Project description:Community-based practice networks for research and improving the quality of care are growing in size and number but have variable success rates. In this paper, the authors review recent efforts to initiate a community-based hypertension network modeled after the successful Outpatient Quality Improvement Network (O'QUIN) project, located at the Medical University of South Carolina. Key lessons learned and new directions to be explored are highlighted.
Project description:Since its start in 1998, Software Carpentry has evolved from a week-long training course at the US national laboratories into a worldwide volunteer effort to improve researchers' computing skills. This paper explains what we have learned along the way, the challenges we now face, and our plans for the future.
Project description:Central venous catheter placement is a relatively common procedure in current practice, but it is not devoid of risks. Utmost care must be taken to follow a correct technique, and only appropriately trained and/or supervised medical professionals should perform this invasive act. One of the possible complications, completely avoidable by appropriate care, is the intravascular loss of the guide wire during insertion, which is a potentially serious complication. We describe one such case.
Project description:We have collected several valuable lessons that will help improve transcriptomics experimentation. These lessons relate to experiment design, execution, and analysis. The cautions, but also the pointers, may help biologists avoid common pitfalls in transcriptomics experimentation and achieve better results with their transcriptome studies.
Project description:The stereoselective synthesis of cyclobutanes that possess an array of stereocenters in a contiguous fashion has attracted the wide interest of the synthetic community. Cyclobutanes can be generated from the contraction of pyrrolidines through the formation of 1,4-biradical intermediates. Little else is known about the reaction mechanism of this reaction. Here, we unveil the mechanism for this stereospecific synthesis of cyclobutanes by means of density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The rate-determining step of this transformation corresponds to the release of N2 from the 1,1-diazene intermediate to form an open-shell singlet 1,4-biradical. The formation of the stereoretentive product is explained by the barrierless collapse of this open-shell singlet 1,4-biradical. The knowledge of the reaction mechanism is used to predict that the methodology could be amenable to the synthesis of [2]-ladderanes and bicyclic cyclobutanes.
Project description:(1) Objectives: to investigate the main lessons learned from the public health (PH) response to COVID-19, using the global perspective endorsed by the WHO pillars, and understand what countries have learned from their practical actions. (2) Methods: we searched for articles in PubMed and CINAHL from 1 January 2020 to 31 January 2022. 455 articles were included. Inclusion criteria were PH themes and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. One hundred and forty-four articles were finally included in a detailed scoping review. (3) Findings: 78 lessons learned were available, cited 928 times in the 144 articles. Our review highlighted 5 main lessons learned among the WHO regions: need for continuous coordination between PH institutions and organisations (1); importance of assessment and evaluation of risk factors for the diffusion of COVID-19, identifying vulnerable populations (2); establishment of evaluation systems to assess the impact of planned PH measures (3); extensive application of digital technologies, telecommunications and electronic health records (4); need for periodic scientific reviews to provide regular updates on the most effective PH management strategies (5). (4) Conclusion: lessons found in this review could be essential for the future, providing recommendations for an increasingly flexible, fast and efficient PH response to a healthcare emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Project description:Quantitative fundus autofluorescence (qAF) is an approach that is built on a confocal scanning laser platform and used to measure the intensity of the inherent autofluorescence of retina elicited by short-wavelength (488 nm) excitation. Being non-invasive, qAF does not interrupt tissue architecture, thus allowing for structural correlations. The spectral features, cellular origin and topographic distribution of the natural autofluorescence of the fundus indicate that it is emitted from retinaldehyde-adducts that form in photoreceptor cells and accumulate, under most conditions, in retinal pigment epithelial cells. The distributions and intensities of fundus autofluorescence deviate from normal in many retinal disorders and it is widely recognized that these changing patterns can aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of retinal disease. The standardized protocol employed by qAF involves the normalization of fundus grey levels to a fluorescent reference installed in the imaging instrument. Together with corrections for magnification and anterior media absorption, this approach facilitates comparisons with serial images and images acquired within groups of patients. Here we provide a comprehensive summary of the principles and practice of qAF and we highlight recent efforts to elucidate retinal disease processes by combining qAF with multi-modal imaging.
Project description:Erroneous conversion of gene names into other dates and other data types has been a frustration for computational biologists for years. We hypothesized that such errors in supplementary files might diminish after a report in 2016 highlighting the extent of the problem. To assess this, we performed a scan of supplementary files published in PubMed Central from 2014 to 2020. Overall, gene name errors continued to accumulate unabated in the period after 2016. An improved scanning software we developed identified gene name errors in 30.9% (3,436/11,117) of articles with supplementary Excel gene lists; a figure significantly higher than previously estimated. This is due to gene names being converted not just to dates and floating-point numbers, but also to internal date format (five-digit numbers). These findings further reinforce that spreadsheets are ill-suited to use with large genomic data.
Project description:Asthma is a common complex disease of the airways. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of asthma have identified many risk alleles and loci that have been replicated in worldwide populations. Although the risk alleles identified by GWAS have small effects and explain only a small portion of prevalence, the discovery of asthma loci can provide an understanding of its genetic architecture and the molecular pathways involved in disease pathogenesis. These discoveries can translate into advances in clinical care by identifying therapeutic targets, preventive strategies and ultimately approaches for personalized medicine. In this review, we summarize results from GWAS of asthma from the past 10 years and the insights gleaned from these discoveries.
Project description:Acute heart failure (HF) is a global pandemic with more than one million admissions to hospital annually in the US and millions more worldwide. Post-discharge mortality and readmission rates remain unchanged and unacceptably high. Although recent drug development programmes have failed to deliver novel therapies capable of reducing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients hospitalized for worsening chronic HF, hospitalized HF registries and clinical trial databases have generated a wealth of information improving our collective understanding of the HF syndrome. This review will summarize key insights from clinical trials in acute HF and hospitalized HF registries over the last several decades, focusing on improving the management of patients with HF and reduced ejection fraction.