The Canadian Mother-Child Cohort Active Surveillance Initiative (CAMCCO): Comparisons between Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

Background: Given that pregnant women taking medications are excluded from clinical trials, real-world evidence is essential. We aimed to build a Canadian Mother-Child Cohort Active Surveillance Initiative (CAMCCO) and compare frequency of prematurity, low-birth-weight (LBW), major malformations, multiplicity, and gestational medication use across four provinces.

Methods: CAMCCO is a collaborative research infrastructure that uses real-world data from large provincial health care databases in Canada; developed with standardized methods to similarly construct population-based pregnancy/child cohorts with longitudinal follow-up by linking administrative/hospital/birth databases.

Awareness and Use of Heated Tobacco Products Among Middle School and High School Students, United States, 2019-2020.

Purpose: Heated tobacco products (HTP) heat-processed tobacco leaf into an aerosol inhaled by the user. This study assessed prevalence and correlates of HTP awareness, ever use, and current use among US middle and high school students.

Methods: Data came from the 2019 and 2020 National Youth Tobacco Survey, a cross-sectional survey of US public and private, middle and high school students.

Taking the Monte-Carlo gamble: How not to buckle under the pressure!

Consistent buckling distortions of a large membrane patch (200 × 200 Å) are observed during molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using the Monte-Carlo (MC) barostat in combination with a hard Lennard-Jones (LJ) cutoff. The buckling behavior is independent of both the simulation engine and the force field but requires the MC barostat-hard LJ cutoff combination. Similar simulations of a smaller patch (90 × 90 Å) do not show buckling, but do show a small, systematic reduction in the surface area accompanied by ~1 Å thickening suggestive of compression.

Patterns of tobacco use and nicotine dependence among youth, United States, 2017-2018.

This study examined patterns of tobacco product use and their association with nicotine dependence among U.S. youth.

Robust Sequence Determinants of α-Synuclein Toxicity in Yeast Implicate Membrane Binding.

Protein conformations are shaped by cellular environments, but how environmental changes alter the conformational landscapes of specific proteins remains largely uncharacterized, in part due to the challenge of probing protein structures in living cells. Here, we use deep mutational scanning to investigate how a toxic conformation of α-synuclein, a dynamic protein linked to Parkinson's disease, responds to perturbations of cellular proteostasis. In the context of a course for graduate students in the UCSF Integrative Program in Quantitative Biology, we screened a comprehensive library of α-synuclein missense mutants in yeast cells treated with a variety of small molecules that perturb cellular processes linked to α-synuclein biology and pathobiology.

E-cigarette advertising expenditures in the USA, 2014-2018.

Background: Tobacco product advertising has been shown to reach youth and promote initiation. This study assessed trends in e-cigarette advertising expenditures in the USA during 2014-2018, overall and by manufacturer and media type.

Methods: Data came from Kantar Media, which provides information on US advertising expenditures, including for e-cigarettes.

Harmonizing Experimental Data with Modeling to Predict Membrane Protein Insertion in Yeast.

Membrane proteins must adopt their proper topologies within biological membranes, but achieving the correct topology is compromised by the presence of marginally hydrophobic transmembrane helices (TMHs). In this study, we report on a new model membrane protein in yeast that harbors two TMHs fused to an unstable nucleotide-binding domain. Because the second helix (TMH2) in this reporter has an unfavorable predicted free energy of insertion, we employed established methods to generate variants that alter TMH2 insertion free energy.

State-Specific Patterns of Cigarette Smoking, Smokeless Tobacco Use, and E-Cigarette Use Among Adults - United States, 2016.

Introduction: State-level monitoring of changes in tobacco product use can help inform tobacco control policy and practice. This study examined state-specific prevalence of cigarette, smokeless tobacco, and e-cigarette use among US adults.

Methods: Data came from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a state-based telephone survey of US adults aged 18 years or older (N = 477,665).

Rules to prohibit the use of electronic vapor products inside homes and personal vehicles among adults in the U.S., 2017.

Most U.S. adults have voluntary rules prohibiting the use of smoked tobacco products in their homes and vehicles.

Ensemble simulations: folding, unfolding and misfolding of a high-efficiency frameshifting RNA pseudoknot.

Massive all-atom molecular dynamics simulations were conducted across a distributed computing network to study the folding, unfolding, misfolding and conformational plasticity of the high-efficiency frameshifting double mutant of the 26 nt potato leaf roll virus RNA pseudoknot. Our robust sampling, which included over 40 starting structures spanning the spectrum from the extended unfolded state to the native fold, yielded nearly 120 μs of cumulative sampling time. Conformational microstate transitions on the 1.

Tobacco Use, Secondhand Smoke, and Smoke-Free Home Rules in Multiunit Housing.

Introduction: Multiunit housing (MUH) residents are particularly susceptible to involuntary secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure in their home, which can enter their living units from nearby units and shared areas where smoking occurs. To date, no study has assessed non-cigarette tobacco use among MUH residents. This study assessed the prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of tobacco use (combustible, noncombustible, any tobacco use including electronic cigarettes), smoke-free home rules, and SHS incursions among U.

Correlates of 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccination among day care-aged children, Miami-Dade County.

Background: The aim of this study was to assess factors influencing 2009 H1N1 influenza vaccination among a demographically diverse group of day care-aged children. Day care children were chosen because they were an initial target group for vaccination and are at higher risk of influenza infection than children cared for at home.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from March to May 2010 among parents of day care aged children in 13 day care facilities in Miami-Dade County.