Search

Abstract Background Black men consistently have higher rates of prostate cancer (PCA)- related mortality. Advances in PCA treatment, screening, and hereditary cancer assessment center around germline testing (GT). Of concern is the significant under-engagement of Black males in PCA GT, limiting the benefit of precision therapy and tailored cancer screening despite longstanding awareness of these disparities. To address these critical disparities, the Socioecological Model (SEM) was employed to develop comprehensive recommendations to overcome barriers and implement equitable strategies to engage Black males in PCA GT. Methods Clinical/research experts, national organization leaders, and community stakeholders spanning multiple regions in US and Africa participated in developing a framework for equity in PCA GT grounded in the SEM. A novel mixed-methods approach was employed to generate key areas to be addressed and informed statements for consensus consideration utilizing the modified Delphi model. Statements achieving strong consensus (> =75% agreement) were included in final equity frameworks addressing clinical/community engagement and research engagement. Results All societal levels of the SEM (interpersonal, institutional, community, and policy/advocacy) must deliver information about PCA GT to Black males that address benefits/limitations, clinical impact, hereditary cancer implications, with acknowledgment of mistrust (mean scores [MS] 4.57-5.00). Interpersonal strategies for information delivery included engagement of family/friends/peers/Black role models to improve education/awareness and overcome mistrust (MS 4.65-5.00). Institutional strategies included diversifying clinical, research, and educational programs and integrating community liaisons into healthcare institutions (MS 4.57-5.00). Community strategies included partnerships with healthcare institutions and visibility of healthcare providers/researchers at community events (MS 4.65–4.91). Policy/advocacy included improving partnerships between advocacy and healthcare/community organizations while protecting patient benefits (MS 4.57-5.00). Media strategies were endorsed for the first time at every level (MS 4.56-5.00). Conclusion The SEM-based equity frameworks proposed provide the first multidisciplinary strategies dedicated to increase engagement of Black males in PCA GT, which are critical to reduce disparities in PCA-mortality through informing tailored screening, targeted therapy, and cascade testing in families.

Older adults with serious mental illness (SMI) have compromised physical function that could be improved with exercise; however, retention in exercise programs is a challenge. This study was a retrospective analysis of retention for the 150 older veterans with SMI that enrolled in Gerofit, a clinical exercise program offered in the Veterans Health Administration. Chi-square and t-tests were conducted to evaluate baseline differences between those that were and were not retained at six and 12 months. Retention was 33% and better health-related quality of life and endurance were related to retention. Future work is needed to improve exercise program retention in this population.

Abstract The aim of this study is to describe a case of haemoglobinuria in a cat after near‐drowning. A 6‐year‐old male neutered domestic short hair cat weighing 6.5 kg with a pre‐existing seizure disorder presented to an emergency hospital after near‐drowning in a swimming pool during a seizure episode. On presentation, the patient was obtunded, dyspnoeic, bradycardic and hypothermic. Imaging revealed evidence of severe bilateral pulmonary infiltrates. Treatment with intravenous diazepam, amoxicillin, fluid therapy, active warming and oxygen therapy was administered. The cat developed haemoglobinuria approximately 6 h after nearly drowning. Despite improvements in mentation, pulse quality and heart rate, respiratory compromise and poor oxygen saturation persisted, prompting euthanasia approximately 10 h after admission. To the author's knowledge, this is the first reported clinical case of haemoglobinuria following near‐drowning in veterinary medicine.

Problem solving has been regarded as one of the most important cognitive skills in everyday life. The complexity of problem solving in technical areas is a critical component to developing the problem solving abilities of agricultural education students. This study grounded in Kirton's AdaptationInnovation Theory (A-I Theory), sought to identify the effects of cognitive style diversity on the time to solution and hypothesis generation ability of undergraduate students enrolled in an agricultural mechanics course at Louisiana State University during the spring semester of 2018 (n = 17) and spring semester of 2019 (n = 15). Students were divided into three groups based on their Kirton's Adaptation-Innovation Inventory (KAI) scores into three cognitive style diversity groups including (a) homogenous innovative, (b) homogenous adaptive, and (c) heterogenous. Overall, the more heterogeneous cognitive style diversity group was able to solve the problem more quickly as well as being the most successful group to hypothesize correctly, with the homogeneous innovator group being the slowest to reach conclusion. From the results of this study, it is recommended that educators consider cognitive styles when grouping students in undergraduate courses that are heavily laboratory based.

There is increased recognition for solutions that address the social determinants of health (SDOHs)—the context in which families are raising children. Unfortunately, implementing solutions that address inequities in the SDOHs has proven to be difficult. Many child and family serving systems and communities do not know where to start or do not have the capacity to identify and implement upstream SDOH strategies. As such, we conducted a scoping review to assess the status of evidence connecting strategies that address the SDOHs and child well-being. A total of 29,079 records were identified using natural language processing with 341 records meeting inclusion criteria (e.g., outcomes focused on child well-being, interventions happening at a population level, and evaluations of prevention strategies in the United States). Records were coded, and the findings are presented by the SDOH domain, such as strategies that addressed economic stability (n = 94), education access and quality (n = 17), food security (n = 106), healthcare access and quality (n = 96), neighborhood and built environment (n = 7), and social and community context (n = 12). This review provides an overview of the associations between population-level SDOH strategies and the impact—good and bad—on child well-being and may be a useful resource for communities and practitioners when considering equitable solutions that promote thriving childhoods.

Native Americans domesticated maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) from lowland teosinte parviglumis (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis) in the warm Mexican southwest and brought it to the highlands of Mexico and South America where it was exposed to lower temperatures that imposed strong selection on flowering time. Phospholipids are important metabolites in plant responses to low-temperature and phosphorus availability and have been suggested to influence flowering time. Here, we combined linkage mapping with genome scans to identify High PhosphatidylCholine 1 (HPC1), a gene that encodes a phospholipase A1 enzyme, as a major driver of phospholipid variation in highland maize. Common garden experiments demonstrated strong genotype-by-environment interactions associated with variation at HPC1, with the highland HPC1 allele leading to higher fitness in highlands, possibly by hastening flowering. The highland maize HPC1 variant resulted in impaired function of the encoded protein due to a polymorphism in a highly conserved sequence. A meta-analysis across HPC1 orthologs indicated a strong association between the identity of the amino acid at this position and optimal growth in prokaryotes. Mutagenesis of HPC1 via genome editing validated its role in regulating phospholipid metabolism. Finally, we showed that the highland HPC1 allele entered cultivated maize by introgression from the wild highland teosinte Zea mays ssp. mexicana and has been maintained in maize breeding lines from the Northern United States, Canada, and Europe. Thus, HPC1 introgressed from teosinte mexicana underlies a large metabolic QTL that modulates phosphatidylcholine levels and has an adaptive effect at least in part via induction of early flowering time.

In higher education classrooms, teacher-centered instruction remains the dominant learning approach. However, as calls have increased for university graduates to demonstrate the ability to solve complex problems, active learning strategies such as flipped classrooms and team-based learning (TBL), have emerged as popular approaches to ensure students possess such skills. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate students' perceptions of TBL in a flipped introductory to agricultural mechanics course. After data collection, the quantitative and qualitative strands were analyzed independently, compared, and then merged to draw meta-inferences. Quantitative findings suggested that students exhibited an overwhelmingly positive view of TBL. Due to the complexity of the qualitative findings, however, they were assigned priority. To understand the intricacies of students' perspectives, we narrated the emergent themes through Brunswick's three zones of judgment: (1) acceptance, (b) non-commitment, and (c) rejection. As a result, we noted more diversity in students' perspectives. However, they remained satisfied with the course overall. Moving forward, we offer recommendations for future research, theory building, and practice in regard to TBL's use.

The popularity of the ancient, probiotic-rich beverage Kombucha Tea (KT) has surged in part due to its purported health benefits, which include protection against metabolic diseases; however, these claims have not been rigorously tested and the mechanisms underlying host response to the probiotics in KT are unknown. Here, we establish a reproducible method to maintain C. elegans on a diet exclusively consisting of Kombucha Tea-associated microbes (KTM), which mirrors the microbial community found in the fermenting culture. KT microbes robustly colonize the gut of KTM-fed animals and confer normal development and fecundity. Intriguingly, animals consuming KTMs display a marked reduction in total lipid stores and lipid droplet size. We find that the reduced fat accumulation phenotype is not due to impaired nutrient absorption, but rather it is sustained by a programed metabolic response in the intestine of the host. KTM consumption triggers widespread transcriptional changes within core lipid metabolism pathways, including upregulation of a suite of lysosomal lipase genes that are induced during lipophagy. The elevated lysosomal lipase activity, coupled with a decrease in lipid droplet biogenesis, is partially required for the reduction in host lipid content. We propose that KTM consumption stimulates a fasting-like response in the C. elegans intestine by rewiring transcriptional programs to promote lipid utilization. Our results provide mechanistic insight into how the probiotics in Kombucha Tea reshape host metabolism and how this popular beverage may impact human metabolism.

Here, we report that the LynB splice variant of the Src-family kinase Lyn exerts a dominant immunosuppressive function in vivo, whereas the LynA isoform is uniquely required to restrain autoimmunity in female mice. We used CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to constrain lyn splicing and expression, generating single-isoform LynA knockout (LynAKO) or LynBKO mice. Autoimmune disease in total LynKO mice is characterized by production of antinuclear antibodies, glomerulonephritis, impaired B cell development, and overabundance of activated B cells and proinflammatory myeloid cells. Expression of LynA or LynB alone uncoupled the developmental phenotype from the autoimmune disease: B cell transitional populations were restored, but myeloid cells and differentiated B cells were dysregulated. These changes were isoform-specific, sexually dimorphic, and distinct from the complete LynKO. Despite the apparent differences in disease etiology and penetrance, loss of either LynA or LynB had the potential to induce severe autoimmune disease with parallels to human systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Abstract Background although being central for the biology and druggability of hormone-receptor positive, HER2 negative metastatic breast cancer (MBC), ESR1 and PIK3CA mutations are simplistically dichotomized as mutated or wild type in current clinical practice. Methods The study analyzed a multi-institutional cohort comprising 703 patients with luminal-like MBC characterized for circulating tumor DNA through next generation sequencing (NGS). Pathway classification was defined based on previous work (i.e., RTK, RAS, RAF, MEK, NRF2, ER, WNT, MYC, P53, cell cycle, notch, PI3K). Single nucleotide variations (SNVs) were annotated for their oncogenicity through OncoKB. Only pathogenic variants were included in the models. Associations among clinical characteristics, pathway classification, and ESR1/PIK3CA codon variants were explored. Results The results showed a differential pattern of associations for ESR1 and PIK3CA codon variants in terms of co-occurring pathway alterations patterns of metastatic dissemination, and prognosis. ESR1 537 was associated with SNVs in the ER and RAF pathways, CNVs in the MYC pathway and bone metastases, while ESR1 538 with SNVs in the cell cycle pathway and liver metastases. PIK3CA 1047 and 542 were associated with CNVs in the PI3K pathway and with bone metastases. Conclusions The study demonstrated how ESR1 and PIK3CA codon variants, together with alterations in specific oncogenic pathways, can differentially impact the biology and clinical phenotype of luminal-like MBC. As novel endocrine therapy agents such as selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDS) and PI3K inhibitors are being developed, these results highlight the pivotal role of ctDNA NGS to describe tumor evolution and optimize clinical decision making.

BackgroundBody mass index (BMI), a well-known risk factor for poor cardiovascular outcomes, is associated with differential DNA methylation (DNAm). Similarly, metabolic health has also been associated with changes in DNAm. It is unclear how overall metabolic health outside of BMI may modify the relationship between BMI and methylation profiles, and what consequences this may have on downstream cardiovascular disease. The purpose of this study was to identify cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites at which the association between BMI and DNAm could be modified by overall metabolic health.ResultsThe discovery study population was derived from three Women's Health Initiative (WHI) ancillary studies (n = 3977) and two Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) ancillary studies (n = 3520). Findings were validated in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) cohort (n = 1200). Generalized linear models regressed methylation β values on the interaction between BMI and metabolic health Z score (BMI × MHZ) adjusted for BMI, MHZ, cell composition, chip number and location, study characteristics, top three ancestry principal components, smoking, age, ethnicity (WHI), and sex (ARIC). Among the 429,566 sites examined, differential associations between BMI × MHZ and DNAm were identified at 22 CpG sites (FDR q

BackgroundDiet quality is a risk factor for chronic disease and mortality. Differential DNA methylation across the epigenome has been associated with chronic disease risk. Whether diet quality is associated with differential methylation is unknown. This study assessed whether diet quality was associated with differential DNA methylation measured across 445 548 loci in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) and the TwinsUK cohort.DesignThe discovery cohort consisted of 4355 women from the WHI. The replication cohort consisted of 571 mono- and dizygotic twins from the TwinsUK cohort. DNA methylation was measured in whole blood using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 Beadchip. Diet quality was assessed using the Alternative Healthy Eating Index 2010 (AHEI-2010). A meta-analysis, stratified by study cohort, was performed using generalized linear models that regressed methylation on AHEI-2010, adjusting for cell composition, chip number and location, study characteristics, principal components of genetic relatedness, age, smoking status, race/ethnicity and body mass index (BMI). Statistical significance was defined as a false discovery rate < 0.05. Significant sites were tested for replication in the TwinsUK cohort, with significant replication defined by P

In 2015, the United States Department of Agriculture reported that agriculture baccalaureate graduates were only expected to fill two-thirds of the available job openings. To address this need, it has become critical for colleges of agriculture to retain high-quality students. In response, universities have attempted to determine the practices to foster student success. Therefore, in this study we aimed to investigate how goal orientation factors (i.e., mastery goal orientation and academic efficacy) may influence the academic success (i.e., first semester GPA, second semester GPA) of College of Agriculture (COA) freshmen. The current investigation was grounded in goal orientation and social self-efficacy theory, which allowed us to understand self-efficacy's influence on students' academic performance. The findings from this study suggested that social and academic efficacy influenced the student academic achievement of COA freshmen. Therefore, it is recommended that university leaders foster self-efficacy for university agricultural students and that future research be conducted to determine the variables that describe the variance in first semester GPA and retention best.

Response-to-intervention (RtI) is a multi-tiered framework designed to prevent academic difficulties by facilitating robust, research-based instruction and providing targeted or individualized short-term interventions for students at-risk per periodic screening and progress monitoring data. The cornerstone of RtI is data-based decision-making to guide system-wide practices as well as ensure appropriate student-level academic supports and accurate decisions. However, a 2010 survey of administrators representing over 1000 districts suggest that most schools do not use data-based decisions and research-based interventions. As such, the extent to which RtI generally and data-driven best practices, specifically, occur in schools is unknown. To that end, we surveyed school psychologists to evaluate the extent to which RtI and data-driven practices are implemented. Further, we asked about related training. Findings suggest that although screening data is collected frequently, academic progress monitoring is not and, overall, using data to make instructional or intervention decisions is not part of regular practice.

Oxygen therapeutics has a range of applications in transfusion medicine and disease treatment. Synthetic molecules and all‐natural or semisynthetic hemoglobin‐based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) have seen success as potential circulating oxygen carriers. However, many early HBOC products stalled in development due to side effects from excess hemoglobin in the blood stream and hemoglobin entering the tissue. To overcome these issues, research has focused on increasing the molecular diameter of hemoglobin by polymerizing hemoglobin molecules or encapsulating hemoglobin in liposomal carriers. This work leverages the properties of silk fibroin, a cytocompatible and nonthrombogenic biopolymer, known to entrap protein‐based cargo, to engineer a fully protein‐based oxygen carrier. Herein, an all‐aqueous solvent evaporation technique is used to form silk particles via phase separation from a bulk polyvinyl alcohol phase. Particle size is tuned, and particles are formed with and without hemoglobin. The encapsulation efficiency and ferrous state of hemoglobin are analyzed, resulting in 60% encapsulation efficiency and a maximum of 20% ferric hemoglobin, yielding 100 μg mL−1 active hemoglobin in certain silk fibroin‐HBOCs formulations. The system does not elicit a strong inflammation response in vitro, demonstrating the potential for this particle system to serve as an injectable HBOC.

Abstract The Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) was a key biogeographic event in the history of the Americas. The rising of the Panamanian land bridge ended the isolation of South America and ushered in a period of dispersal, mass extinction, and new community assemblages, which sparked competition, adaptation, and speciation. Diversification across many bird groups, and the elevational zonation of others, ties back to events triggered by the GABI. But the exact timing of these events is still being revealed, with recent studies suggesting a much earlier time window for faunal exchange, perhaps as early as 20 million years ago (Mya). Using a time‐calibrated phylogenetic tree, we show that the jay genus Cyanolyca is emblematic of bird dispersal trends, with an early, pre‐land bridge dispersal from Mesoamerica to South America 6.3–7.3 Mya, followed by a back‐colonization of C. cucullata to Mesoamerica 2.3–4.8 Mya, likely after the land bridge was complete. As Cyanolyca species came into contact in Mesoamerica, they avoided competition due to a prior shift to lower elevation in the ancestor of C. cucullata. This shift allowed C. cucullata to integrate itself into the Mesoamerican highland avifauna, which our time‐calibrated phylogeny suggests was already populated by higher‐elevation, congeneric dwarf‐jays (C. argentigula, C. pumilo, C. mirabilis, and C. nanus). The outcome of these events and fortuitous elevational zonation was that C. cucullata could continue colonizing new highland areas farther north during the Pleistocene. Resultingly, four C. cucullata lineages became isolated in allopatric, highland regions from Panama to Mexico, diverging in genetics, morphology, plumage, and vocalizations. At least two of these lineages are best described as species (C. mitrata and C. cucullata). Continued study will further document the influence of the GABI and help clarify how dispersal and vicariance shaped modern‐day species assemblages in the Americas.

The Phoenix Zoo has partnered with US Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Game and Fish Department, US Forest Service, and other organizations for more than 25 years to help recover Chiricahua leopard frogs (Rana [=Lithobates] chiricahuensis) in Arizona, USA. This federally threatened species faces declines due to habitat loss and degradation, long-term drought, disease, and invasive species. Over 26,000 larvae, froglets, and adults, as well as 26 egg masses produced by adults held at the Phoenix Zoo have been released to the wild, augmenting and/or re-establishing wild populations. Chiricahua leopard frog-occupied sites in Arizona have increased from 38 in 2007, when the species’ recovery plan was published, to a high of 155 in the last five years, as a result of ex situ and in situ conservation efforts. As one of the longest-running programs of its kind in the United States, communication among partners has been key to sustaining it. Recovery strategies and complex decisions are made as a team and we have worked through numerous management challenges together. Though Chiricahua leopard frogs still face significant threats and a long road to recovery, this program serves as a strong example of the positive effects of conservation partnerships for native wildlife.