Multicenter clinical trials are essential for evaluating interventions but often face significant challenges in study design, site coordination, participant recruitment, and regulatory compliance. To address these issues, the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences established the Trial Innovation Network (TIN). The TIN offers a scientific consultation process, providing access to clinical trial and disease experts who provide input and recommendations throughout the trial’s duration, at no cost to investigators. This approach aims to improve trial design, accelerate implementation, foster interdisciplinary teamwork, and spur innovations that enhance multicenter trial quality and efficiency. The TIN leverages resources of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program, complementing local capabilities at the investigator’s institution. The Initial Consultation process focuses on the study’s scientific premise, design, site development, recruitment and retention strategies, funding feasibility, and other support areas. As of 6/1/2024, the TIN has provided 431 Initial Consultations to increase efficiency and accelerate trial implementation by delivering customized support and tailored recommendations. Across a range of clinical trials, the TIN has developed standardized, streamlined, and adaptable processes. We describe these processes, provide operational metrics, and include a set of lessons learned for consideration by other trial support and innovation networks.

New technologies and disruptions related to Coronavirus disease-2019 have led to expansion of decentralized approaches to clinical trials. Remote tools and methods hold promise for increasing trial efficiency and reducing burdens and barriers by facilitating participation outside of traditional clinical settings and taking studies directly to participants. The Trial Innovation Network, established in 2016 by the National Center for Advancing Clinical and Translational Science to address critical roadblocks in clinical research and accelerate the translational research process, has consulted on over 400 research study proposals to date. Its recommendations for decentralized approaches have included eConsent, participant-informed study design, remote intervention, study task reminders, social media recruitment, and return of results for participants. Some clinical trial elements have worked well when decentralized, while others, including remote recruitment and patient monitoring, need further refinement and assessment to determine their value. Partially decentralized, or “hybrid” trials, offer a first step to optimizing remote methods. Decentralized processes demonstrate potential to improve urban-rural diversity, but their impact on inclusion of racially and ethnically marginalized populations requires further study. To optimize inclusive participation in decentralized clinical trials, efforts must be made to build trust among marginalized communities, and to ensure access to remote technology.

The attribution of osteological remains of a bird discovered in Preceramic deposits at Nemocón IV rockshelter (Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia) to Ara sp. (macaws) is confirmed through osteological and morphometrical analyses. Thirteen bones were recovered from two adjacent, arbitrary excavation levels; and are considered the remains of a single individual because of the rarity of the taxon, their similar size and taphonomic alteration, and the presence of paired elements. Radiocarbon dating of the macaw reveals it comes from the ninth millennium cal BP, the oldest date recorded from Nemocón IV. Paleoenvironmental data suggest that, during the deposition of the Preceramic levels at Nemocón IV, climatic conditions were close to those of today. The modern range of the macaws is outside these climatic parameters, and all modern Ara species are allochthonous to the Sabana de Bogotá, indicating the archaeological macaw was also allochthonous in Preceramic times. Analysis of the remains shows the macaw was not dismembered, so it is unlikely that it was used as food. Early conquest records indicate macaws were traded and maintained outside their natural ranges as pets, as a source of feathers, for use in rituals, or for a combination of uses.

Biotypes of eastern black nightshade were found in Illinois and Indiana that were not controlled by postemergence applications of imazethapyr. Greenhouse studies were conducted to determine whole-plant responses to the imidazolinone herbicides imazethapyr and imazamox and to the sulfonylurea herbicide primisulfuron-methyl. The Illinois and Indiana resistant biotypes were highly resistant to imazamox and imazethapyr but were not cross-resistant to primisulfuron-methyl. DNA sequencing of acetolactate synthase (ALS) genes showed that the molecular basis for resistance in both resistant biotypes was a single base-pair mutation within Domain C that changed an alanine to a threonine in their encoded enzymes. In vitro enzyme assays showed that the Illinois resistant biotype's ALS enzyme was 789- and 881-fold less sensitive than that of the susceptible biotype to imazamox and imazethapyr, respectively. The Indiana resistant biotype's ALS enzyme was 110- and 158-fold less sensitive than that of the susceptible biotype to imazamox and imazethapyr, respectively. These results are consistent with the amino acid substitution found in the ALS enzyme of both resistant biotypes of eastern black nightshade.

This study tested a theoretical model of continuity in anxious emotion and its links to academic achievement in disaster-exposed youth. An urban school based sample of youths (n = 191; Grades 4–8) exposed to Hurricane Katrina were assessed at 24 months (Time 1) and then again at 30 months (Time 2) postdisaster. Academic achievement was assessed through end of the school year standardized test scores (~31 months after Katrina). The results suggest that the association of traumatic stress to academic achievement was indirect via linkages from earlier (Time 1) posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms that predicted later (Time 2) test anxiety. Time 2 test anxiety was then negatively associated with academic achievement. Age and gender invariance testing suggested strong consistency across gender and minor developmental variation in the age range examined. The model presented advances the developmental understanding of the expression of anxious emotion and its links to student achievement among disaster-exposed urban school children. The findings highlight the importance of identifying heterotypic continuity in anxiety and suggest potential applied and policy directions for disaster-exposed youth. Avenues for future theoretical refinement are also discussed.

Blood lipid response to a given dietary intervention could be determined by the effect of diet, gene variants or gene–diet interactions. The objective of the present study was to investigate whether variants in presumed nutrient-sensitive genes involved in lipid metabolism modified lipid profile after weight loss and in response to a given diet, among overweight European adults participating in the Diet Obesity and Genes study. By multiple linear regressions, 240 SNPs in twenty-four candidate genes were investigated for SNP main and SNP–diet interaction effects on total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and TAG after an 8-week low-energy diet (only main effect), and a 6-month ad libitum weight maintenance diet, with different contents of dietary protein or glycaemic index. After adjusting for multiple testing, a SNP–dietary protein interaction effect on TAG was identified for lipin 1 (LPIN1) rs4315495, with a decrease in TAG of − 0·26 mmol/l per A-allele/protein unit (95 % CI − 0·38, − 0·14, P= 0·000043). In conclusion, we investigated SNP–diet interactions for blood lipid profiles for 240 SNPs in twenty-four candidate genes, selected for their involvement in lipid metabolism pathways, and identified one significant interaction between LPIN1 rs4315495 and dietary protein for TAG concentration.