Research Priorities for Plasma and Platelet Transfusion Strategies in Critically Ill Children: From the Transfusion and Anemia EXpertise Initiative-Control/Avoidance of Bleeding.

Objectives: To present a list of high-priority research initiatives for the study of plasma and platelet transfusions in critically ill children from the Transfusion and Anemia EXpertise Initiative-Control/Avoidance of Bleeding.

Design: Systematic review and consensus conference of international, multidisciplinary experts in platelet and plasma transfusion management of critically ill children.

Setting: Not applicable.

Independently validated sex-specific nomograms for predicting survival in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma: NRG Oncology RTOG 0525 and 0825.

Background/purpose: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor. Sex has been shown to be an important prognostic factor for GBM. The purpose of this study was to develop and independently validate sex-specific nomograms for estimation of individualized GBM survival probabilities using data from 2 independent NRG Oncology clinical trials.

Diastolic function grading by American Society of Echocardiography guidelines and prediction of heart failure readmission and all-cause mortality in a community-based cohort.

Background: Diastolic function (DF) guidelines have been simplified but lack extensive outcome data. Using a rural university heart failure (HF) database, we assessed whether DF grading could predict HF, HF readmission, and all-cause mortality (ACM).

Methods: In this single-center retrospective study that included 613 patients in sinus rhythm hospitalized for HF (HF with preserved-254 patients, with mid-range-216 patients, and reduced ejection fraction-143 patients), we recorded demographics, Doppler-echo, Framingham HF score, laboratories, HF readmission, and ACM with follow-up to 2167 days.

Teaching for implementation: A framework for building implementation research and practice capacity within the translational science workforce.

Implementation science offers a compelling value proposition to translational science. As such, many translational science stakeholders are seeking to recruit, teach, and train an implementation science workforce. The type of workforce that will make implementation happen consists of both implementation researchers and practitioners, yet little guidance exists on how to train such a workforce.

Adverse Outcomes with Eccentric Hypertrophy in a Community Based University Cohort with Aortic Stenosis.

Objective: Aortic stenosis (AS) patients with eccentric hypertrophy (Ecc-LVH) have increased left ventricular (LV) size and possibly reduced ejection fraction (EF). However, previous studies suggest worse outcomes with concentric remodeling and hypertrophy. We hypothesized that Ecc-LVH pattern in AS patients will also be associated with greater heart failure (HF) and all-cause mortality (ACM).

Developmental Differences in Affective Representation Between Prefrontal and Subcortical Structures.

Developmental studies have identified differences in prefrontal and subcortical affective structures between children and adults, which correspond with observed cognitive and behavioral maturations from relatively simplistic emotional experiences and expressions to more nuanced, complex ones. However, developmental changes in the neural representation of emotions have not yet been well explored. It stands to reason that adults and children may demonstrate observable differences in the representation of affect within key neurological structures implicated in affective cognition.

Can Neighborhood Social Infrastructure Modify Cognitive Function? A Mixed-Methods Study of Urban-Dwelling Aging Americans.

Socialization predicts cognitive aging outcomes. Neighborhoods may facilitate socially engaged aging and thus shape cognition. We investigated places where older adults socialized and whether availability of these sites was associated with cognitive outcomes.

Safety and preliminary immunogenicity of JNJ-64041809, a live-attenuated, double-deleted Listeria monocytogenes-based immunotherapy, in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Background: The safety and immunogenicity of JNJ-64041809 (JNJ-809), a live-attenuated, double-deleted Listeria monocytogenes (LADD Lm)-based immunotherapy targeting 4 relevant prostate cancer antigens, was evaluated in a phase 1 study in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

Methods: Men with progressive mCRPC who had received ≥2 prior approved therapies were enrolled. Primary study objectives were to determine the recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D) and to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of JNJ-809.

Stress Decreases Host Viral Resistance and Increases Covid Susceptibility in Embryonic Stem Cells.

Stress-induced changes in viral receptor and susceptibility gene expression were measured in embryonic stem cells (ESC) and differentiated progeny. Rex1 promoter-Red Fluorescence Protein reporter ESC were tested by RNAseq after 72hr exposures to control stress hyperosmotic sorbitol under stemness culture (NS) to quantify stress-forced differentiation (SFD) transcriptomic programs. Control ESC cultured with stemness factor removal produced normal differentiation (ND).

Neighborhood active aging infrastructure and cognitive function: A mixed-methods study of older Americans.

Physical exercise benefits cognitive functioning and can protect against neurodegeneration. Neighborhood environments may be pivotal to physically active aging, and thus help shape older adults' cognitive function. This mixed-methods study investigated where older adults exercised outside the home, and whether availability of these neighborhood sites was associated with cognitive function.

Establishing Sickle Cell Disease Stroke Prevention Teams in Africa is Feasible: Program Evaluation Using the RE-AIM Framework.

We used the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework to evaluate a Stroke Prevention Team's readiness to prevent strokes in children with sickle cell anemia living in northern Nigeria. The NIH sponsored Stroke Prevention Trial in Nigeria included a goal of a sustainable stroke prevention program. The program's 1-year reach for transcranial Doppler screening was 14.

White matter microstructure associations with episodic memory in adults with Down syndrome: a tract-based spatial statistics study.

Background: Nearly all persons with Down syndrome will show pathology of Alzheimer's disease in their 40s. There is a critical need for studies to identify early biomarkers of these various pathological changes of Alzheimer's disease in the Down syndrome population and understand the relationship of these biomarkers to cognitive symptoms in order to inform clinical trials. Although Alzheimer's disease is often considered a disease of gray matter, white matter degeneration has been documented during the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease.

The allometry of locomotion.

Organismal locomotion mediates ecological interactions and shapes community dynamics. Locomotion is constrained by intrinsic and environmental factors and integrating these factors should clarify how locomotion affects ecology across scales. We extended general theory based on metabolic scaling and biomechanics to predict the scaling of five locomotor performance traits: routine speed, maximum speed, maximum acceleration, minimum powered turn radius, and angular speed.

Broadening the ecology of fear: non-lethal effects arise from diverse responses to predation and parasitism.

Research on the 'ecology of fear' posits that defensive prey responses to avoid predation can cause non-lethal effects across ecological scales. Parasites also elicit defensive responses in hosts with associated non-lethal effects, which raises the longstanding, yet unresolved question of how non-lethal effects of parasites compare with those of predators. We developed a framework for systematically answering this question for all types of predator-prey and host-parasite systems.

Perspectives from the Society for Pediatric Research: advice on sustaining science and mentoring during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic will leave an indelible mark on the careers of current medical trainees. Given the disruptions to medical education, economic impact on institutions, and the uncertainties around future job prospects, trainees are facing unprecedented challenges. This situation is especially concerning for futures of pediatric physician-scientist trainees, where concerns regarding maintaining the pipeline were well documented prior to the emergence of COVID-19.

Neighborhood cognitive amenities? A mixed-methods study of intellectually-stimulating places and cognitive function among older Americans.

Neighborhoods structure health and wellbeing in later life. Local spaces can encourage physically active and socially engaged aging in place, and may also nurture opportunities for cognitively-stimulating creative and complex activities such as reading; playing and listening to music; learning; and engagement in galleries, performing arts, and museums. These activities are associated with better cognitive health outcomes.

Pregnancy and Fertility Concerns: A Survey of United States Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents.

Introduction: Reproductive life planning is an important aspect of OBGYN resident education. Despite learning about declining fertility and the implications associated with delaying pregnancy, OBGYN residents overestimate the age when fertility declines and fertility treatment success rates.

Objective: To characterize attitudes towards infertility, pregnancy timing, and fertility preservation among OBGYN residents at academic programs in the United States.

Associations among Discharge Opioid Prescribing and Inpatient Postpartum Opioid Usage after Delivery.

 The aim of the study is to identify an association between inpatient opioid consumption and prescription at discharge after vaginal delivery (VD) and cesarean delivery (CD).  This retrospective cohort study included women with an active inpatient opioid order after VD or CD between July and October of 2018 at a single academic tertiary hospital. Women with opioid use disorder, 3rd or 4th degree lacerations, wound complications, and peripartum hysterectomy were excluded.

Circulating testican-2 is a podocyte-derived marker of kidney health.

In addition to their fundamental role in clearance, the kidneys release select molecules into the circulation, but whether any of these anabolic functions provides insight on kidney health is unknown. Using aptamer-based proteomics, we characterized arterial (A)-to-renal venous (V) gradients for >1,300 proteins in 22 individuals who underwent invasive sampling. Although most of the proteins that changed significantly decreased from A to V, consistent with renal clearance, several were found to increase, the most significant of which was testican-2.

Multi-dimensional clinical phenotyping of a national cohort of adult cystic fibrosis patients.

Background: Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a multi-systemic disorder resulting from genetic variation in the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) gene which can result in bronchiectasis, chronic sinusitis, pancreatic malabsorption, cholestatic liver disease and distal intestinal obstructive syndrome. This study generates multi-dimensional clinical phenotypes that capture the complexity and spectrum of the disease manifestations seen in adult CF patients using statistically robust techniques.

Methods: Pre-transplant clinical data from adult (age ≥18 years) CF patients (n = 992) seen in six regionally distinct US CF centers between 1/1/2014 and 6/30/2015 were included.

Report from the 2018 consensus conference on immunomodulating agents in thoracic transplantation: Access, formulations, generics, therapeutic drug monitoring, and special populations.

In 2009, the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation recognized the importance and challenges surrounding generic drug immunosuppression. As experience with generics has expanded and comfort has increased, substantial issues have arisen since that time with other aspects of immunomodulation that have not been addressed, such as access to medicines, alternative immunosuppression formulations, additional generics, implications on therapeutic drug monitoring, and implications for special populations such as pediatrics and older adults. The aim of this consensus document is to address critically each of these concerns, expand on the challenges and barriers, and provide therapeutic considerations for practitioners who manage patients who need to undergo or have undergone cardiothoracic transplantation.

Phylogenetic and functional distinctiveness explain alien plant population responses to competition.

Several invasion hypotheses predict a positive association between phylogenetic and functional distinctiveness of aliens and their performance, leading to the idea that distinct aliens compete less with their resident communities. However, synthetic pattern relationships between distinctiveness and alien performance and direct tests of competition as the driving mechanism have not been forthcoming. This is likely because different patterns are observed at different spatial grains, because functional trait and phylogenetic information are often incomplete, and because of the need for competition experiments that measure demographic responses across a variety of alien species that vary in their distinctiveness.