Altered Effective Connectivity Within a Thalamocortical Corollary Discharge Network in Individuals With Schizophrenia.

Background And Hypothesis: Sequential saccade planning requires corollary discharge (CD) signals that provide information about the planned landing location of an eye movement. These CD signals may be altered among individuals with schizophrenia (SZ), providing a potential mechanism to explain passivity and anomalous self-experiences broadly. In healthy controls (HC), a key oculomotor CD network transmits CD signals from the thalamus to the frontal eye fields (FEF) and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and also remaps signals from FEF to IPS.

Nursing Culture Within Higher Education: A Snapshot.

With little literature exploring the relationship between leadership styles within teams/departments and types of organizational culture in nursing education, we conducted an exploratory study to investigate leadership styles and culture types. An online survey using the Organizational Description Questionnaire was posted on two national nursing websites. Nearly 35 percent of participants in this pilot study (n = 43) identified their organization to be coasting, followed by high contrast (23%) and transformational (21%).

Agency Nurse Usage of Infusion Interoperability: Identifying Barriers and Improving Workflows.

Over the past several years, hospitals have utilized agency staffing to combat staffing shortages. Increased use of agency staffing presented an opportunity for implementation of an education project related to the potential variance in practice of permanent staffing, specifically with the use of infusion interoperability in the inpatient setting at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center St Margaret hospital. Discussion around variables causing agency nurse setbacks with utilizing infusion interoperability while trying to meet the required standard laid the groundwork for this project.

Frailty and Mortality Risk Among Dogs with Extreme Longevity: Development and Predictive Validity of a Clinical Frailty Index in the Exceptional Aging in Rottweilers Study.

Frailty refers to a state of increased vulnerability to mortality and other adverse outcomes as a consequence of age-related decline in physiologic reserve and function. Comparative biomedical scientists are relied upon to innovate approaches to enhance understanding of the similarities and differences between humans and other animal species that can impact healthy aging. The research aim of this study was to develop a clinical frailty index (FI) in the Exceptional Aging in Rottweilers Study (EARS) and test its ability to predict all-cause mortality in elderly dogs.

"There's a Little Bit of Tension There:" Perspectives of Mothers and Early Childhood Educators on Breastfeeding in Child Care Centers.

Objective: To explore mothers' and early childhood (EC) educators' experiences of breastfeeding/breast milk provision and breastfeeding support in child care centers (CCCs) in the United States (U.S.).

Footprint evidence for locomotor diversity and shared habitats among early Pleistocene hominins.

For much of the Pliocene and Pleistocene, multiple hominin species coexisted in the same regions of eastern and southern Africa. Due to the limitations of the skeletal fossil record, questions regarding their interspecific interactions remain unanswered. We report the discovery of footprints (~1.

Randomized Trial of the Four Supports Intervention for Surrogate Decision Makers in Intensive Care Units.

Rationale: Individuals acting as surrogate decision-makers for critically ill patients frequently struggle in this role and experience high levels of long-term psychological distress. Prior interventions designed solely to improve information sharing between clinicians and family members have been ineffective.

Objectives: To examine the impact of a multicomponent family support intervention on patient and family outcomes Methods: Patient-level randomized clinical trial at 6 intensive care units (ICUs) in a healthcare system in Pennsylvania.

Pediatricians' Practices and Desired Resources for Addressing Intimate Partner Violence.

To explore pediatricians' perspectives on supporting intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors, including (a) clinical practices and resource use, (b) ideal resources, and (c) barriers to the use of existing resources, we conducted dyadic and individual virtual interviews with pediatricians recruited through Twitter and the American Academy of Pediatrics Council, section, and chapter listservs. The interviews were approximately 60 minutes in length, audio recorded, and transcribed verbatim. We used a thematic analysis approach and hybrid deductive-inductive coding.

Interactive Nursing Education to Promote Exclusive Breastfeeding.

Although breast milk provides the most robust human nutrition and offers extensive immunological protection, many mothers are still hesitant to breastfeed exclusively, and the rate of exclusive breastfeeding declines significantly over time in the postpartum period. The objective is to educate nurses on the practice of exclusive breastfeeding. Breastfeeding education was provided to nurses ( = 11) at an urban academic medical center.

Dietary Intake Is Similar Among Adult Men with Different Levels of Cold-Induced Brown Adipose Tissue Activation.

Background/objectives: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) activation has important metabolic health implications, yet the relationship between habitual dietary intake and BAT activity in humans remains to be fully understood.

Methods: We compared dietary intake among adult men with (BAT, age: 34.8 ± 5.

Extraction of high-quality metagenomic DNA from the lichens Flavoparmelia caperata and Peltigera membranacea.

Lichens are composite organisms found throughout temperate terrestrial forests, with species-specific associations with industrial air pollution. Metagenomic analysis of lichen samples requires robust nucleic acid extraction methodology, a process that is challenging due to the protective cortex layers, high polysaccharide content, and the vast diversity of the internal microbiome. Our method includes physical lysis through garnet bead beating, chemical lysis using a sodium dodecyl sulfate buffer, phenol:chloroform:isoamyl alcohol extraction, and ethanol precipitation.

Treatment fidelity in clinical trials.

In the context of clinical trials, treatment fidelity (TF) has traditionally referred to the extent to which an intervention or treatment is implemented by the clinicians as intended by the researchers who designed the trial. Updated definitions of TF have included an appropriate design of the intervention that was performed in a way that is known to be therapeutically beneficial. This requires careful attention to three key components: (1) protocol and dosage adherence, (2) quality of delivery, and (3) participant adherence.

Comparison of Cranial Cruciate Ligament Rupture Incidence among Parous and Nulliparous Rottweiler Bitches: Evidence from a Lifetime Cohort Study Supporting a Paradigm of Pregnancy-Associated Protection against Subsequent Non-Reproductive Disease Outcomes.

Emerging evidence in women supports the notion that pregnancy may reset disease resistance, thereby providing protection against subsequent adverse health outcomes, but this hypothesis has not been adequately explored in domestic dogs. Cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) rupture is a degenerative orthopedic disease that frequently affects pet dogs, and its risk has been associated with disruption of the reproductive hormone axis. Our research team is conducting a lifetime cohort study of purebred Rottweilers in North America that have lived 30% longer than breed-average.

An exploratory investigation of heart rate and heart rate variability responses to daylong heat exposure in young and older adults.

Heart rate variability (HRV) has shown potential as a tool for monitoring thermal strain, but there is limited data to support its efficacy in older adults during prolonged heat exposures. We compared HRV between young (19-31 years,  = 20) and older (61-78 years,  = 39) adults during 9 h of heat exposure (40 °C, 9% RH). We also explored whether heart rate (HR) and/or HRV could be used to distinguish older adults who achieved elevated thermal strain, defined as either (1) an increase in core temperature >1.

Insulin sensitivity and skeletal muscle mitochondrial respiration in Black and White women with obesity.

Objectives: Non-Hispanic black women (BW) have a greater risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and insulin resistance (IR) compared to non-Hispanic white women (WW). The mechanisms leading to these differences are not understood, and it is unclear whether synergistic effects of race and obesity impact disease risk. To understand the interaction of race and weight, hepatic and peripheral IR were compared in WW and BW with and without obesity.

Evaluation of the Define It! Program for Raising Critically Conscious Bystander Behaviors.

Across two studies with cohorts of undergraduate students who previously completed a bystander intervention program, a consciousness-raising intervention called Define It! was evaluated for its efficacy in increasing critically conscious intentions. Data were collected pre, post, and one-month using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMAS-SF; Payne et al., 1999) and Critically Conscious Bystander Scale (CCBS; Johnson et al.

Exploring Phylogenetic Signal in Multivariate Phenotypes by Maximizing Blomberg's K.

Due to the hierarchical structure of the tree of life, closely related species often resemble each other more than distantly related species; a pattern termed phylogenetic signal. Numerous univariate statistics have been proposed as measures of phylogenetic signal for single phenotypic traits, but the study of phylogenetic signal for multivariate data, as is common in modern biology, remains challenging. Here we introduce a new method to explore phylogenetic signal in multivariate phenotypes.

What keeps you up at night? Moral distress in nurse leaders in the USA, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Purpose: Nurse leaders are challenged by ethical issues in today's complex health-care settings. The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze key elements of moral distress identified by nurse leaders from health-care systems in the USA, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The aim was to develop an understanding of distressing ethical issues nurse leaders face in the USA and three German-speaking European countries.

The Anthropogenic Salt Cycle.

Increasing salt production and use is shifting the natural balances of salt ions across Earth systems, causing interrelated effects across biophysical systems collectively known as freshwater salinization syndrome. In this Review, we conceptualize the natural salt cycle and synthesize increasing global trends of salt production and riverine salt concentrations and fluxes. The natural salt cycle is primarily driven by relatively slow geologic and hydrologic processes that bring different salts to the surface of the Earth.