The New Jersey Kids Study (NJKS) is a transdisciplinary statewide initiative to understand influences on child health, development, and disease. We conducted a mixed-methods study of project planning teams to investigate team effectiveness and relationships between team dynamics and quality of deliverables.

Ten theme-based working groups (WGs) (e.g., Neurodevelopment, Nutrition) informed protocol development and submitted final reports. WG members (n = 79, 75%) completed questionnaires including de-identified demographic and professional information and a modified TeamSTEPPS Team Assessment Questionnaire (TAQ). Reviewers independently evaluated final reports using a standardized tool. We analyzed questionnaire results and final report assessments using linear regression and performed constant comparative qualitative analysis to identify central themes.

WG-level factors associated with greater team effectiveness included proportion of full professors (β = 31.24, 95% CI 27.65–34.82), team size (β = 0.81, 95% CI 0.70–0.92), and percent dedicated research effort (β = 0.11, 95% CI 0.09–0.13); age distribution (β = −2.67, 95% CI –3.00 to –2.38) and diversity of school affiliations (β = –33.32, 95% CI –36.84 to –29.80) were inversely associated with team effectiveness. No factors were associated with final report assessments. Perceptions of overall initiative leadership were associated with expressed enthusiasm for future NJKS participation. Qualitative analyses of final reports yielded four themes related to team science practices: organization and process, collaboration, task delegation, and decision-making patterns.

We identified several correlates of team effectiveness in a team science initiative's early planning phase. Extra effort may be needed to bridge differences in team members' backgrounds to enhance the effectiveness of diverse teams. This work also highlights leadership as an important component in future investigator engagement.

Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) require validated measures and metrics for evaluating research partnerships and outcomes. There is a need to adapt and translate existing measures for practical use with diverse and non-English-speaking communities. This paper describes the Spanish translation and adaptation of Engage for Equity’s Community Engagement Survey (E2 CES), a nationally validated and empirically-supported CEnR evaluation tool, into the full-length “Encuesta Comunitaria,” and a pragmatic shorter version “Fortaleciendo y Uniendo EsfueRzos Transdisciplinarios para Equidad de Salud” (FUERTES).

Community and academic partners from the mainland US, Puerto Rico, and Nicaragua participated in translating and adapting E2 CES, preserving content validity, psychometric properties, and importance to stakeholders of items, scales, and CBPR constructs (contexts, partnership processes, intervention and research actions, and outcomes). Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha and convergent validity was assessed via a correlation matrix among scales.

Encuesta Comunitaria respondents (N = 57) self-identified as primarily Latinos/as/x (97%), female (74%), and academics (61%). Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from 0.72 to 0.88 for items in the context domain to 0.90–0.92 for items in the intervention/research domain. Correlations were found as expected among subscales, with the strongest relationships found for subscales within the same CBPR domain. Results informed the creation of FUERTES.

Encuenta Comunitaria and FUERTES offer CEnR/CBPR practitioners two validated instruments for assessing their research partnering practices, and outcomes. Moreover, FUERTES meets the need for shorter pragmatic tools. These measures can further strengthen CEnR/CBPR involving Latino/a/x communities within the US, Latin America, and globally.

Clinical research is critical for healthcare advancement, but participant recruitment remains challenging. Clinical research professionals (CRPs; e.g., clinical research coordinator, research assistant) perform eligibility prescreening, ensuring adherence to study criteria while upholding scientific and ethical standards. This study investigates the key information CRP prioritizes during eligibility prescreening, providing insights to optimize data standardization, and recruitment approaches.

We conducted a freelisting survey targeting 150 CRPs from diverse domains (i.e., neurological disorders, rare diseases, and other diseases) where they listed essential information they look for from medical records, participant/caregiver inquiries, and discussions with principal investigators to determine a potential participant’s research eligibility. We calculated the salience scores of listed items using Anthropac, followed by a two-level analytic procedure to classify and thematically categorize the data.

The majority of participants were female (81%), identified as White (44%) and as non-Hispanic (64.5%). The first-level analysis universally emphasized age, medication list, and medical history across all domains. The second-level analysis illuminated domain-specific approaches in information retrieval: for instance, history of present illness was notably significant in neurological disorders during participant and principal investigator inquiries, while research participation was distinctly salient in potential participant inquiries within the rare disease domain.

This study unveils the intricacies of eligibility prescreening, with both universal and domain-specific methods observed. Variations in data use across domains suggest the need for tailored prescreening in clinical research. Incorporating these insights into CRP training and refining prescreening tools, combined with an ethical, participant-focused approach, can advance eligibility prescreening practices.

Major risk factors for urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC) in people are smoking and occupational exposures. However, up to 30% of human UCC risk is still unexplained. Pet dogs develop UCC that models the clinical behavior of muscle-invasive human UCC. Dogs may therefore provide a useful model for non-tobacco, nonoccupational UCC risk. We previously found that nonsmoking human subjects and their pet dogs share exposures to the urothelial carcinogens acrolein and arsenic. We hypothesized that these urinary exposures would reach genotoxic concentrations in some individuals.

We exposed immortal and primary human and canine urothelial cells in vitro to acrolein and inorganic arsenic and used the γ-H2AX and comet assays to measure DNA damage.

For acrolein, we found a genotoxic threshold of 1.1–4.4 μM in human cells and a threshold of 20.0–55.6 μM in canine cells. These findings are consistent with potentially genotoxic urinary acrolein exposures in 51% of healthy human subjects and 17% of pet dogs previously surveyed. For inorganic arsenic, we found a genotoxic threshold of ≥10 μM in canine and human cell lines. No healthy human or canine subject reached these urinary inorganic arsenic exposures when assayed at a single time point.

Non-tobacco, nonoccupational acrolein exposures could increase the risk of early urothelial DNA damage in both people and pet dogs. Ongoing studies will assess these chemical exposures in the setting of UCC in both human and canine patients.

Self-efficacy (or the belief in one’s ability to effect change) often moderates the relationship between education, interest, and actions in evaluations of training programs that prepare community-based investigators in the clinical and translational sciences workforce. Such evaluations, however, tend to emphasize individual-level attitudes when there are also community- or organizational-level outcomes impacted. Methods: This study uses a novel sequential, explanatory mixed-methods design to explore multiple levels of self-efficacy (or self-awareness of personal growth in leadership) in the Clinical Scholars program, an equity-centered leadership development program for mid- to later-career healthcare professionals. Our design involves: (1) bivariate correlations and confirmatory factor analysis of self-assessed competencies across all program participants to identify emergent combinations of competencies, which informed (2) more nuanced thematic coding of participants’ stories of most significant change in their personal and professional lives, as a result of the program. Results: In unpacking their accounts of personal leadership styles (that aligned with our quantitative analyses of competencies), we found that participants demonstrated multiple competencies simultaneously. Specifically, they employed emotionally intelligent learning and consensus-building dialogue to manage conflict for interpersonal impact. Additionally, they used this combination of skills to unite diverse stakeholders under a shared vision in order to lead and manage organizational change where all colleagues’ contributions were valued. Conclusion: Together, these methods extend our understanding of personal growth in leadership as an outcome of the program in terms of individual- and organizational-level impacts, using representative quantitative self-assessments to categorize rich qualitative descriptions.

Zinc and copper are trace elements that have important roles in the function of the immune system. We aimed to compare serum zinc and copper levels in neonates with and without neonatal sepsis.

This case–control study examined 54 newborns with sepsis and 54 matched healthy controls admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of Children’s Hospital, Bandar Abbas, Iran. Neonates with the diagnosis of sepsis were regarded as cases and those admitted for other reasons were regarded as controls. Maternal and neonatal serum zinc and copper were measured on admission. Copper, zinc, and copper/zinc ratio differences between case and control groups were analyzed.

Neonatal zinc levels were significantly lower in the sepsis group versus controls (88.65 ± 40.64 vs 143.48 ± 69.57μg/dL, p < 0.001). Sepsis group mothers had lower zinc (66.04 vs 83.37μg/dL, p = 0.008) and copper (124.09 vs 157.74μg/dL, p < 0.001). Neonatal copper levels were slightly lower in the sepsis group. Copper/zinc ratio was significantly higher in the sepsis group (p < 0.001). In the sepsis group, the interval to the resolution of sepsis symptoms was significantly shorter in neonates with excess compared to sufficient copper levels (P = 0.023).

Serum copper and zinc levels have an important role in the immune system’s response to the infection. Neonatal serum copper at levels higher than normal can lead to significantly shorter hospital stay. Also, higher Cu/Zn ratios can be found in neonatal sepsis, suggesting the potential utility of this index in the diagnosis of sepsis.

Latinx populations are underrepresented in clinical research. Asking Latinx research participants about their research experiences, barriers, and facilitators could help to improve research participation for these populations.

The Salud Estres y Resilencia (SER) Hispano cohort study is a longitudinal cohort study of young adult Latinx immigrants whose design and conduct were tailored for their study population. We administered the Research Participant Perception Survey (RPPS) to SER Hispano participants to assess their experiences in the study. We describe overall results from the RPPS and compare results of surveys administered to SER Hispano participants via email versus telephone.

Of 340 participants who were contacted with the RPPS, 142 (42%) responded. Among respondents, 53 (37%) responded by initial email contact; and 89 (63%) responded by subsequent phone contact. The majority of respondents were between 35 and 44 years of age (54%), female (76%), and of Cuban origin (50%). Overall, research participants expressed high satisfaction with their research experience; 84% stated that they would “definitely” recommend research participation to friends and family, with no significant difference by method of survey administration (P = 0.45). The most common factor that was chosen that would influence future research participation was having summary results of the research shared with them (72%).

We found that culturally tailored studies can be good experiences for Latinx research participants; and we found that use of the RPPS can be administered successfully, particularly when administered by more than one method, including telephone, to evaluate and to improve research experiences for this population.

West Virginia is a rural state with high rates of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and prediabetes. The Diabetes Prevention and Management (DPM) program was a health coach (HC)-led, 12-month community-based lifestyle intervention.

The study examined the impact of the DPM program on changes in glycosylated hemoglobin (A1C) and weight over twelve months among rural adults with diabetes and prediabetes. Program feasibility and acceptability were also explored.

An explanatory sequential quantitative and qualitative one-group study design was used to gain insight into the pre- and 12-month changes to health behavior and clinical outcomes. Trained HCs delivered the educational sessions and provided weekly health coaching feedback. Assessments included demographics, clinical, anthropometric, and qualitative focus groups. Participants included 94 obese adults with diabetes (63%) and prediabetes (37%). Twenty-two participated in three focus groups.

Average attendance was 13.7 ± 6.1 out of 22 sessions. Mean weight loss was 4.4 ± 11.5 lbs at twelve months and clinical improvement in A1C (0.4%) was noted among T2DM adults. Program retention (82%) was higher among older participants and those with poor glycemic control. While all participants connected to a trained HC, only 72% had regular weekly health coaching. Participants reported overall acceptability and satisfaction with the program and limited barriers to program engagement.

Our findings suggest that it is feasible to implement an HC-led DPM program in rural communities and improve A1C in T2DM adults. Trained HCs have the potential to be integrated with healthcare teams in rural regions of the United States.