Identifying the Strongest Correlates of Condom Use Among US Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Importance: Condoms are effective at preventing sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy; however, only 52% of sexually active US adolescents used a condom at last intercourse.

Objective: To examine (1) the association between 36 psychosocial variables and adolescent condom use to determine the strongest correlates of condom use behavior across the literature, (2) heterogeneity of these effects, and (3) the moderating roles of age, gender/sex, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and year of study.

Data Sources: A systematic search was conducted of studies published between January 2000 and February 2024 using Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Communication Source databases, plus relevant review articles and unpublished data.

Phenomenology of Identity: Narrative Medicine Curricula in the Care of Eating Disorders.

A growing body of literature explores the intersection of eating disorders and identity formation-an entanglement that makes eating disorders particularly challenging to treat. Narrative medicine is a discipline of the health humanities that is interested in bearing witness to patients' stories with a closeness and rigor that enhances clinical care. The pedagogy of the field is the narrative medicine workshop, which mobilizes close-reading of works of art and reflective writing to improve our understanding of Self and Other.

Using the Experience of Novice Reviewers to Inform Journal Peer Reviewer Development.

Aim: The aim of this study was to uncover what it is like to be a novice peer reviewer for journals that publish articles that can influence nursing education and/or practice.

Background: Comprehensive and effective approaches to reviewer development, based on reviewer experience, were not reported in the literature.

Method: The study followed a hermeneutic phenomenological approach.

Exploring the role of T cells in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases: Emerging therapeutic insights from the T Cells in the Brain symposium.

This proceedings article summarizes the inaugural "T Cells in the Brain" symposium held at Columbia University. Experts gathered to explore the role of T cells in neurodegenerative diseases. Key topics included characterization of antigen-specific immune responses, T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire, microbial etiology in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and microglia-T cell crosstalk, with a focus on how T cells affect neuroinflammation and AD biomarkers like amyloid beta and tau.

Effects of methylphenidate on sensitivity to reinforcement delay, magnitude, and probability: Implications for impulsive and risky choice.

Under rapid-acquisition, concurrent-chains choice procedures, psychomotor stimulants typically decrease the sensitivity of responding to changes in separate dimensions of reinforcement. Across two experiments, pigeons chose between outcomes that differed in terms of reinforcement delay and magnitude (the dimensions involved in delay discounting or "impulsive" choice; Experiment 1) or reinforcement probability and magnitude (the dimensions involved in probability discounting or "risky" choice; Experiment 2). Outcomes associated with each terminal link were varied independently and pseudorandomly across sessions such that in dominated sessions one terminal link was favorable in terms of both dimensions (sooner, larger in Experiment 1 and more likely, larger in Experiment 2) and in trade-off sessions each terminal link was favorable in terms of a different dimension.

Beyond Food Assistance: A Scoping Review Examining Associations of Nonfood Social Safety Net Programs in the United States With Food Insecurity and Nutrition Outcomes.

Objective: To conduct a scoping review to summarize the state of the evidence on associations between participation in nonfood social safety net programs (eg, income assistance, housing assistance) in the United States and food- and nutrition insecurity-related outcomes.

Background: Food and nutrition insecurity are persistent public health challenges in the United States that increase chronic disease risk and exacerbate health disparities. Several food assistance programs enhance food and nutrition security.

Modeling Pathways by which the Caregiver TLC Psychoeducational Program Impacts Psychological Health of Caregivers.

Background And Objectives: The study seeks to elucidate the pathways by which the Caregiver TLC psycho-educational program impacts the psychological health of caregivers by examining the degree to which changes in self-efficacy, personal gains, and emotional support mediate the changes on perceived depression, anxiety and burden.

Research Design And Methods: Using pre-post data from the Caregiver TLC randomized controlled trial (n = 81) for each outcome and mediator pair, a series of multiple regression models were executed to test the degree to which the program's total effects on changes in depression, burden and anxiety from baseline to post-intervention are due to changes in each mediator variable from pre- and post-intervention assessments. Caregivers were primarily female (85%), White (62 %), Black (38%), with a median age of 62 and household income of $75,000+.

AAV vector transduction restriction and attenuated toxicity in hESCs via a rationally designed inverted terminal repeat.

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) inverted terminal repeats (ITRs) induce p53-dependent apoptosis in human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). To interrogate this phenomenon, a synthetic ITR (SynITR), harboring substitutions in putative p53 binding sites was generated and evaluated for vector production and gene delivery. Replication of SynITR flanked transgenic genome was similar compared to wild type (wt) ITR, with a modest increase in vector titers.

Assessment of Four Essential Features of the Alive & Thrive Initiative to Improve Maternal, Infant, Young Child, and Adolescent Nutrition.

Alive & Thrive has been a major global nutrition initiative that aimed to learn how to improve maternal, infant, young child, and adolescent nutrition and health on a large scale. During 2009-2014, Alive & Thrive developed and implemented interventions to improve infant and young child feeding at scale in three countries. Subsequently, Alive & Thrive expanded its work to more than 15 geographies, including six country-specific and two regional programs, to additionally address maternal and adolescent nutrition while adding agriculture and social protection programs to improve maternal, infant, and young child nutrition.

Verticillin A-Loaded Surgical Buttresses Prevent Local Pancreatic Cancer Recurrence in a Murine Model.

The fungal metabolite verticillin A is a potent and selective histone methyltransferase inhibitor. It regulates apoptosis, the cell cycle, and stress response, and displays potent activity in the suppression of tumor cell growth in several different in vivo models. Verticillin A sensitizes pancreatic cancer cells to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy by regulating PD-L1 expression.

Inclusive design and usability testing: Involving an end-user in developing augmentative and alternative communication user interfaces using an open-source platform.

Introduction: Traditionally, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) user interface development has been a time-intensive process requiring expertise in software development, often excluding people who use AAC. This paper demonstrates the involvement of an end user in the design and testing of prototype AAC user interfaces (UIs) developed using a platform called the Open Source Design and Programmer Interface (OS-DPI).

Methods: Micro-analysis of in-person conversation involving an adult with intellectual and developmental disabilities who uses AAC revealed several problems related to accessing his aided AAC device.

Assessing associations between stigma and mental health among pre-exposure prophylaxis users in Guatemala.

Introduction: The mental health of gay and bisexual men (GBM) who use pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) may be negatively impacted by experiences of stigma.

Methods: To assess the relationship between stigma and mental health among GBM who use PrEP in Guatemala, we conducted a survey with 162 PrEP users recruited in a community-based PrEP clinic.

Results: In multiple linear regression analyses, greater internalized (ß=1.

Face and Content Validity of Tympanostomy Tube Simulator With Variable Canal Size.

Simulators allow junior otolaryngology residents to practice the delicate procedure of pressure equalization tube (PET) insertion. However, most simulators lack the ability to mimic the differing anatomic complexities between patients, such as variable external auditory canal (EAC) size. We developed a novel low-cost, medium-fidelity 3-dimensional-printed PET simulator with different EAC sizes to better reflect procedure complexity.

The PIKASO trial (Preventing Injured Knees from Osteoarthritis: Severity Outcomes): Rationale and design features for a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Given the high burden and increasing prevalence of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA), identifying clinically beneficial strategies to prevent or delay its onset could improve the quality of life of those at high risk of developing the disease.

Methods: Preventing Injured Knees from OsteoArthritis: Severity Outcomes (PIKASO) is a multicenter blinded, parallel, two-arm randomized controlled trial of 512 individuals aged 18-45 years undergoing anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). This study is designed to evaluate the efficacy of a 12-month intervention of oral metformin vs.

Development of Effective Connectome from Infancy to Adolescence.

Delineating the normative developmental profile of functional connectome is important for both standardized assessment of individual growth and early detection of diseases. However, functional connectome has been mostly studied using functional connectivity (FC), where undirected connectivity strengths are estimated from statistical correlation of resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) signals. To address this limitation, we applied regression dynamic causal modeling (rDCM) to delineate the developmental trajectories of effective connectivity (EC), the directed causal influence among neuronal populations, in whole-brain networks from infancy to adolescence (0-22 years old) based on high-quality rs-fMRI data from Baby Connectome Project (BCP) and Human Connectome Project Development (HCP-D).

From isolation to detection, advancing insights into endothelial matrix-bound vesicles.

Matrix-bound vesicles (MBVs), an integral part of the extracellular matrix (ECM), are emerging as pivotal factors in ECM-driven molecular signaling. This study is the first to report the isolation of MBVs from porcine arterial endothelial cell basement membranes (A-MBVs) and thyroid cartilage (C-MBVs), the latter serving as a negative control due to its minimal vascular characteristics. Using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Nano-Tracking Analysis (NTA), Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), we orthogonally characterized the isolated MBVs.

Understanding the bidirectional association between obesity and risk of psychological distress and depression in young adults in the US: available evidence, knowledge gaps, and future directions.

While the physical health effects of obesity are well-characterized, an emerging branch of research has shown that obesity additionally plays a critical role in one's mental health. Young adults, in a pivotal transition phase in their lives, may be particularly prone to the concurrent effects of obesity and adverse mental health outcomes. The purpose of this review is to comprehensively examine existing data regarding the connection between obesity and two widely validated measures of mental health: psychological distress and depression.

Evaluation of a new technology for terminal sterilization of flexible endoscopes using hydrogen peroxide gas plasma.

In laboratory testing, a novel hydrogen peroxide gas plasma endoscope sterilizer consistently reduced vegetative organisms, but not bacterial spores, to undetectable levels in the presence of high organism load (≥6.5 log) and organic material and salts. These findings highlight the importance of meticulous cleaning of endoscopes prior to sterilization.

Bayesian design of clinical trials with multiple time-to-event outcomes subject to functional cure.

With the continuous advancement of medical treatments, there is an increasing demand for clinical trial designs and analyses using cure rate models to accommodate a plateau in the survival curve. This is especially pertinent in oncology, where high proportions of patients, such as those with melanoma, lung cancer, and endometrial cancer, exhibit usual life spans post-cancer detection. A Bayesian clinical trial design methodology for multivariate time-to-event outcomes with cured fractions is developed.

Understanding the opioid syndemic in North Carolina: A novel approach to modeling and identifying factors.

The opioid epidemic is a significant public health challenge in North Carolina, but limited data restrict our understanding of its complexity. Examining trends and relationships among different outcomes believed to reflect opioid misuse provides an alternative perspective to understand the opioid epidemic. We use a Bayesian dynamic spatial factor model to capture the interrelated dynamics within six different county-level outcomes, such as illicit opioid overdose deaths, emergency department visits related to drug overdose, treatment counts for opioid use disorder, patients receiving prescriptions for buprenorphine, and newly diagnosed cases of acute and chronic hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus.

Differences in brain volume in individuals with mild cognitive impairment and normal cognition across different anatomical regions: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) represents a stage between cognitively normal and Alzheimer's disease. Despite much published research on MCI, there continues to be a knowledge gap of volumetric brain changes in MCI versus cognitively normal (CN) in racially diverse, community-based samples.

Objective: The study aimed to understand differences in volume of selected brain regions in individuals with MCI versus those who are cognitively normal.

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in individuals with a history of eating disorders.

Background: OCD symptoms are well documented in anorexia nervosa (AN) and to a lesser extent in bulimia nervosa (BN), yet remain virtually unstudied in binge-eating disorder (BED).

Methods: In this cross-sectional observational study, 5927 participants with lifetime eating disorders (EDs) (i.e.