Patterns of Emerging Tobacco Product Use Among U.S. Adults, 2019-2022.

Introduction: Quantifying the use of emerging tobacco products such as nicotine pouches (NPs) and heated tobacco products (HTPs) is crucial for informing public health interventions and measuring their potential effects on tobacco use morbidity, mortality and benefits from complete tobacco cessation.

Methods: Using data from the May 2019 and September 2022 cycles of the Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS), the study team calculated U.S.

Medical Writing for Continuing Education in the Health Professions: A Competency Model.

Medical writers assist continuing medical education (CME)/continuing professional development (CPD) providers in planning and delivering educational programmes. Their responsibilities include developing needs assessments and instructional content for accredited CME-CPD. However, to the best of our knowledge, a competency model for training writers who develop CME-CPD materials does not exist.

Understanding community resilience during the drinking water contamination event on Oahu, Hawaii, 2021-2022: a mixed mode approach.

Background: A petroleum leak into the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam water system on Oahu, Hawaii in November 2021 contaminated the drinking water of approximately 93,000 users, causing many to relocate for months. Perceptions of health and wellbeing were captured using the Centers for Disease Control/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (CDC/ATSDR) Assessment of Chemical Exposures (ACE) cross-sectional survey in collaboration with the Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH).

Methods: Responses from the ACE online survey of community members, businesses, schools, health care and veterinary care organizations during the contamination event, containing quantitative questions and qualitative information from an open text field, were analyzed.

Prediction of the Stability of Protein Substructures Using AI/ML Techniques.

This chapter explores the innovative application of machine learning techniques to understand and predict the stability of protein substructures. Accurately identifying stable substructures within proteins necessitates incorporating the local context, crucial for elucidating the roles of supersecondary structures. This approach emphasizes the importance of contextual information in understanding the stability and functionality of protein regions, thereby providing a more comprehensive view of protein mechanics and interactions.

Private sector tuberculosis care quality during the COVID-19 pandemic: a repeated cross-sectional standardised patients study of adherence to national TB guidelines in urban Nigeria.

Only a third of tuberculosis (TB) cases in Nigeria in 2020 were diagnosed and notified, in part due to low detection and under-reporting from the private health sector. Using a standardised patient (SP) survey approach, we assessed how management of presumptive TB in the private sector aligns with national guidelines and whether this differed from a study conducted before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 13 SPs presented a presumptive TB case to 511 private providers in urban areas of Lagos and Kano states in May and June 2021.

Quantitative measures of recent and lifetime agricultural pesticide use are associated with increased pesticide concentrations in house dust.

Objective: Elevated pesticide concentrations have been found in dust from homes with residents who use agricultural pesticides, but few studies have compared these concentrations to quantitative measures of their use. We evaluated household pesticide dust concentrations in relation to quantitative, active ingredient-specific metrics of agricultural pesticide use in the Biomarkers of Exposure and Effect in Agriculture Study.

Methods: Participants provided vacuum dust samples (2013-2018) and information regarding recent (last 12 months) and lifetime pesticide use.

Evaluation of the Stronger Together Peer Mentoring Model Among Patients With Breast and Gynecologic Cancer in Viet Nam.

Purpose: Stronger Together is a peer mentoring model that seeks to address the severe lack of mental health and psychosocial support for patients with cancer in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This article presents the results of the Stronger Together pilot study among patients with breast and gynecologic cancer in Viet Nam (VN).

Methods: Eligible participants comprised women age 25 years or older with a diagnosis of breast or gynecologic cancers and receiving treatment at four participating hospitals.

Advancing alternative methods to reduce animal testing.

Emerging approaches show promise for regulatory use.

Toripalimab Plus Chemotherapy as a First-Line Therapy for Extensive-Stage Small Cell Lung Cancer: The Phase 3 EXTENTORCH Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) have poor prognoses and unmet medical needs.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of toripalimab plus etoposide and platinum-based chemotherapy (EP) vs placebo plus EP as a first-line treatment for patients with ES-SCLC.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 randomized clinical trial (EXTENTORCH study) enrolled patients from September 26, 2019, to May 20, 2021, and was conducted at 49 sites in China.

Update on Pediatric Surveillance Recommendations for PTEN Hamartoma Tumor Syndrome, DICER1-Related Tumor Predisposition, and Tuberous Sclerosis Complex.

Phosphate and tensin homolog hamartoma tumor syndrome, DICER1-related tumor predisposition, and tuberous sclerosis complex are rare conditions, which each increases risk for distinct spectra of benign and malignant neoplasms throughout childhood and adulthood. Surveillance considerations for each of these conditions focus on patient and family education, early detection, and multidisciplinary care. In this article, we present updated surveillance recommendations and considerations for children and adolescents with phosphate and tensin homolog hamartoma tumor syndrome, DICER1-related tumor predisposition, and tuberous sclerosis complex and provide suggestions for further research in each of these conditions.

PhysioCAFUN: a competency-based curriculum development guideline to strengthen physiology education in Africa.

Physiology education in Africa faces challenges due to gaps in curricula across many of its universities, such as divergent content, a lack of standardized competencies, and suitable benchmarking. Here, we describe the development of the Physiology Curriculum for African Universities (PhysioCAFUN), a competency-based curriculum development guideline, as a first step to address such shortcomings. A committee of 15 physiologists from different African regions, Europe, and the United States was constituted to draft the PhysioCAFUN, which was introduced and revised during the joint East African Society of Physiological Sciences (EASPS) and African Association of Physiological Sciences (AAPS) conference held in Tanzania late 2023.

Lessons learned from the conduct of inpatient clinical trials in a pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic amplified known challenges associated with the conduct of inpatient clinical trials, while also introducing new ones that needed to be addressed.

Methods: Stakeholders based in the United States who participated in the conduct of inpatient therapeutic trials for the treatment of COVID-19 as part of the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines program identified challenges experienced in the conduct of these trials through a series of meeting to discuss and identify common themes. In addition, innovations developed to address these challenges and other potential solutions that may be utilized in future pandemics were highlighted.

ACTIV trials: cross-trial lessons learned for master protocol implementation.

The United States Government (USG) public-private partnership "Accelerating COVID-19 Treatment Interventions and Vaccines" (ACTIV) was launched to identify safe, effective therapeutics to treat patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and prevent hospitalization, progression of disease, and death. Eleven original master protocols were developed by ACTIV, and thirty-seven therapeutic agents entered evaluation for treatment benefit. Challenges encountered during trial implementation led to innovations enabling initiation and enrollment of over 26,000 participants in the trials.

Feasibility of recruiting young adults with low socioeconomic status for formative evaluation of a smoking cessation mobile intervention.

Introduction: Participant recruitment is critical to the success of smoking cessation trials. However, recruitment feasibility studies for inclusion and exclusion criteria commonly used in smoking cessation research remain scarce. We assessed the feasibility of recruiting potential research volunteers (PRVs) under two sets of inclusion criteria to inform eligibility requirements for a smoking cessation mobile intervention trial.

A Retrospective Analysis of Jordan's National COVID-19 Call Center: Operations, Effectiveness, and Lessons Learned.

Introduction: Contact tracing has been a cornerstone of non-pharmaceutical interventions to control the COVID-19 epidemic, with highly mixed effectiveness internationally. In Jordan, the Ministry of Health (MOH) collaborated with the Jordan Nurses and Midwives Council and the USAID Local Health System Sustainability Project to set up a call center for contact tracing of COVID-19.

Objective: This study described the operation and assessed the effectiveness of Jordan's COVID-19 call center activities in reaching COVID-19 cases and their contacts.

Burden of Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Associated Hospitalizations in US Adults, October 2016 to September 2023.

Importance: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection can cause severe illness in adults. However, there is considerable uncertainty in the burden of RSV-associated hospitalizations among adults prior to RSV vaccine introduction.

Objective: To describe the demographic characteristics of adults hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed RSV and to estimate annual rates and numbers of RSV-associated hospitalizations, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and in-hospital deaths.

Mammographic density in relation to breast cancer risk factors among Chinese women.

Background Increased mammographic density (MD) is a known breast cancer (BC) risk factor, but its influencing factors are unclear in Asian populations. This study examined the links between known BC risk factors and quantitatively measured MD in 7,351 Chinese women with non-malignant mammographic findings. Methods VolparaDensity software quantified volumetric MD measures: total breast (TBV), absolute dense (ADV), percent dense (PDV= ADV/TBV), and non-dense volumes (NDV= TBV-ADV).

The international nucleotide sequence database collaboration (INSDC): enhancing global participation.

The members of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC; https://insdc.org) have built systems to collect, archive and disseminate sequence data for more than four decades. The three collaborating organizations, the National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NLM-NCBI) in the United States, Research Organization of Information and Systems, National Institute of Genetics (ROIS-NIG) in Japan; and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) formalized their relationship through the adoption of an arrangement which documents their commitment to free and open access to genomic sequences.