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Objectives : Eudaimonic well-being (EWB), increasingly recognized as a critical component of health, typically declines in later life, and there are no existing programs to sustain or increase EWB in older adults. Lighten UP! is an 8-week program to promote EWB through facilitated group sessions in community settings and at-home practice. Building on earlier pilot research, the current study assessed the effect of the Lighten UP! Program using a longitudinal, multi-site design. Methods : Men and women (N = 169) aged 60 and over were recruited from three Wisconsin communities. EWB, life satisfaction, depression, and diverse aspects of health were assessed before and after the program and at 6-month follow up. Results : Participants reported significantly increased EWB; these changes were maintained 6 months later. The specific EWB domains of self-acceptance, positive relations, and personal growth showed the most robust gains. Participants also showed significant and sustained declines in depressive symptoms, anxiety, and hostility. Conclusions : Lighten UP! Program confirmed its positive effects for enhancing EWB in older adults living in multiple community settings. Clinical Implications : Programs that sustain or enhance EWB in older adults can be expected to yield improvements in diverse aspects of mental and physical health.

Unlabelled: FAM83B (family with sequence similarity 83, member B) was recently identified as a novel oncogene involved in activating CRAF/MAPK signaling and driving epithelial cell transformation. FAM83B is one of eight members of a protein family (FAM83) characterized by a highly conserved domain of unknown function (DUF1669), which is necessary and sufficient to drive transformation. Here, it is demonstrated that additional FAM83 members also exhibit oncogenic properties and have significantly elevated levels of expression in multiple human tumor types using a TissueScan Cancer Survey Panel PCR array and database mining. Furthermore, modeling the observed tumor expression of FAM83A, FAM83C, FAM83D, or FAM83E promoted human mammary epithelial cell (HMEC) transformation, which correlated with the ability of each FAM83 member to bind CRAF (RAF1) and promote CRAF membrane localization. Conversely, ablation of FAM83A or FAM83D from breast cancer cells resulted in diminished MAPK signaling with marked suppression of growth in vitro and tumorigenicity in vivo. Importantly, each FAM83 member was determined to be elevated in at least one of 17 distinct tumor types examined, with FAM83A, FAM83B, and FAM83D most frequently overexpressed in several diverse tissue types. Finally, evidence suggests that elevated expression of FAM83 members is associated with elevated tumor grade and decreased overall survival., Implications: FAM83 proteins represent a novel family of oncogenes suitable for the development of cancer therapies aimed at suppressing MAPK signaling., (©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.)

Therapies targeting MAPK and AKT/mTOR signaling are currently being evaluated in clinical trials for several tumor types. However, recent studies suggest that these therapies may be limited due to acquired cancer cell resistance and a small therapeutic index between normal and cancer cells. The identification of novel proteins that are involved in MAPK or AKT/mTOR signaling and differentially expressed between normal and cancer cells will provide mechanistically distinct therapeutic targets with the potential to inhibit these key cancer-associated pathways. We recently identified FAM83B as a novel, previously uncharacterized oncogene capable of hyperactivating MAPK and mTOR signaling and driving the tumorigenicity of immortalized human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC). We show here that elevated FAM83B expression also activates the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway and confers a decreased sensitivity to PI3K, AKT, and mTOR inhibitors. FAM83B co-precipitated with the p85α and p110α subunits of PI3K, as well as AKT, and increased p110α and AKT membrane localization, consistent with elevated PI3K/AKT signaling. In tumor-derived cells harboring elevated FAM83B expression, ablation of FAM83B decreased p110α and AKT membrane localization, suppressed AKT phosphorylation, and diminished proliferation, AIG, and tumorigenicity in vivo. We propose that the level of FAM83B expression may be an important factor to consider when combined therapies targeting MAPK and AKT/mTOR signaling are used. Moreover, the identification of FAM83B as a novel oncogene and its integral involvement in activating PI3K/AKT and MAPK provides a foundation for future therapies aimed at targeting FAM83B in order to suppress the growth of PI3K/AKT- and MAPK-driven cancers.

This article emphasises the need for the development of a therapeutic relationship between nurse and patient in day surgery settings. While the short patient stay associated with day surgery may appear to mitigate against this, the use of interpersonal skills can directly support its augmentation. Enhancing skills such as listening, empowerment and caring has the potential to increase patient satisfaction with services in this area.