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A letter to the editor is presented which discusses the therapeutic use of noncalcemic Vitamin D analogs in the treatment of scleroderma and autoimmune diseases.

Military Children who have experienced multiple deployments of one or both parents are more likely to have emotional and behavioral difficulties compared with their civilian peers (e.g., Chandra et al., 2010 ). The U.S. Army Medical Command has tasked the Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Office (CAF-BHO) to develop programs to address the behavioral health (BH) needs of Army Children and Families. This article will describe the efforts of the CAF-BHO Training Section to disseminate and implement an evidence based practice training curriculum for Army Child and Family Behavioral Health Providers. Specifically, this article will detail: (a) the decision making strategy used to identify the training protocol for dissemination, (b) adaptations to the training program and treatment protocol to fit a Military context, and (c) efforts to implement, maximize and sustain utilization of evidence-based practices by Military BH providers over a large geographical area with limited resources.

Acute hyperadrenergic stressor states are accompanied by cation dyshomeostasis, together with the release of cardiac troponins predictive of necrosis. The signal-transducer-effector pathway accounting for this pathophysiological scenario remains unclear. We hypothesized that a dyshomeostasis of extra- and intracellular Ca2+ and Zn2+ occurs in rats in response to isoproterenol (Isop) including excessive intracellular Ca2+ accumulation (EICA) and mitochondrial [Ca2+]m-induced oxidative stress. Contemporaneously, the selective translocation of Ca2+ and Zn2+ to tissues contributes to their fallen plasma levels. Rats received a single subcutaneous injection of Isop (1 mg/kg body wt). Other groups of rats received pretreatment for 10 days with either carvedilol (C), a β-adrenergic receptor antagonist with mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter-inhibiting properties, or quercetin (Q), a flavonoid with mitochondrial-targeted antioxidant properties, before Isop. We monitored temporal responses in the following: [Ca2+] and [Zn2+] in plasma, left ventricular (LV) apex, equator and base, skeletal muscle, liver, spleen, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), indices of oxidative stress and antioxidant defenses, mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening, and myocardial fibrosis. We found ionized hypocalcemia and hypozincemia attributable to their tissue translocation and also a heterogeneous distribution of these cations among tissues with a preferential Ca2+ accumulation in the LV apex, muscle, and PBMC, whereas Zn2+ declined except in liver, where it increased corresponding with upregulation of metallothionein, a Zn2+-binding protein. EICA was associated with a simultaneous increase in tissue 8-isoprostane and increased [Ca2+]m accompanied by a rise in H2O2 generation, mPTP opening, and scarring, each of which were prevented by either C or Q. Thus excessive [Ca2+]m, coupled with the induction of oxidative stress and increased mPTP opening, suggests that this signal-transducer-effector pathway is responsible for Isop-induced cardiomyocyte necrosis at the LV apex.