft-tissue tumors. Twenty-one patients with malignant soft-tissue tumors were subjected to 99mTc scintigraphic studies. In 19 of 21 patients (90%), 99mTc accumulated extensively in the tumors.

Role of technetium-99m pertechnetate scintigraphy in the management of extra-abdominal fibromatosis.

The purpose of this study was to investigate technetium-99m pertechnetate (Tc-99m) as a tumor-scanning agent in patients with extra-abdominal fibromatosis, and to establish the sensitivity of this type of scintigraphy. Eleven patients with extra-abdominal fibromatosis were studied: all but one having postsurgical recurrences. Of the 11 patients, diagnosed histologically, 5 underwent repeated Tc-99m scintigraphic follow-up examinations.

On clinical usefulness of Tl-201 scintigraphy for the management of malignant soft tissue tumors.

The purpose of this study was to investigate Tl-201 as a tumor scanning agent in patients with malignant soft tissue sarcomas and to establish the sensitivity of this type of scintigraphy concerning local recurrences or metastases that may remain clinically suspected. Seventy-eight patients with malignant soft tissue sarcomas and 22 with benign soft tissue tumors were studied. Of these 78 malignant soft tissue sarcomas patients, the sensitivity of Tl-201 (81.

[Clinical usefulness of thallium-201 chloride in the diagnosis of tumor (II)--An evaluation in bone, soft tissue and mediastinal tumors].

The clinical usefulness of scintigraphy with thallium-201 (201Tl) chloride injection was evaluated in 79 patients with suspected bone, soft tissue or mediastinal tumors. No abnormal changes of subjective or objective signs and clinical test values were observed post injection. It is considered that 201Tl chloride is a safe radiopharmaceutical.