"Evaluation of high-dose estrogen and high-dose estrogen plus methyltestosterone treatment on cognitive task performance in postmenopausal women"

Amy B. Wisniewski is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa. She can be contacted at [email protected]: To investigate the cognitive effects of high-dose oral estrogen alone or in combination with oral methyltestosterone in postmenopausal women. Methods: Participants were tested with a randomized, double-blind design on the Identical Pictures, Cube Comparisons, Building Memory and Shape Memory tasks before and after 4 months of hormone treatment. Results: Women receiving estrogen and methyltestosterone maintained a steady level of performance on the Building Memory task, whereas those receiving estrogen alone showed a decrease in performance. Conclusions: These results indicate that the addition of testosterone to high-dose estrogen replacement exerts a protective effect on memory performance in postmenopausal women. Copyright © 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel.Portions of this manuscript were presented at the 1999 Endocrine Society Meeting, San Diego, Calif., USA and the 1999 North American Menopause Society Meeting, New York, N.Y., USA This research was partially supported by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine General Clinical Research Center, NIH/NCRR grant M01 RR00052. This research was also funded in part by Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Marietta, Ga., USA

Sex Differences in Health Related Quality of Life in Head & Neck Cancer One Year After Treatment

Background: Head and neck cancer (HNC) makes up about 3% of all cancers and is treated with systemic therapy, radiation, surgery, or a combination of these. HNC treatment can be associated with decreased patient reported health related quality of life (HR-QoL), which can lead to depression. The majority of studies found that females reported worse patient reported HR-QoL than males, however, there were a few that did not have a significant difference in overall patient reported QoL. With the discovery of patient oriented outcomes (PROs) in clinical practice affecting patient satisfaction, provider-patient relationship, and overall patient mortality, it is vital to include PROs in the creation of treatment plans. Objectives: The objectives of this project are to highlight the differences in HR-QoL between men and women. Ultimately, using these PROs clinically will help to improve patient care, augment patient-provider trust, and optimize treatment plans. Using PROs and recognizing where unconscious biases of providers come into play is pinnacle, and this project aims to highlight how men and women\u27s experiences are different in the treatment of HNC. Methods: Participants were given the FACT-H&N instrument one year after treatment for head and neck cancer at a single tertiary academic center to assess different aspects of Hr-QoL. Sex differences were analyzed between the groups. A Wilcoxon Rank Sum test was performed to assess associations with sex and survey responses, as well as to assess associations with total laryngectomy and survey responses. Results: There were 100 participants from a single academic center of which 73% were men and 27% women. Several of the questions had significant differences between men and women: I feel ill (P=0.0299), I am satisfied with my family communication about my illness P=0.0075), I am satisfied with my sex life (P=0.0496), My voice has its usual quality and strength (P=0.0057), I can swallow naturally and easily (P=0.0437), and I can eat solid foods (P=0.0248). There were no significant differences between men and women with laryngectomies. Conclusions: Overall, men felt more ill, were less satisfied with their sex lives, were less likely to feel a normal strength and quality of voice, felt decreased ability to swallow normally, and felt they could not eat solid foods; women were less satisfied with communication about their disease to their families. For those who had undergone laryngectomy, there were no significant differences between men and women. Different aspects of quality of life for men and women are affected by head and neck cancer. Monitoring PROs are becoming increasingly standard of care for patients, and providers need to be equipped understand how to interpret data accordingly and understand the inherent biases

Comparison of clinical and biochemical markers of dehydration with the clinical dehydration scale in children: A case comparison trial

Background: The clinical dehydration scale (CDS) is a quick, easy-to-use tool with 4 clinical items and a score of 1-8 that serves to classify dehydration in children with gastroenteritis as no, some or moderate/severe dehydration. Studies validating the CDS (Friedman JN) with a comparison group remain elusive. We hypothesized that the CDS correlates with a wide spectrum of established markers of dehydration, making it an appropriate and easy-to-use clinical tool.Methods: This study was designed as a prospective double-cohort trial in a single tertiary care center. Children with diarrhea and vomiting, who clinically required intravenous fluids for rehydration, were compared with minor trauma patients who required intravenous needling for conscious sedation. We compared the CDS with clinical and urinary markers (urinary electrolytes, proteins, ratios and fractional excretions) for dehydration in both groups using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to determine the area under the curve (AUC).Results: We enrolled 73 children (male = 36) in the dehydration group and 143 (male = 105) in the comparison group. Median age was 32 months (range 3-214) in the dehydration and 96 months (range 2.6-214 months, p \u3c 0.0001) in the trauma group. Median CDS was 3 (range 0-8) within the dehydration group and 0 in the comparison group (p \u3c 0.0001). The following parameters were statistically significant (p \u3c 0.05) between the comparison group and the dehydrated group: difference in heart rate, diastolic blood pressure, urine sodium/potassium ratio, urine sodium, fractional sodium excretion, serum bicarbonate, and creatinine measurements. The best markers for dehydration were urine Na and serum bicarbonate (ROC AUC = 0.798 and 0.821, respectively). CDS was most closely correlated with serum bicarbonate (Pearson r = -0.3696, p = 0.002).Conclusion: Although serum bicarbonate is not the gold standard for dehydration, this study provides further evidence for the usefulness of the CDS as a dehydration marker in children.Trial registration: Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT00462527) on April 18, 2007. © 2014 Tam et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Dissecting the regulatory strategies of NF-kB RelA target genes in the inflammatory response reveals differential transactivation logics

Nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) RelA is the potent transcriptional activator of inflammatory response genes. We stringently defined a list of direct RelA target genes by integrating physical (chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing [ChIP-seq]) and functional (RNA sequencing [RNA-seq] in knockouts) datasets. We then dissected each gene’s regulatory strategy by testing RelA variants in a primary-cell genetic-complementation assay. All endogenous target genes require RelA to make DNA-base-specific contacts, and none are activatable by the DNA binding domain alone. However, endogenous target genes differ widely in how they employ the two transactivation domains. Through model-aided analysis of the dynamic time-course data, we reveal the gene-specific synergy and redundancy of TA1 and TA2. Given that post-translational modifications control TA1 activity and intrinsic affinity for coactivators determines TA2 activity, the differential TA logics suggests context-dependent versus context-independent control of endogenous RelA-target genes. Although some inflammatory initiators appear to require co-stimulatory TA1 activation, inflammatory resolvers are a part of the NF-κB RelA core response

What can we learn about immediate memory from the development of children's free recall?

We ask the question: Which aspects of immediate memory performance improve with age? In two studies, we reexamine the widely held view that primary memory capacity estimates derived from children's immediate free recall are age invariant. This was done by assessing children's immediate free-recall accuracy while also measuring the order in which they elected to recall items (Experiment 1) and by encouraging children to begin free recall with items from towards the end of the presented list (Experiment 2). Across samples aged between 5 and 8 years we replicated the previously reported age-related changes in free-recall serial position functions when aggregated across all trials of the standard task, including an absence of age differences in the recency portion of this curve. However, we also show that this does not reflect the fact that primary memory capacity is constant across age. Instead, when we incorporate order of report information, clear age differences are evident in the recall of list-final items that are output at the start of a participant's response. In addition, the total amount that individuals recalled varied little across different types of free-recall tasks. These findings have clear implications for the use of immediate free recall as a means of providing potential indices of primary memory capacity and in the study of the development of immediate memory

Disparities in the Uptake of Telemedicine During the COVID-19 Surge in a Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Population by Patient Demographic Characteristics and Socioeconomic Status

This cohort study examines the association between patient demographic characteristics and socioeconomic status and engagement in telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic

Barriers to Family Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) of Mobilization Behaviors and Pre-Operational Planning: Report to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

The Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI) is one of many tools used by law enforcement to help prevent terrorism and terrorism-related activity (see Figure 1). In addition to state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) agencies and federal law enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) relies on communities to report suspicious behaviors. While much is known about the actual SAR process, 1 less is known about an essential segment of the community: family members. Family members of violent extremists (VE) play an important role in countering violent extremism (CVE), whether by supporting disengagement and deradicalization or by alerting authorities when concerned for the safety of their loved one(s) and/or others. However, due to issues like mistrust and fear of law enforcement, or a general lack of understanding about SAR and the investigative process, family members may be reluctant to report suspicious behaviors. This fundamental issue reduces the effectiveness of any CVE program or policy. It thus warrants an investigation into how law enforcement agencies can better support and promote family members reporting of suspicious activity. This report seeks to determine whether the DHS and the NSI collaborative have protocols to address family engagement in CVE and report suspicious behaviors. The following two research questions will guide the remainder of this report: (1) How do SAR trainings address family engagement in suspicious reporting? (2) How do members of the NSI collaborative perceive family engagement in the SAR process (i.e., report suspicious behavior)

Family Responses to White Supremacist Extremism: Report to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Executive Overview: • Families often express some form of disapproval to relatives involved in white supremacist extremism (WSE); • Expressions of disapproval are often limited to “staying out of trouble” or involve limited to no clearly defined intervention; • Families fear “closing doors” will increase the likelihood they will push their relative away; • Families rarely seek out formal assistance from either governmental or non-governmental agencies; • While nearly 34% of the sample received counseling during childhood and/or adolescence, none of those counseling sessions addressed WSE; the counseling focused exclusively on non-WSE issues (e.g., academic failure, generic delinquency, etc.)