Applying the Behaviour Change Wheel to UK Local Authority Policy Documents: A Content Analysis in the Context of Financial Behaviour

Local authorities in the UK often try to improve their residents’ financial well-being by promoting changes in behaviour. The extent to which these behaviour change activities are based on relevant theory or evidence is unknown. This research aims to retrospectively analyse the content of local authorities’ policies to identify opportunities for improvement. The Action, Actor, Context, Target, Time (AACTT) framework was used to assess the specification of target behaviours. The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) process was used to assess intervention content. Within the policy documents, target behaviours were not consistently specified in terms of the AACTT criteria. Descriptions of interventions lacked detail with 28% unable to be categorised and there was a reliance on Education (46%) to change financial behaviour. The designing and reporting of interventions to change residents’ financial behaviour were not always aligned with behavioural science evidence and utilising systematic frameworks could help local authorities achieve policy objectives

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices among Florida bird rehabilitators regarding Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1

Master of Public HealthPublic Health Interdepartmental ProgramEllyn R. MulcahyHighly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) type A (H5N1), also colloquially known as “Bird Flu,” is a highly contagious zoonotic viral disease of birds. First identified in a goose in China in1996, HPAI A(H5N1), referred to as HPAI H5N1, crossed over to humans with the first case reported in Hong Kong in 1997. Since these initial cases, scientists have identified HPAI H5N1 in North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The first case of HPAI H5N1 in the United States occurred in 2015 in waterfowl. The current outbreak of HPAI H5N1 started at the end of 2020 and is responsible for the culling deaths (euthanasia) of nearly 60 million birds in the United States and another 50 million birds in Europe, has been identified in 47 states, and has infected over 20 different mammals in addition to humans. Veterinarians in Florida first detected HPAI H5N1 in January 2022 from a hunter-harvested, blue-winged teal in Palm Beach County, and they have now identified the virus in over 2,000 wild birds in 37 counties across Florida. In Florida, there have been no human fatalities to date, and no commercial poultry operations have had an outbreak, yet influenza viruses easily mutate, and it is one mutation away from a variant that could be deadly to more birds, animals, and humans. One of the most exposed human populations in Florida to HPAI H5N1 are wildlife rehabilitators, especially avian rehabilitators. Because of this potential risk for exposure to HPAI H5N1 to avian rehabilitators, the Florida Commission of Wildlife (FWC) has taken increased measures to educate this population of individuals to reduce their risk of exposure and to reduce the risk of inadvertent spread of HPAI H5N1 in avian rehabilitation facilities. A first-in-kind survey of avian rehabilitation facilities was conducted in the summer of 2023 to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices among Florida bird rehabilitators regarding HPAI H5N1 to better inform the FWC on what information needs to be conveyed to this cohort of individuals, how this group prefers to receive its training and education, and what limitations exist for this group regarding protection of their employees, the birds in their care, and other birds with whom they might potentially contact

Pulpal heat changes with newly developed resin photopolymerisation systems

Composite resin is a widely-used direct tooth coloured restorative material. Photoactivation of the polymerisation reaction can be achieved by visible blue light from a range of light sources, including halogen lamps, metal halide lamps, plasma arc lamps, and Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights. Concerns have been raised that curing lights may induce a temperature rise that could be detrimental to the vitality of the dental pulp during the act of photoactivation. The present study examined heat changes associated with standardised class V restorations on the buccal surface of extracted premolar teeth, using a curing time of 40 seconds. The independent effects of type of light source, resin shade and remaining tooth thickness were assessed using a matrix experimental design. When a conventional halogen lamp, a metal halide lamp and two different LED lights were compared, it was found that both LED lamps elicited minimal thermal changes at the level of the dental pulp, whereas the halogen lamp induced greater changes and the metal halide lamp caused the greatest thermal insult of all the light sources. These thermal changes were influenced by resin shade, with different patterns for LED versus halogen or halide sources. Thermal stress reduced as the remaining thickness of tooth structure between the pulp and the cavity floor increased. From these results, it is concluded that LED lights produce the least thermal insult during photopolymerisation of composite resins

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment

Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Papillary Renal-Cell Carcinoma

BACKGROUND Papillary renal-cell carcinoma, which accounts for 15 to 20% of renal-cell carcinomas, is a heterogeneous disease that consists of various types of renal cancer, including tumors with indolent, multifocal presentation and solitary tumors with an aggressive, highly lethal phenotype. Little is known about the genetic basis of sporadic papillary renal-cell carcinoma, and no effective forms of therapy for advanced disease exist. METHODS We performed comprehensive molecular characterization of 161 primary papillary renal-cell carcinomas, using whole-exome sequencing, copy-number analysis, messenger RNA and microRNA sequencing, DNA-methylation analysis, and proteomic analysis. RESULTS Type 1 and type 2 papillary renal-cell carcinomas were shown to be different types of renal cancer characterized by specific genetic alterations, with type 2 further classified into three individual subgroups on the basis of molecular differences associated with patient survival. Type 1 tumors were associated with MET alterations, whereas type 2 tumors were characterized by CDKN2A silencing, SETD2 mutations, TFE3 fusions, and increased expression of the NRF2'antioxidant response element (ARE) pathway. A CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) was observed in a distinct subgroup of type 2 papillary renal-cell carcinomas that was characterized by poor survival and mutation of the gene encoding fumarate hydratase (FH). CONCLUSIONS Type 1 and type 2 papillary renal-cell carcinomas were shown to be clinically and biologically distinct. Alterations in the MET pathway were associated with type 1, and activation of the NRF2-ARE pathway was associated with type 2; CDKN2A loss and CIMP in type 2 conveyed a poor prognosis. Furthermore, type 2 papillary renalcell carcinoma consisted of at least three subtypes based on molecular and phenotypic features