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The perspective of the patient, also called the “patient voice”, is an essential element in materials created for cancer supportive care. Identifying that voice, however, can be a challenge for researchers and developers. A multidisciplinary team at a health information company tasked with addressing this issue created a representational model they call the “cancer experience map”. This map, designed as a tool for content developers, offers a window into the complex perspectives inside the cancer experience. Informed by actual patient quotes, the map shows common overall themes for cancer patients, concerns at key treatment points, strategies for patient engagement, and targeted behavioral goals. In this article, the team members share the process by which they created the map as well as its first use as a resource for cancer support videos. The article also addresses the broader policy implications of including the patient voice in supportive cancer content, particularly with regard to mHealth apps.

Resource selection informs understanding of a species' ecology and is especially pertinent for invasive species. Since introduced to Canada, wild pigs (Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1978) remain understudied despite recognized negative impacts on native and agricultural systems globally. Elsewhere in North America, pigs typically use forests and forage in agricultural crops. We hypothesized Canadian wild pigs would behave similarly, and using GPS locations from 15 individuals, we examined diel and seasonal resource selection and movement in the Canadian prairie region. Forests were predominately selected during the day, while corn (Zea mays L.), oilseeds, and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were predominately selected at night. Forests and corn were consistently selected throughout the growing season. Wetlands and forests showed greater use rates than other habitats, with evident trade-offs as crop use increased with the timing of maturation. Activity was consistent with foraging in growing crops. Results indicate diel patterns were likely a function of short-term needs to avoid daytime anthropogenic risk, while seasonal patterns demonstrate how habitats that fill multiple functional roles--food, cover, and thermoregulation--can be optimized. Understanding selection by invasive species is an important step in understanding their potential environmental impacts in novel environments and informs their management. Key words: wild pigs, Sus scrofa, habitat selection, residency time, persistence velocity, Canadian prairies La sélection de ressources permet de mieux comprendre l'écologie des espèces, tout particulièrement en ce qui concerne les espèces envahissantes. Depuis leur introduction au Canada, les sangliers (Sus scrofa Linnaeus, 1758) demeurent peu étudiés, malgré leurs impacts négatifs établis sur des systèmes indigènes et agricoles à l'échelle mondiale. Ailleurs en Amérique du Nord, les sangliers utilisent typiquement des forêts et se nourrissent de cultures. Nous avons postulé que les sangliers canadiens se comporteraient de manière semblable et, en utilisant les positions GPS de 15 spécimens, nous avons étudié leurs motifs nycthéméraux et saisonniers de sélection de ressources et de déplacement dans la région des prairies canadiennes. Durant la journée, des forêts sont sélectionnées de manière prédominante, alors que, durant la nuit, des cultures de maïs (Zea mays L.), d'oléagineuses et de blé (Triticum aestivum L.) sont sélectionnées de manière prédominante. Des forêts et des cultures de maïs sont uniformément sélectionnées tout au long de la période végétative. Les fréquences d'utilisation de milieux humides et de forêts sont plus élevées que celles d'autres habitats, et sont associées à des compromis évidents avec l'augmentation de l'utilisation des cultures au fil de leur maturation. Les motifs d'activité concordent avec une quête de nourriture dans des cultures en croissance. Les résultats indiquent que les motifs nycthéméraux sont probablement fonction du besoin à court terme d'évitement de risques d'origine humaine durant le jour, alors que les motifs saisonniers illustrent comment des habitats qui jouent plusieurs rôles fonctionnels (alimentation, couvert et thermorégulation) peuvent être optimisés. La compréhension de la sélection par des espèces envahissantes constitue un pas important pour comprendre leurs impacts environnementaux potentiels dans de nouveaux milieux et éclairer leur gestion. [Traduit par la Rédaction] Mots-clés : sanglier, Sus scrofa, sélection d'habitats, temps de résidence, vitesse de persistance, prairies canadiennes, Introduction Resource selection is a scale-dependent process, with spatial and temporal scale influencing the contribution of various environmental factors (e.g., landcover; Mayor et al. 2009) on animal landscape-use patterns. While [...]

IntroductionFrontotemporal lobar degeneration-causing mutations in the progranulin (GRN) gene reduce progranulin protein (PGRN) levels, suggesting that restoring PGRN in mutation carriers may be therapeutic. Nimodipine, a Food and Drug Administration-approved blood-brain barrier-penetrant calcium channel blocker, increased PGRN levels in PGRN-deficient murine models. We sought to assess safety and tolerability of oral nimodipine in human GRN mutation carriers.MethodsWe performed an open-label, 8-week, dose-finding, phase 1 clinical trial in eight GRN mutation carriers to assess the safety and tolerability of nimodipine and assayed fluid and radiologic markers to investigate therapeutic endpoints.ResultsThere were no serious adverse events; however, PGRN concentrations (cerebrospinal fluid and plasma) did not change significantly following treatment (percent changes of -5.2 ± 10.9% in plasma and -10.2 ± 7.8% in cerebrospinal fluid). Measurable atrophy within the left middle frontal gyrus was observed over an 8-week period.DiscussionWhile well tolerated, nimodipine treatment did not alter PGRN concentrations or secondary outcomes.

Over the past fifteen years, a narrative has developed that IR scholars have become a "cult of the irrelevant," with declining influence on and engagement with policy debates. Despite these assertions, the evidence for limited policy engagement has been anecdotal. We investigate the extent of policy engagement—the ways in which IR scholars participate in policy-making processes and/or attempt to shape those processes—by surveying IR scholars directly about their engagement activities. We find policy engagement is pervasive among IR scholars. We draw on theories of credit-claiming to motivate expectations about how and when scholars are likely to engage with practitioners. Consistent with our expectations, much of this engagement comes in forms that involve small time commitments and provide opportunities for credit-claiming, such as media appearances and short-form, bylined op-eds and blog posts. However, sizable minorities report engaging in consulting activities not for attribution/publication and writing policy briefs, and a majority of respondents indicate they engaged in these activities several times a year or more. We find only small differences in engagement across gender and rank. Our results demonstrate that, for IR scholars, some form of policy engagement is the norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does the decline in paradigmatic self-identification mean for how international relations (IR) scholars think about the world? We answer this question with a 2020 survey among nearly two thousand IR scholars. We uncover a two-dimensional latent theoretical belief space based on scholarly agreement with conjectures about the state, ideas, international institutions, domestic politics, globalization, and racism. The first dimension separates status quo–oriented scholars from more critical scholars. The second dimension captures the realist–institutionalist divide. We have three key findings. First, non-paradigmatic scholars vary greatly in their theoretical beliefs. Second, measurement invariance tests show that there is a similar structure underlying the beliefs of paradigmatic and non-paradigmatic scholars. Third, we find no evidence that non-paradigmatic scholars rely less on their theoretical beliefs in making predictions about conflict, institutions, political economy, democracy, and human rights. Instead, the positions of scholars in the two-dimensional theoretical belief space rather than self-assigned paradigmatic labels correlate with predictions about the world. Our findings suggest that non-paradigmatic scholars are not so different from self-identified Liberals, Constructivists, and Realists, although the decline of paradigmatic self-identification may still matter for how scholars organize debates and disciplinary divides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how international status concerns among the public affect support for political leaders, arguing that because status competition is pervasive in social life and because international status competition entails high‐profile displays of scientific or martial savvy, the public is likely to be attuned to the status implications of foreign policy crises. We test this argument in seven survey experiments across four issue areas. The results show that adverse outcomes in world affairs increase expectations of international status loss and, through that mechanism, reduce presidential approval. Analysis of open‐ended survey responses reveals that the public views international status in much the same way that international relations scholars do: it is multidimensional, positional, and instrumentally useful. Taken together, our results suggest that the public's international status concerns have significant implications for leaders and offer new insight into how the public parses the implications of events abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concentric pulmonary vascular wall thickening due partially to increased pulmonary artery (PA) smooth muscle cell (PASMC) proliferation contributes to elevating pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH). Although pulmonary vasoconstriction may be an early contributor to increasing PVR, the transition of contractile PASMCs to proliferative PASMCs may play an important role in the development and progression of pulmonary vascular remodeling in PH. A rise in cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+ ]cyt) is a trigger for PASMC contraction and proliferation. Here, we report that upregulation of Piezo1, a mechanosensitive cation channel, is involved in the contractile-to-proliferative phenotypic transition of PASMCs and potential development of pulmonary vascular remodeling. By comparing freshly isolated PA (contractile PASMCs) and primary cultured PASMCs (from the same rat) in a growth medium (proliferative PASMCs), we found that Piezo1, Notch2/3, and CaSR protein levels were significantly higher in proliferative PASMCs than in contractile PASMCs. Upregulated Piezo1 was associated with an increase in expression of PCNA, a marker for cell proliferation, whereas downregulation (with siRNA) or inhibition (with GsMTx4) of Piezo1 attenuated PASMC proliferation. Furthermore, Piezo1 in the remodeled PA from rats with experimental PH was upregulated compared with PA from control rats. These data indicate that PASMC contractile-to-proliferative phenotypic transition is associated with the transition or adaptation of membrane channels and receptors. Upregulated Piezo1 may play a critical role in PASMC phenotypic transition and PASMC proliferation. Upregulation of Piezo1 in proliferative PASMCs may likely be required to provide sufficient Ca2+ to assure nuclear/cell division and PASMC proliferation, contributing to the development and progression of pulmonary vascular remodeling in PH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars continue to debate the relationship of academic international relations to policy. One of the most straightforward ways to discern whether policymakers find IR scholarship relevant to their work is to ask them. We analyzed an elite survey of US policy practitioners to better understand the conditions under which practitioners use academic knowledge in their work. We surveyed officials across three different policy areas: international development, national security, and trade. We also employed multiple survey experiments in an effort to causally identify the impact of academic consensus on the views of policy officials and to estimate the relative utility of different kinds of research outputs. We found that policymakers frequently engage with academic ideas, find an array of research outputs and approaches useful, and that scholarly findings can shift their views. Key obstacles to using academic knowledge include practitioners' lack of time as well as academic work being too abstract and not timely, but not that it is overly quantitative. Additionally, we documented important differences between national security officials and their counterparts who work in the areas of development and trade. We suggest that this variation is rooted in the nature of the different policy areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]