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Objectives/Goals: We have shown that parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) is enriched at the LIFR promoter in breast cancer cells and inhibits the expression of dormancy-associated genes including LIFR. The objective of this study is to define where all PTHrP binds DNA and identify pathways that are regulated by PTHrP that promote breast cancer colonization of the bone. Methods/Study Population: In this study, we use human estrogen receptor-positive MCF7 breast cancer cells which we and others have reported lie dormant in the bone. MCF7 cells were engineered to express either PTHrP with an HA-tag (MCF7P), or a vector control (MCF7V). We use Cleavage Under Targets and Release Using Nuclease (CUT&RUN), a method of mapping protein-DNA interactions, to define where PTHrP binds DNA. Here, an HA-specific antibody identifies regions of DNA that are bound to PTHrP in MCF7P cells compared to MCFV cells. Next, we perform DNA sequencing and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) on genes identified by CUT&RUN to identify pathways that are regulated by PTHrP. These experiments will determine how PTHrP regulates dormancy and breast cancer colonization in the bone. Results/Anticipated Results: We completed IgG (-control), H3K4me3 (+ control), and HA (PTHrP) CUT&RUN on MCF7V and MCF7P cells, and submitted DNA for sequencing. This study will define where PTHrP binds the genome and identify pathways regulated by PTHrP. Previously, through ChIP-qPCR we showed that PTHrP binds the LIFR promoter to repress LIFR expression. Given this result, we expect that PTHrP binds to the promoters of dormancy-associated genes including LIFR in MCF7P cells compared to MCF7V cells. PTHrP may be involved in regulating other processes besides dormancy to induce expansion of breast cancer cells in the bone, so we will use GSEA to identify pathways that are altered in MCF7P cells when PTHrP is over-expressed compared to MCF7V cells. Together, this will define how PTHrP regulates gene expression of bone metastatic breast cancer cells. Discussion/Significance of Impact: This study will unveil mechanisms of metastatic breast cancer expansion in the bone by defining where PTHrP binds the genome to regulate gene expression. These findings will reveal therapeutic vulnerabilities that will be used to target bone-disseminated tumor cells to prevent lethal recurrence.
We sought to describe perspectives among Black nursing professionals and community leaders regarding the return of genetic test results, and place perspectives into context with aggregated findings in the All of Us Research Program’s Data Browser.
Methods:
Semi-structured, virtual interviews were held with adults (≥18 years of age) self-identifying as Black. A 2-step thematic analysis process was used to assess interviewee perspectives with (sub)themes identified in the literature across two topics: drug/medication response and hereditary disease risk. Themes were placed into context with Data Browser content, focusing on genes and their respective alleles with frequencies ≥0.10 in African ancestry populations in All of Us.
Results:
Interviewee perspectives aligned with previously identified major themes in the literature (motivations to engage or disengage; integrating research and care), with five (5) subthemes emerging across major themes. Seven (7) alleles were observed with frequencies ≥0.10 for three (3) pharmacogenomic (PGx) biomarkers in the Data Browser for African ancestry populations: CYP2C19 (SNV, 10-94761900-C-T; SNV,10-94775367-A-G; SNV 10-94781859-G-A), DPYD (SNV, 1-97883329-A-G; SNV, 1-97515839-T-C), UGT1A1 (insertion, 2-233760233-C-CAT; SNV, 2-233757136-G-A). Four (4) alleles were observed with frequencies ≥0.10 for three (3) genes implicated in hereditary disease risk, two of which contemporaneously hold PGx implications for African ancestry populations: CACNA1S (PGx, SNV, 1-201112815-C-T; SNV, 1-201110107-C-T), SCN5A (no PGx, SNV, 3-38603929-T-C), TP53 (PGx, SNV, 17-7676154-G-C).
Conclusions:
Our findings convey important clinical and translational science considerations for individuals and community leaders of African ancestry and researchers seeking reputable, publicly available information to understand, communicate, and act on genomic findings.
Although cognitive remediation (CR) improves cognition and functioning, the key features that promote or inhibit its effectiveness, especially between cognitive domains, remain unknown. Discovering these key features will help to develop CR for more impact.
Aim
To identify interrelations between cognition, symptoms, and functioning, using a novel network analysis approach and how CR affects these recovery outcomes.
Methods
A secondary analysis of randomized controlled trial data (N = 165) of CR in early psychosis. Regularized partial correlation networks were estimated, including symptoms, cognition, and functioning, for pre-, post-treatment, and change over time. Pre- and post-CR networks were compared on global strength, structure, edge invariance, and centrality invariance.
Results
Cognition, negative, and positive symptoms were separable constructs, with symptoms showing independent relationships with cognition. Negative symptoms were central to the CR networks and most strongly associated with change in functioning. Verbal and visual learning improvement showed independent relationships to improved social functioning and negative symptoms. Only visual learning improvement was positively associated with personal goal achievement. Pre- and post-CR networks did not differ in structure (M = 0.20, p = 0.45) but differed in global strength, reflecting greater overall connectivity in the post-CR network (S = 0.91, p = 0.03).
Conclusions
Negative symptoms influenced network changes following therapy, and their reduction was linked to improvement in verbal and visual learning following CR. Independent relationships between visual and verbal learning and functioning suggest that they may be key intervention targets to enhance social and occupational functioning.
To evaluate the motor proficiency, identify risk factors for abnormal motor scores, and examine the relationship between motor proficiency and health-related quality of life in school-aged patients with CHD.
Study design:
Patients ≥ 4 years old referred to the cardiac neurodevelopmental program between June 2017 and April 2020 were included. Motor skills were evaluated by therapist-administered Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency Second-Edition Short Form and parent-reported Adaptive Behavior Assessment System and Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Inventory System Physical Functioning questionnaires. Neuropsychological status and health-related quality of life were assessed using a battery of validated questionnaires. Demographic, clinical, and educational variables were collected from electronic medical records. General linear modelling was used for multivariable analysis.
Results:
The median motor proficiency score was the 10th percentile, and the cohort (n = 272; mean age: 9.1 years) scored well below normative values on all administered neuropsychological questionnaires. In the final multivariable model, worse motor proficiency score was associated with family income, presence of a genetic syndrome, developmental delay recognised in infancy, abnormal neuroimaging, history of heart transplant, and executive dysfunction, and presence of an individualised education plan (p < 0.03 for all predictors). Worse motor proficiency correlated with reduced health-related quality of life. Parent-reported adaptive behaviour (p < 0.001) and physical functioning (p < 0.001) had a strong association with motor proficiency scores.
Conclusion:
This study highlights the need for continued motor screening for school-aged patients with CHD. Clinical factors, neuropsychological screening results, and health-related quality of life were associated with worse motor proficiency.
Background: Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) are key healthcare-associated infection (HAI) quality metrics. In this qualitative analysis, we aimed to identify common issues contributing to CLABSIs and CAUTIs occurring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: In an academic healthcare network in Atlanta, GA, four hospitals perform real-time, apparent cause analyses (ACAs) for all CLABSIs and CAUTIs. Contributing factors are entered as free text into an electronic database. We analyzed data from 8/2020–8/2022. We first performed a qualitative open card sort of all reported contributing factors to CLABSI and created a novel framework based on mutually defined critical tasks (e.g., line insertion) and cross-cutting issues (e.g., communication breakdown). Contributing factors could describe ≥1 critical task and/or ≥1 cross-cutting issue. After establishing interrater reliability, a multidisciplinary group applied this framework to classify each contributing factor. For CAUTI, we used the same set of cross-cutting issues but identified new critical tasks via open card sorting. We then used the framework to classify each CAUTI contributing factor. We used descriptive statistics to identify frequent critical tasks and cross-cutting issues. Results: We reviewed 350 CLABSI ACAs with 602 contributing factors and 240 CAUTI ACAs with 405 contributing factors (Figure 1). Our classification framework comprised 11 cross-cutting issues and 9 critical tasks for CLABSI and 7 critical tasks for CAUTI (Figure 2). CLABSI: The critical tasks most often reported were bathing (19%), central line dressing maintenance (15%), and assessing central line indication (8%; Figure 3). Within these tasks, the most frequent issues described for bathing were the task not being performed (20%) and unclear documentation (18%); for dressing maintenance, the task was not performed (15%), not documented (15%), or poorly performed due to lack of competency (15%); and for assessing line indication, there was frequent communication breakdown (33%). CAUTI: The critical tasks most often reported were urinary catheter care (26%) and assessing the indication for urinary catheter (22%; Figure 4). Within these tasks, urinary catheter care was frequently not documented (38%) or not performed (16%); assessing urinary catheter necessity was often not documented (29%) or involved breakdown of communication (19%). Conclusion: We created a novel framework to evaluate common causes of HAIs in an academic healthcare network. This framework can be used to identify and track gaps over time and to develop quality improvement initiatives targeting key tasks and associated factors, such as communication difficulties when assessing device indications.
Autistic people have a high likelihood of developing mental health difficulties but a low chance of receiving effective mental healthcare. Therefore, there is a need to identify and examine strategies to improve mental healthcare for autistic people.
Aims
To identify strategies that have been implemented to improve access, experiences of care and mental health outcomes for autistic adults, and to examine evidence on their acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness.
Method
A co-produced systematic review was conducted. MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINHAL, medRxiv and PsyArXiv were searched. We included all study designs reporting acceptability or feasibility outcomes and empirical quantitative study designs reporting effectiveness outcomes. Data were synthesised using a narrative approach.
Results
A total of 30 articles were identified. These included 16 studies of adapted mental health interventions, eight studies of service improvements and six studies of bespoke mental health interventions developed for autistic people. There was no conclusive evidence on effectiveness. However, most bespoke and adapted approaches appeared to be feasible and acceptable. Identified adaptations appeared to be acceptable and feasible, including increasing knowledge and detection of autism, providing environmental adjustments and communication accommodations, accommodating individual differences and modifying the structure and content of interventions.
Conclusion
Many identified strategies are feasible and acceptable, and can be readily implemented in services with the potential to make mental healthcare more suitable for autistic people, but important research gaps remain. Future research should address these and investigate a co-produced package of service improvement measures.
Autistic children and young people (CYP) experience mental health difficulties but face many barriers to accessing and benefiting from mental health care. There is a need to explore strategies in mental health care for autistic CYP to guide clinical practice and future research and support their mental health needs. Our aim was to identify strategies used to improve mental health care for autistic CYP and examine evidence on their acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness. A systematic review and meta-analysis were carried out. All study designs reporting acceptability/feasibility outcomes and empirical quantitative studies reporting effectiveness outcomes for strategies tested within mental health care were eligible. We conducted a narrative synthesis and separate meta-analyses by informant (self, parent, and clinician). Fifty-seven papers were included, with most investigating cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based interventions for anxiety and several exploring service-level strategies, such as autism screening tools, clinician training, and adaptations regarding organization of services. Most papers described caregiver involvement in therapy and reported adaptations to communication and intervention content; a few reported environmental adjustments. In the meta-analyses, parent- and clinician-reported outcomes, but not self-reported outcomes, showed with moderate certainty that CBT for anxiety was an effective treatment compared to any comparison condition in reducing anxiety symptoms in autistic individuals. The certainty of evidence for effectiveness, synthesized narratively, ranged from low to moderate. Evidence for feasibility and acceptability tended to be positive. Many identified strategies are simple, reasonable adjustments that can be implemented in services to enhance mental health care for autistic individuals. Notable research gaps persist, however.
Film Festivals, Ideology and Italian Art Cinema is the first systematic study of the role ideology plays in film festivals' construction of dominant ideas about art cinema.
Film festivals are considered the driving force of the film industry outside Hollywood, disseminating ideals of cinematic art and humanist politics. However, the question of what drives them remains highly contentious.
In a rare consideration of the European competitive film festival circuit as a whole, this book analyses the shared economic, geopolitical and cultural histories that characterise 'European A festivals'. It offers, too, the first extensive analysis of such festivals' role in the canonisation of select Italian films, from Rome, Open City to The Great Beauty and Gomorrah.
The book proposes a new approach to ideology critique, one that enables detailed examination of how film festivals construct ideas about not only contemporary art cinema, but assumptions about gender, race, colonialism and capitalism.
Boduch-Grabka and Lev-Ari (2021) showed that so-called “native” British-English speakers judged statements produced by Polish-accented English speakers as less likely to be true than statements produced by “native” speakers and that prior exposure to Polish-accented English speech modulates this effect. Given the real-world consequences of this study, as well as our commitment to assessing and mitigating linguistic biases, we conducted a close replication, extending the work by collecting additional information about participants’ explicit biases towards Polish migrants in the UK. We did not reproduce the original pattern of results, observing no effect of speaker accent or exposure on comprehension or veracity. In addition, the measure of explicit bias did not predict differential veracity ratings for Polish- and British-accented speech. Although the current pattern of results differs from that of the original study, our finding that neither comprehension nor veracity were impacted by accent or exposure condition is not inconsistent with the Boduch-Grabka and Lev-Ari (2021) processing difficulty account of the accent-based veracity judgment effect. We explore possible explanations for the lack of replication and future directions for this work.
Cancer health research relies on large-scale cohorts to derive generalizable results for different populations. While traditional epidemiological cohorts often use costly random sampling or self-motivated, preselected groups, a shift toward health system-based cohorts has emerged. However, such cohorts depend on participants remaining within a single system. Recent consumer engagement models using smartphone-based communication, driving projects, and social media have begun to upend these paradigms.
Methods:
We initiated the Healthy Oregon Project (HOP) to support basic and clinical cancer research. HOP study employs a novel, cost-effective remote recruitment approach to effectively establish a large-scale cohort for population-based studies. The recruitment leverages the unique email account, the HOP website, and social media platforms to direct smartphone users to the study app, which facilitates saliva sample collection and survey administration. Monthly newsletters further facilitate engagement and outreach to broader communities.
Results:
By the end of 2022, the HOP has enrolled approximately 35,000 participants aged 18–100 years (median = 44.2 years), comprising more than 1% of the Oregon adult population. Among those who have app access, ∼87% provided consent to genetic screening. The HOP monthly email newsletters have an average open rate of 38%. Efforts continue to be made to improve survey response rates.
Conclusion:
This study underscores the efficacy of remote recruitment approaches in establishing large-scale cohorts for population-based cancer studies. The implementation of the study facilitates the collection of extensive survey and biological data into a repository that can be broadly shared and supports collaborative clinical and translational research.
Unsupervised remote digital cognitive assessment makes frequent testing feasible and allows for measurement of learning across days on participants’ own devices. More rapid detection of diminished learning may provide a potentially valuable metric that is sensitive to cognitive change over short intervals. In this study we examine feasibility and predictive validity of a novel digital assessment that measures learning of the same material over 7 days in older adults.
Participants and Methods:
The Boston Remote Assessment for Neurocognitive Health (BRANCH) (Papp et al., 2021) is a web-based assessment administered over 7 consecutive days repeating the same stimuli each day to capture multi-day-learning slopes. The assessment includes Face-Name (verbal-visual associative memory), Groceries-Prices (numeric-visual associative memory), and Digits-Signs (speeded processing of numeric-visual associations). Our sample consisted of200 cognitively unimpaired older adults enrolled in ongoing observational studies (mean age=74.5, 63% female, 87% Caucasian, mean education=16.6) who completed the tasks daily, at home, on their own digital devices. Participants had previously completed in-clinic paper-and-pencil tests to compute a Preclinical Alzheimer’s Cognitive Composite (PACC-5). Mixed-effects models controlling for age, sex, and education were used to observe the associations between PACC-5 scores and both initial performance and multi-day learning on the three BRANCH measures.
Results:
Adherence was high with 96% of participants completing all seven days of consecutive assessment; demographic factors were not associated with differences in adherence. Younger participants had higher Day 1 scores all three measures, and learning slopes on Digit-Sign. Female participants performed better on Face-Name (T=3.35, p<.001) and Groceries-Prices (T=2.00, p=0.04) on Day 1 but no sex differences were seen in learning slopes; there were no sex differences on Digit-Sign. Black participants had lower Day 1 scores on Face-Name (T=-3.34, p=0.003) and Digit Sign (T=3.44, p=0.002), but no racial differences were seen on learning slopes for any measure. Education was not associated with any measure. First day performance on Face-Name (B=0.39, p<.001), but not learning slope B=0.008, p=0.302) was associated with the PACC5. For Groceries-Prices, both Day 1 (B=0.27, p<.001) and learning slope (B=0.02, p=0.03) were associated with PACC-5. The Digit-Sign scores at Day 1 (B=0.31, p<.001) and learning slope (B=0.06, p<.001) were also both associated with PACC-5.
Conclusions:
Seven days of remote, brief cognitive assessment was feasible in a sample of cognitively unimpaired older adults. Although various demographic factors were associated with initial performance on the tests, multi-day-learning slopes were largely unrelated to demographics, signaling the possibility of its utility in diverse samples. Both initial performance and learning scores on an associative memory and processing speed test were independently related to baseline cognition indicating that these tests’ initial performance and learning metrics are convergent but unique in their contributions. The findings signal the value of measuring differences in learning across days as a means towards sensitively identifying differences in cognitive function before signs of frank impairment are observed. Next steps will involve identifying the optimal way to model multi-day learning on these subtests to evaluate their potential associations with Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers.
Abstract: Through the case study of Cannes award-winner, The Son's Room (Nanni Moretti, 2001), this chapter interrogates film festivals’ selfpresentation as institutions that “take nothing into account other than the art of film” (Gilles Jacob cited in Elsaesser, 2005, p. 98). I argue that European A festivals mobilise the auteur as a figure of artistic universality and anti-commercial purity—a means of disavowing their statuses as enterprises engaged in a struggle for the very definition of art. I use Nanni Moretti's ambivalent authorial persona in The Son's Room to “speak back” to such disavowal, showing how Moertti's self-conscious performance of auteurism highlights the contradictions of the auteur as at once a symbol of artistic freedom and product of commercial constraint.
Keywords: auteur theory, art cinema, Nanni Moretti, film festivals, Italian cinema, film authorship
A close family in a small northern Italian city. The father, Giovanni, the mother, Paola and their two teenage children: Irene the elder and Andrea, the younger. Giovanni is a psychoanalyst. In his consulting-room next to his flat, his patients confide their neurosis to him, which contrasts strongly with his own quiet existence.
One Sunday morning, Giovanni is called by a patient for an emergency. He is not able to go jogging with his son, like he had told him. Andrea leaves to go scuba diving with friends and he never comes back from it…
‒ Synopsis of The Son's Room in the Cannes 2001 print and online programme
Introduction
It has been well documented that European A festivals differentiate themselves from other cinematic institutions through their “professed commitment to artistic excellence and nothing else” (Elsaesser, 2005, p. 95). This was demonstrated recently in a contradictory and politicised edition of Cannes. The 2018 edition took place in the context of the #MeToo and “Time's Up” movements, both of which called for an end to discrimination against women in the film industry. That year, Cannes's main competition was judged by a female-majority jury led by Cate Blanchett, and the festival was marked by several protests for gender equality.
Abstract: Through the case study of Gomorrah's (Matteo Garrone, 2008) presentation at Cannes, this chapter re-assesses film festivals’ claims to both artistic and political universality through the lenses of capitalism and Orientalism. I argue that European A festivals disavow their reproduction of oppressive power structures by displacing the excesses of global capitalism onto a fantasmatic, orientalised South. I investigate the dynamics of transnationalism and “uneven development” in competitive film festivals’ programming of films produced and/or set “outside” the North Atlantic. I show that, while Cannes’ presentation of Gomorrah effectively localises its critique to Southern Italy, the film itself makes manifest the imbrication of the Global North—and even European film festivals—in the ecological and commercial corruption it depicts.
Keywords: globalisation, Eurocentrism, film festivals, Italian cinema, Matteo Garrone, eco-cinema
Power, money and blood: these are the “values” that the residents of the Province of Naples and Caserta, have to face every day. They hardly ever have a choice, and are almost always forced to obey the rules of the “system”, the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a “normal” life.
Five stories are woven together in this violent scenario, set in a cruel and apparently imaginary world, but one which is deeply rooted in reality.
‒ Synopsis of Gomorrah in the Cannes 2008 print and online programme
Introduction
In this book I have analysed the ideological effects of European A festivals’ position within, dependence upon, and reproduction of, global capitalism. I have considered how the figure of the auteur, as a sinthome of “universal” cinematic art, both conceals and reveals the contradictions of art cinema as a commodity and European A festivals as commercially constrained institutions. Building on this, I have analysed the gendered dimension of this figure to show that the festivals’ ideological dependence on the auteur entails the reproduction of masculine dominance or patriarchy. I have also considered how European A festivals’ claim to represent the other functions to differentiate them and the films they award from their constitutive outside, Hollywood, while nonetheless reproducing coordinates that make the totality of representation that festivals claim structurally impossible.
Abstract: The Introduction discusses the main relationships this book investigates: art cinema and film festivals, film festivals and Europe, and Italian cinema and film festivals. I consider the various terms through which we might taxonomise films celebrated at festivals—world cinema, global art cinema, peripheral cinema—before outlining the Eurocentric histories of the film festival network and dominant canons of art cinema. I show how the meaning of terms such as art cinema is contingent upon the flows of prestige, geopolitical relations and economic structures in which film festivals participate. The introduction then focuses on Italian cinema's status as emblematic of filmmaking dependent on festivals for circulation and its centrality to the historical development of the European film festival circuit.
Keywords: art cinema, film festivals, Italian cinema, film circulation, European cinema
The central premise of this book is that art cinema does not exist. It is a fantasy that is brought into being again and again through rituals that take place at film festivals—rituals such as film selections and screenings, prize-giving, red carpet parades, as well as the production of endless pronouncements on each film, from festival programmes to jury statements, interviews, critics’ reviews, social media posts and, of course, the excited exchange of opinions between audience members after (and sometimes during) a screening.
Yet these rituals, and the sites in which they take place, are not pure: they are constituted by and reproduce economic and geopolitical interests. Film festivals’ construction of that which we call art cinema not only serves the dictates of some rarefied aesthetic value, but, to bring things abruptly back down to earth, it also serves “the interests of nation states and global capital” (Rhyne, 2009, p. 10). Art cinema is a fantasy, yes, but one produced under material conditions, and with material consequences. This book is an investigation of those conditions and consequences—in other words, the ideology of art cinema reproduced through film festivals.
Through the case of new millennium Italian cinema, this book seeks to develop our understanding of which films are permitted international attention and legitimation at European competitive film festivals.