Explore the vast range of titles available.

Background The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends patient education materials reflect the average reading grade level of the US population. Due to the importance of shared decision-making in breast cancer surgery, this study evaluates the reading level of patient education materials from National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers (NCI-DCC) compared with top Internet search results. Methods Online materials from NCI-DCC and top Internet search results on breast cancer, staging, surgical options, and pre- and postoperative expectations were analyzed using three validated readability algorithms: Simplified Measure of Gobbledygook Readability Formula, Coleman–Liau index, and Flesch–Kincaid grade level. Mean readability was compared across source groups and information subcategories using an unpaired t -test with statistical significance set at p < 0.05. Mean readability was compared using a one-way analysis of variance. Results Mean readability scores from NCI-DCC and Internet groups ranged from a 9th–12th grade level, significantly above the NIH recommended reading level of 6th–7th grade. There was no significant difference between reading levels from the two sources. The discrepancy between actual and recommended reading level was most pronounced for “surgical options” at a 10th–12th grade level from both sources. Conclusions Patient education materials on breast cancer from both NCI-DCC and top Internet search results were written several reading grade levels higher than the NIH recommendation. Materials should be revised to enhance patient comprehension of breast cancer surgical treatment and guide patients in this important decision-making process to ultimately improve health outcomes.

In the United States, an epidemic of unusual and severe lung disease associated with the use of e-cigarettes, or vaping, began in spring 2019. By fall 2019, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had received reports of e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) cases from all state health departments in the continental US, Hawaii, and the US Virgin Islands. According to the cases, a number of young people had developed severe lung disease characterized by marked shortness of breath and cough. Constitutional and gastrointestinal symptoms are common. Clinical laboratory test results in EVALI are often consistent with nonspecific findings of pulmonary/systemic inflammation. Many reported cases of EVALI have required critical care interventions including noninvasive positive airway pressure, cardiotonic pressors, and intubation/mechanical ventilation. The need for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support has been reported in some cases. The lung disease is diffuse and has multiple pathologies. Patients are often treated with intravenous or oral corticosteroids with clinical improvement, although the natural history of the disease remains unknown. In rare cases, the outcome is fatal. This article reviews the epidemiology, clinical presentation, radiographic appearance, diagnostic approach, and treatment regimens for patients with vaping-induced lung disease as noted in multiple patients and the current literature. [ Pediatr Ann . 2020;49(2):e93–e98.]

Actomyosin supracellular networks emerge during development and tissue repair. These cytoskeletal structures are able to generate large scale forces that can extensively remodel epithelia driving tissue buckling, closure and extension. How supracellular networks emerge, are controlled and mechanically work still remain elusive. During Drosophila oogenesis, the egg chamber elongates along the anterior-posterior axis. Here we show that a dorsal-ventral polarized supracellular F-actin network, running around the egg chamber on the basal side of follicle cells, emerges from polarized intercellular filopodia that radiate from basal stress fibers and extend penetrating neighboring cell cortexes. Filopodia can be mechanosensitive and function as cell-cell anchoring sites. The small GTPase Cdc42 governs the formation and distribution of intercellular filopodia and stress fibers in follicle cells. Finally, our study shows that a Cdc42-dependent supracellular cytoskeletal network provides a scaffold integrating local oscillatory actomyosin contractions at the tissue scale to drive global polarized forces and tissue elongation. During development, organs undergo large scale forces driven by the cytoskeleton but the precise molecular regulation of cytoskeletal networks remains unclear. Here, the authors report a Cdc42-dependent supracellular cytoskeletal network integrates local actomyosin contraction at tissue scale and drives global tissue elongation.

Cell apical constriction driven by actomyosin contraction forces is a conserved mechanism during tissue folding in embryo development. While much is now understood of the molecular mechanism responsible for apical constriction and of the tissue-scale integration of the ensuing in-plane deformations, it is still not clear if apical actomyosin contraction forces are necessary or sufficient per se to drive tissue folding. To tackle this question, we use the Drosophila embryo model system that forms a furrow on the ventral side, initiating mesoderm internalization. Past computational models support the idea that cell apical contraction forces may not be sufficient and that active or passive cell apico-basal forces may be necessary to drive cell wedging leading to tissue furrowing. By using 3D computational modelling and in toto embryo image analysis and manipulation, we now challenge this idea and show that embryo-scale force balance at the tissue surface, rather than cell-autonomous shape changes, is necessary and sufficient to drive a buckling of the epithelial surface forming a furrow which propagates and initiates embryo gastrulation. Drosophila mesoderm invagination begins with the formation of a furrow. Here they show that a long-range mechanism, powered by actomyosin contraction between the embryo polar caps, works like a ‘cheese-cutter wire’ indenting the tissue surface and folding it into a propagating furrow.

Tissue elongation is known to be controlled by oriented cell division, elongation, migration and rearrangement. While these cellular processes have been extensively studied, new emerging supracellular mechanisms driving tissue extension have recently been unveiled. Tissue rotation and actomyosin contractions have been shown to be key processes driving Drosophila egg chamber elongation. First, egg chamber rotation facilitates the dorsal-ventral alignment of the extracellular matrix and of the cell basal actin fibers. Both fiber-like structures form supracellular networks constraining the egg growth in a polarized fashion thus working as ‘molecular corsets’. Second, the supracellular actin fiber network, powered by myosin periodic oscillation, contracts anisotropically driving tissue extension along the egg anterior-posterior axis. During both processes, cellular and supracellular planar polarity provide a critical cue to control Drosophila egg chamber elongation. Here we review how different planar polarized networks are built, maintained and function at both cellular and supracellular levels in the Drosophila ovarian epithelium.

Epithelial furrowing is a morphogenetic process that is pivotal during embryo gastrulation, neurulation and the shaping of the animal body. A furrow often results from a fold that propagates along a line. How fold formation and propagation are initiated, driven and controlled is still poorly understood. To shed new light on this fundamental morphogenetic process, we study the formation of the cephalic furrow: a fold that runs along the dorsal-ventral axis of the embryo during early Drosophila gastrulation and the developmental role of which is still unknown. Here, we provide evidence of its function and show that the cephalic furrow is initiated by two groups of cells located on the left and right lateral sides of the embryo. These cellular clusters work as a pacemaker triggering a bi-directional morphogenetic wave powered by actomyosin contractions and sustained by de novo medial apex-to-apex cell adhesion. The Cartesian position of the pacemakers is under the cross-control of the embryo anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral gene patterning systems. Thus, furrow initiation and propagation are driven by a mechanical trigger wave that travels under the control of a multidimensional genetic guide.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.