Relationships between vestibular issues, noise sensitivity, anxiety and prolonged recovery from mild traumatic brain injury among adults: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: We investigated the extent of literature and findings on relationships between vestibular issues, noise sensitivity (NS), and anxiety. We were interested in how relationships among these factors impacted adults' recovery three months or more after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). METHODS: We conducted a scoping review to evaluate the extent of evidence linking relationships between vestibular issues, NS and anxiety with recovery after mTBI. Data relating to study characteristics and key findings were extracted and used to inform a critical narrative synthesis of findings. RESULTS: After screening and full-text review, we included two studies. Both studies considered the combination of vestibular issues, NS and anxiety and mTBI recovery. Vestibular issues, NS and anxiety were all significantly associated with one another and their presence was the strongest indicator that symptoms would extend beyond three-months after mTBI. CONCLUSION: Few studies have focused on the relationships that vestibular issues, NS and anxiety have with one another and recovery after mTBI. Given the apparent strong relationships between these factors and prolonged recovery, we highlight this as an area warranting further investigation.

Vestibular issues, noise sensitivity and anxiety all appear to impact on recovery from mild traumatic brain injury.There appear to be quite strong relationships between vestibular, noise sensitivity and anxiety symptoms following mild traumatic brain injury.More work exploring these key symptoms and how they impact recovery from mild traumatic brain injury using a wide range of study methods and approaches are needed to advance the field.

When Seeing Isn't Believing: Navigating Visual Health Misinformation through Library Instruction.

Visual misinformation poses unique challenges to public health due to its potential for persuasiveness and rapid spread on social media. In this article, librarians at the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library System identify four types of visual health misinformation: misleading graphs and charts, out of context visuals, image manipulation in scientific publications, and AI-generated images and videos. To educate our campus's health sciences audience and wider community on these topics, we have developed a range of instruction about visual health misinformation. We describe our strategies and provide suggestions for implementing visual misinformation programming for a variety of audiences.

Acute Effect of Night Shift Work on Endothelial Function with and without Naps: A Scoping Review.

We examined the breadth and depth of the current evidence investigating napping/sleeping during night shift work and its impact on non-invasive measures of endothelial function. We used a scoping review study design and searched five databases: Ovid Medline, EMBASE, Ovid APA PsycInfo, Web of Science Core Collection, and EBSCO CINAHL. We limited our search to English language and publications from January 1980 to September 2022. Our reporting adhered to the PRISMA-ScR guidance for scoping reviews. Our search strategy yielded 1949 records (titles and abstracts) after deduplication, of which 36 were retained for full-text review. Five articles were retained, describing three observational and two experimental research studies with a total sample of 110 individuals, which examined the non-invasive indicators of endothelial function in relation to the exposure to night shift work. While there is some evidence of an effect of night shift work on the non-invasive indicators of endothelial function, this evidence is incomplete, limited to a small samples of shift workers, and is mostly restricted to one measurement technique for assessing endothelial function with diverse protocols. In addition, there is no identifiable research investigating the potential benefits of napping during night shift work on non-invasive measures of endothelial function.

Effects of internalised racism and internalised homophobia on sexual behaviours among black gay and bisexual men in the USA: a systematic review protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Black gay and bisexual men are overburdened by HIV in the USA. While the socioecological model has been applied to understand potential mechanisms of HIV acquisition among black gay and bisexual men, there is mixed evidence on the impact of internalised stigma on HIV risk among this population. This systematic review protocol paper outlines the systematic review being conducted to determine the relationship between internalised racism, internalised homophobia and engagement in sexual behaviour, which puts individuals at risk for HIV infection. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: For the review, we will conduct a systematic review of the literature, summarise and critique published scholarly literature on the associations between forms of internalised stigma and sexual behaviours among black gay and bisexual men. We will conduct a systematic search of published qualitative and quantitative research studies published during and after 1993. The searches will be conducted in Ovid Medline, Ovid APA PsycInfo and EBSCO SocINDEX databases. Studies will be included if they were conducted in the USA, with samples that comprised African American/black cisgender gay, bisexual, queer and other men who have sex with men, measured internalised racism and/or internalised homophobia, and assessed sexual behaviour risk for HIV acquisition. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: No ethical approval will be required for this review. We will report our findings using the guidelines outlined by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Findings of this review may offer new opportunities to study internalised mechanisms impacting outcomes and to identify research gaps and spur additional queries in the group most disproportionately impacted by HIV.

Quantitative texture analysis comparison of three legumes.

A validated texture-analysis method to evaluate product quality in frozen or cooked legumes is needed to support high-quality vegetable production but is not currently established in the literature. Peas, lima beans, and edamame were investigated in this study due to similar market use as well as growth in plant-based protein consumption in the United States. These three legumes were evaluated after three different processing treatments (blanch/freeze/thaw (BFT); BFT+microwave heat (BFT+M); BF+stove-top cooking (BF+C)), using both compression and puncture analysis following an American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) texture analysis method and moisture testing following an American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standard method. Texture analysis results showed differences between legumes and processing methods. Compression analysis identified more differences between treatments within product type than puncture for both edamame and lima beans indicating compression might be more sensitive to texture changes in these products. Implementation of a standard texture method for legume vegetables for growers and producers would provide a consistent quality check to support efficient production of high-quality legumes. Due to the sensitivity obtained from the compression texture method in this work, compression should be considered for future research into a robust method to evaluate edamame and lima bean textures throughout the growing and production processes.

Knowledge Retention and Clinical Skills Acquisition in Sexual and Gender Minority Health Curricula: A Systematic Review.

PURPOSE: To identify exemplary medical education curricula, operationalized as curricula evaluating knowledge retention and/or clinical skills acquisition, for health care for sexual and gender minoritized (SGM) individuals and individuals born with a difference in sex development (DSD). METHOD: The authors conducted a systematic review of the literature using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Searches were performed in PubMed/MEDLINE, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, ERIC, Embase, PsycINFO, and the gray literature to identify studies that (1) pertained to undergraduate and/or graduate medical education, (2) addressed education on health care of SGM/DSD individuals, and (3) assessed knowledge retention and/or clinical skills acquisition in medical trainees. The final searches were run in March 2019 and rerun before final analyses in June and October 2020. RESULTS: Of 670 full-text articles reviewed, 7 met the inclusion criteria. Five of the 7 studies assessed trainee knowledge retention alone, 1 evaluated clinical skills acquisition alone, and 1 evaluated both outcomes. Studies covered education relevant to transgender health, endocrinology for patients born with DSDs, and HIV primary care. Only 1 study fully mapped to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) SGM/DSD competency recommendations. Six studies reported institutional funding and development support. No studies described teaching SGM/DSD health care for individuals with multiply minoritized identities or engaging the broader SGM/DSD community in medical education curriculum development and implementation. CONCLUSIONS: Curriculum development in SGM/DSD health care should target knowledge retention and clinical skills acquisition in line with AAMC competency recommendations. Knowledge and skill sets for responsible and equitable care are those that account for structures of power and oppression and cocreate curricula with people who are SGM and/or born with DSDs.

Masking by health care and public safety workers in non-patient care areas to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 infection: A systematic review.

Objectives: Wearing a mask is an important method for reducing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission in health care and public safety settings. We assess the evidence regarding masking in the workplace during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic (PROSPERO CRD4202432097). Methods: We performed a systematic review of published literature from 4 databases and evaluated the quality of evidence with the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) framework. We searched for observational and experimental research involving public safety and health care workers. We included articles evaluating the use of masks, versus no mask, on the outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Results: Our search yielded 15,013 records, of which 9 studies were included. Most studies (n = 8; 88.9%) involved infections or outbreaks among health care workers. The majority (88.9%) used in-depth interviews of cases and non-cases to obtain self-reported use of masks during periods of exposure. One of 9 studies quantitatively assessed differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection based on use of masks in non-patient care settings. Use of observational study designs, small sample sizes, inadequate control for confounding, and inadequate measurement of exposure and non-exposure periods with infected coworkers contributed to the quality of evidence being judged as very low. Conclusions: The available evidence from the initial months of the pandemic suggests that the use of masks in congregate, non-patient care settings, such as breakrooms, helps to reduce risk of SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission. However, this evidence is limited and is of very low quality. Prospective studies incorporating active observation measures are warranted.

Adapting to Changes in Publishing When Searching for Alternatives and Reporting on Animal Research: A Librarian's Perspective.

Since the inaugural issue of ATLA, many changes within publishing have occurred, impacting when, where, and how researchers conduct literature searches for non-animal alternatives. Such changes include increased rate of growth in scientific publications, greater number of databases and online resources available to search, opportunities for open and almost immediate dissemination of research outputs such as preprints and method protocols, and the development of reporting guidelines for animal research. Here we offer a librarian's perspective on these changes and advice on how to manage them to enable robust and diverse alternatives to be implemented in future research.

Why are drug-related deaths among women increasing in Scotland? A mixed-methods analysis of possible explanations.

Drug-related deaths have increased significantly in Scotland in recent years, with a much greater percentage increase in deaths among women than among men. We undertook a mixed-methods project to identify explanations for this trend, comprising three parallel methodological strands: (i) an analysis of available routine data, including drug treatment data, death registrations, and surveys of people using needle exchanges; (ii) thematic analysis of interviews and focus groups with professional stakeholders and (iii) secondary analysis of interviews with women who use drugs. Results indicated that the observed trend is likely to reflect multiple, interacting causes. Potential contributors identified were: ageing; changing patterns of substance use; increasing prevalence of physical and mental health co-morbidities; changing relationships and parenting roles; changes to treatment services and wider health and social care provision; unintended consequences or poor implementation of recovery-oriented practice; and changes in the social security system. Policy responses to rising drug-related death rates require a gender-informed approach, recognising the commonalities and differences between men and women who use drugs; the diversity of experiences within each gender; and the intersections between gender and other forms of inequality, such as poverty.

A systematic review of the engagement with social media-delivered interventions for improving health outcomes among sexual and gender minorities.

BACKGROUND: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) persons face a number of physical and mental health disparities closely linked to discrimination, social stigma, and victimization. Despite the acceptability and increasing number of digital health interventions focused on improving health outcomes among SGM people, there is a lack of reviews summarizing whether and how researchers assess engagement with social media-delivered health interventions for this group. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this systematic review was to synthesize and critique the evidence on evaluation of engagement with social media-delivered interventions for improving health outcomes among SGM persons. METHODS: We conducted a literature search for studies published between January 2003 and June 2020 using 4 electronic databases. Articles were included if they were peer-reviewed, in English language, assessed engagement with a social media-delivered health intervention for improving health outcomes among sexual and gender minorities. A minimum of two authors independently extracted data from each study using an a priori developed abstraction form. We assessed quality of data reporting using the CONSORT extension for pilot and feasibility studies and CONSORT statement parallel group randomized trials. RESULTS: We included 18 articles in the review; 15 were feasibility studies and 3 were efficacy or effectiveness randomized trials. The quality of data reporting varied considerably. The vast majority of articles focused on improving HIV-related outcomes among men who have sex with men. Only three studies recruited cisgender women and/or transgender persons. We found heterogeneity in how engagement was defined and assessed. Intervention usage from social media data was the most frequently used engagement measure. CONCLUSION: In addition to the heterogeneity in defining and assessing engagement, we found that the focus of assessment was often on measures of intervention usage only. More purposeful recruitment is needed to learn about whether, how, and why different SGM groups engage with social media-interventions. This leaves significant room for future research to expand evaluation criteria for cognitive and emotional aspects of intervention engagement in order to develop effective and tailored social media-delivered interventions for SGM people. Our findings also support the need for developing and testing social media-delivered interventions that focus on improving mental health and outcomes related to chronic health conditions among SGM persons.

Feasibility of mHealth interventions for depressive symptoms in Latin America: a systematic review.

Depression is a prevalent disorder and leading cause of disability in Latin America, where the mental health treatment gap is still above 50%. We sought to synthesise and assess the quality of the evidence on the feasibility of mHealth-based interventions for depression in Latin America. We conducted a literature search of studies published in 2007 and after using four electronic databases. We included peer-reviewed articles, in English, Spanish or Portuguese, that evaluated interventions for depressive symptoms. Two authors independently extracted data using forms developed a priori. We assessed appropriateness of reporting utilising the CONSORT checklist for feasibility trials. Eight manuscripts were included for full data extraction. Appropriate reporting varied greatly. Most (n = 6, 75%) of studies were conducted in primary care settings and sought to deliver psychoeducation or behaviour change interventions for depressive symptoms. We found great heterogeneity in the assessment of feasibility. Two studies used comparator conditions. mHealth research for depression in Latin America is scarce. Included studies showed some feasibility despite methodological inconsistencies. Given the dire need for evidence-based mental health interventions in this region, governments and stakeholders must continue promoting and funding research tailored to cultural and population characteristics with subsequent pragmatic clinical trials.

A model for initiating research data management services at academic libraries.

BACKGROUND: Librarians developed a pilot program to provide training, resources, strategies, and support for medical libraries seeking to establish research data management (RDM) services. Participants were required to complete eight educational modules to provide the necessary background in RDM. Each participating institution was then required to use two of the following three elements: (1) a template and strategies for data interviews, (2) the Teaching Toolkit to teach an introductory RDM class, or (3) strategies for hosting a data class series. CASE PRESENTATION: Six libraries participated in the pilot, with between two and eight librarians participating from each institution. Librarians from each institution completed the online training modules. Each institution conducted between six and fifteen data interviews, which helped build connections with researchers, and taught between one and five introductory RDM classes. All classes received very positive evaluations from attendees. Two libraries conducted a data series, with one bringing in instructors from outside the library. CONCLUSION: The pilot program proved successful in helping participating librarians learn about and engage with their research communities, jump-start their teaching of RDM, and develop institutional partnerships around RDM services. The practical, hands-on approach of this pilot proved to be successful in helping libraries with different environments establish RDM services. The success of this pilot provides a proven path forward for libraries that are developing data services at their own institutions.

MiR-146a wild-type 3' sequence identity is dispensable for proper innate immune function in vivo.

The prevailing model of microRNA function is that the "seed region" (nt 2-8) is sufficient to mediate target recognition and repression. However, numerous recent studies have challenged this model, either by demonstrating extensive 3' pairing between physically defined miRNA-mRNA pairs or by showing in Caenorhabditis elegans that disrupted 3' pairing can result in impaired function in vivo. To test the importance of miRNA 3' pairing in a mammalian system in vivo, we engineered a mutant murine mir-146a allele in which the 5' half of the mature microRNA retains its wild-type sequence, but the 3' half's sequence has been altered to robustly disrupt predicted pairing to this latter region. Mice homozygous or hemizygous for this mutant allele are phenotypically indistinguishable from wild-type controls and do not recapitulate any of the immunopathology previously described for mir-146a-null mice. Our results indicate that 3' pairing is dispensable for the established myeloid function of this key mammalian microRNA.

Naming Test of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery: reliability and validity in a sample of patients with acquired brain injury.

The current study assessed the internal consistency, alternate forms reliability, and convergent/divergent validity of the Naming Test of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) in patients with acquired brain injury. Fifty-nine patients were administered the NAB Naming Test (forms 1 and 2) and the Boston Naming Test (BNT), as well as other tests of neuropsychological functioning. Forms 1 and 2 of the NAB Naming Test demonstrated adequate internal consistency and alternate forms reliability. The NAB Naming Test was significantly associated with scores from the BNT, as well as scores from tests that assess visuospatial skills, semantic fluency, and verbal memory. The divergent validity of the NAB Naming Test was demonstrated by non-significant associations with tests of attention and processing speed. BNT scores correlated significantly with the educational level and estimated premorbid intelligence but not age, whereas the NAB Naming Test scores only correlated significantly with estimated premorbid intelligence. The current study provides independent validation supporting the utility of the NAB Naming Test for patients with acquired brain injury.

Ecological validity of the screening module and the Daily Living tests of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery using the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory-4 in postacute brain injury rehabilitation.

PURPOSE: The assessment of ecological validity of neuropsychological measures is an area of growing interest, particularly in the postacute brain injury rehabilitation (PABIR) setting, as there is an increasing demand for clinicians to address functional and real-world outcomes. In the current study, we assessed the predictive value of the Screening module and the Daily Living tests of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) using clinician ratings from the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory-4 (MPAI-4) in patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. METHOD: Forty-seven individuals were each administered the NAB Screening module (NAB-SM) and the NAB Daily Living (NAB-DL) tests following admission to a residential PABIR program. MPAI-4 ratings were also obtained at admission. Linear regression analysis was used to examine the association between these functional and neuropsychological assessment measures. RESULTS: We replicated prior work (Temple at al., 2009) and expanded evidence for the ecological validity of the NAB-SM. Furthermore, our findings support the ecological validity of the NAB-DL Bill Payment, Judgment, and Map Reading tests with regards to functional skills and real-world activities. CONCLUSIONS: The current study supports prior work from our lab assessing the predictive value of the NAB-SM, as well as provides evidence for the ecological validity for select NAB-DL tests in patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury admitted to a residential PABIR program.

Impact of assembly state on the defect tolerance of TMV-based light harvesting arrays.

Self-assembling, light harvesting arrays of organic chromophores can be templated using the tobacco mosaic virus coat protein (TMVP). The efficiency of energy transfer within systems containing a high ratio of donors to acceptors shows a strong dependence on the TMVP assembly state. Rod and disk assemblies derived from a single stock of chromophore-labeled protein exhibit drastically different levels of energy transfer, with rods significantly outperforming disks. The origin of the superior transfer efficiency was probed through the controlled introduction of photoinactive conjugates into the assemblies. The efficiency of the rods showed a linear dependence on the proportion of deactivated chromophores, suggesting the availability of redundant energy transfer pathways that can circumvent defect sites. Similar disk-based systems were markedly less efficient at all defect levels. To examine these differences further, the brightness of donor-only systems was measured as a function of defect incorporation. In rod assemblies, the photophysical properties of the donor chromophores showed a significant dependence on the number of defects. These differences can be partly attributed to vertical energy transfer events in rods that occur more rapidly than the horizontal transfers in disks. Using these geometries and the previously measured energy transfer rates, computational models were developed to understand this behavior in more detail and to guide the optimization of future systems. These simulations have revealed that significant differences in excited state dissipation rates likely also contribute to the greater efficiency of the rods and that statistical variations in the assembly process play a more minor role.

Motor Control Test responses to balance perturbations in adults with an intellectual disability.

BACKGROUND: The aims of this small exploratory study were to determine (1) whether adults with intellectual disability who had a recent history of falling had slower motor responses to postural perturbations than a sample of adults without disability when measured with the Motor Control Test (MCT) and (2) to identify any learning effects associated with the test. METHODS: A sample of 7 adults with intellectual disability (58 +/- 12 years) and 13 adults without disability (49 +/- 6 years) were tested three times over the period of one week. RESULTS: The mean response latency for participants with intellectual disability was 158 +/- 18 ms and for the control participants was 140 +/- 13 ms. No evidence was found for a learning effect with repeated testing. CONCLUSION: Some adults with an intellectual disability, who have a history of falling, may have delayed responses to postural perturbations and this impairment could be targeted in physiotherapy interventions aimed at improving balance capabilities and preventing falls.

Energy transfer dynamics in light-harvesting assemblies templated by the tobacco mosaic virus coat protein.

Picosecond time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy was used to characterize energy transfer between chromophores displayed on a rod assembly of tobacco mosaic virus coat protein. The incorporation of donor chromophores with broad and overlapping absorption and emission spectra creates an "antenna" with a large absorption cross section, which can convey excitation energy over large distances before transfer to an acceptor chromophore. The possibility for both donor-to-donor and donor-to-acceptor transfer results in complex kinetic behavior at any single wavelength. Thus, to describe the various pathways of energy transfer within this system accurately, a global lifetime analysis was performed to obtain decay associated spectra. We found the energy transfer from donor to acceptor chromophores occurs in 187 ps with an efficiency of 36%. A faster decay component of 70 ps was also observed from global lifetime analysis and is attributed to donor-to-donor transfer. Although more efficient three-chromophore systems have been demonstrated, a two-chromophore system was studied here to facilitate analysis.

Self-assembling light-harvesting systems from synthetically modified tobacco mosaic virus coat proteins.

A new protein-based approach has been developed for the construction of light-harvesting systems through self-assembly. The building blocks were prepared by attaching fluorescent chromophores to cysteine residues introduced on tobacco mosaic virus coat protein monomers. When placed under the appropriate buffer conditions, these conjugates could be assembled into stacks of disks or into rods that reached hundreds of nanometers in length. Characterization of the system using fluorescence spectroscopy indicated that efficient energy transfer could be achieved from large numbers of donor chromophores to a single acceptor. Energy transfer is proposed to occur through direct donor-acceptor interactions, although degenerate donor-to-donor transfer events are also possible. Three-chromophore systems were also prepared to achieve broad spectrum light collection with over 90% overall efficiency. Through the combination of self-organizing biological structures and synthetic building blocks, a highly tunable new method has emerged for the construction of photovoltaic device components.