Foundation Website Research Articles

Abstracts for the 4th Annual Congress on Medicine & Science in Ultra-Endurance Sports, May 30, 2017, Denver, Colorado.

The 4th Annual Congress on Medicine & Science in Ultra-Endurance Sports will be held on May 30, 2017, in Denver, Colorado. While prior meetings have been multiple-day events, the 2017 Congress will be an intense 1-day preconference to the American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting. Details of this Congress, as well as past and future meetings, can be found at the Ultra Sports Science Foundation Web site: http://ultrasportsscience.us.

Eudora Welty Foundation

Eudora Welty Foundation Jeanne B. Luckett, Communications Consultant The Eudora Welty Foundation works collaboratively with many educational, literary, and arts organizations to promote the study of Welty's literary and photographic legacy and to encourage reading and writing. The Foundation presents events and develops resources for students, teachers, scholars, and the general public to further their knowledge and appreciation of Welty. It also assists the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in the preservation of the Welty House and Garden. Salman Rushdie Presents Inaugural Eudora Welty Lecture to Sold-Out Crowd World-renowned author Salman Rushdie presented the inaugural Eudora Welty Lecture to an appreciative audience of more than 1,250 at the Washington National Cathedral in October 2016. The endowed lecture is sponsored by the Eudora Welty Foundation in collaboration with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and has been generously supported by Martha Dowd Dalrymple and the family of Eudora Welty. Author and Professor of English at George Mason University Susan Richards Shreve, chairwoman of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and member of the Welty Foundation National Advisory Board, welcomed the audience. Natasha Trethewey, 2012–14 US Poet Laureate, introduced Rushdie and also offered a moving tribute to Welty. Rushdie spoke of the early influences in India and England on his writing career in keeping with the lecture's theme, which was based on Welty's memoir, One Writer's Beginnings, initially delivered as lectures at Harvard University in 1983. The 2017 Welty Lecture will be held in November in Washington, DC; the author/lecturer will be announced soon. Visit eudorawelty.org/news-events for the latest details. Playwright Beth Henley Delivers Third Annual Bettye Jolly Lecture Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley offered the 2017 Bettye Jolly Lecture in March in the Eudora Welty Garden. Some 170 fans of this [End Page 119] Jackson, Mississippi, native attended the event, sponsored by the Eudora Welty Foundation. Prior to the lecture, actors Sydney Blackwell and Michael Kinslow reprised their roles in a scene from the 2015 New Stage Theatre production of Henley's Crimes of the Heart, directed by John Maxwell and produced by Peter Friedrich, which received not only the Pulitzer but also the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play in 1981. Henley spoke of her admiration and appreciation of Eudora Welty and shared experiences she had with her. She also revealed what she learned about the theater from her late mother, actor Lydy Becker Caldwell. Suzanne Marrs, Welty Foundation Scholar-in-Residence, led Henley in conversation and discussion with the audience. The endowed lecture series was created to honor the memory of the late Bettye Jolly of Jackson, a long-time docent at the Eudora Welty House and Garden. Contributions may be made to support the lecture on the Foundation website: eudorawelty.org/contribute. Foundation Presents 2017 Scholastic Writing Awards; Author Kiese Laymon Delivers Keynote Address From a record 781 entries from 566 students, 238 awards were presented in the 2017 Scholastic Writing Awards program at the Welty House and Garden in April. The Mississippi regional awards recognized five American Voices Medal nominees, nine Senior Portfolio winners, 21 Gold Key winners, 85 Silver Key winners, and 118 Honorable Mention winners, with several students receiving multiple awards. Kiese Laymon, Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi, was the keynote speaker. A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Laymon graduated from Oberlin College and earned an MFA in fiction from Indiana University. The author of the novel Long Division and a collection of essays entitled How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, Laymon has a memoir entitled Heavy and a novel, And So On, expected in 2017, both from Scribner. The Scholastic Writing Awards are presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers for which the Eudora Welty Foundation is the Mississippi regional affiliate. The program is administered by the Eudora Welty House and Garden and coordinated by Sally Birdsall. A grant from the C Spire Foundation enables the program to be offered statewide to students in grades 7–12 in public, independent, and home school settings. [End Page 120] McMullan Family Foundation Expands Young Writers Workshop at Millsaps The 2017 McMullan Young...

A Systematic Review of the Use of LENA Technology.

The authors systematically reviewed peer-reviewed studies done with LENA (Language ENvironment Analysis) technology, guided by three research questions: (a) What types of studies have been conducted, and with which populations, since the launch of LENA technology? (b) What challenges related to use of LENA technology were identified? (c) What are the implications for practice and future research using LENA technology? Electronic databases, the LENA Research Foundation website, and bibliographies of already-included studies were searched; 38 studies were identified. The authors selected studies on the basis of purpose, design, participant characteristics, application of LENA technology, and results. They found that LENA technology was used with a range of populations to yield a variety of information. Though challenges and limitations are associated with LENA technology, great potential exists for further research and a resultant increase in evidence-based understanding of early language development and interventions on its behalf.

Religious Freedom: The Catholic Approach

I should make plain at the beginning that I am neither a theologian nor a church historian, and I do not represent the Catholic Church. What follows is merely my understanding of the key documents and some of the key interventions by the Church on the topic of religious freedom over the last fifty years. In writing this comment, I have used a collection of the Church's statements on religious freedom published by the Caritas in Veritate Foundation in Geneva. This foundation is concerned with the social doctrine of the Church and seeks to support the work of the Holy See and other Roman Catholic bodies at the United Nations. Anybody interested in the Church's position on this and related issues will find some useful material on the foundation's website.

Stadium Mocs

Stadium Mocs Chip Livingston (bio) side to side the moccasins slideshuffle left then right in the round dance the toe and heel of the chicken dance these mocs flex and stretch to the orange rimof the “don’t get me started” on the hoop dance my sneak-up shoes are the same as my stadium mocs I don’t hear the ref’s whistle to stop just the emcee’s call for another intertribal [End Page 127] Chip Livingston Chip Livingston is the author of the short story and essay collection Naming Ceremony (Lethe Press, 2014) and two poetry collections, Crow-Blue, Crow-Black (NYQ Books, 2012) and Museum of False Starts (Gival Press, 2010). His poetry and fiction have appeared in Ploughshares, New American Writing, Sub-tropics, Cincinnati Review, Apalachee Review, on the Poetry Foundation website, and in other journals and anthologies. He is on the creative nonfiction faculty in the “Low Rez” mfa program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the poetry faculty at the low-residency Mile High mfa program at Regis University in Denver. Visit www.chiplivingston.com. Copyright © 2015 University of Nebraska Press

Will the Trend Toward Higher Education Impact Nurse Supply? Implications for Workforce Planning

Shortages of nurses, particularly regional and specialty shortages, are widely acknowledged among care providers and in the health care staffing and workforce solutions sector of the health care industry. Orders for temporary nurses—including travel and per diem nurses—surged beginning in mid-2014 for AMN Healthcare, the nation's largest nurse staffing company, and have continued to be so strong that they cannot all be filled with existing supply. This trend for both permanent and temporary nurses is occurring throughout the health care industry, and is clearly reflected in data from federal sources showing a widening gap of unfilled health care jobs over the last 2 years. Shortages of nurses, particularly regional and specialty shortages, are widely acknowledged among care providers and in the health care staffing and workforce solutions sector of the health care industry. Orders for temporary nurses—including travel and per diem nurses—surged beginning in mid-2014 for AMN Healthcare, the nation's largest nurse staffing company, and have continued to be so strong that they cannot all be filled with existing supply. This trend for both permanent and temporary nurses is occurring throughout the health care industry, and is clearly reflected in data from federal sources showing a widening gap of unfilled health care jobs over the last 2 years. Letter to the EditorNurse LeaderVol. 15Issue 3PreviewI was interested to read the article “Will the Trend Toward Higher Education Impact Nurse Supply? Implications for Workforce Planning.”1 I agree this is a topic that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. More than once in the article, the authors state that at the time the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report2 was released in 2010, there was no nursing shortage. An article on The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation (RWJF) website, Facts About the Nursing Workforce, dated that same year in July 27, 2010, noted that “…the nation faces a shortage of 250,000 nurses by 2025 the result of several trends, including the increased need for health care for aging Baby Boomers and the influx of new patients into the system as a result of health care reform.”2 Full-Text PDF

Rufinamide in patients with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome

Rufinamide in patients with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome Peggy O Clark,1 Patricia A Gibson2 1Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, 2Epilepsy Information Service, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA Objectives: Lennox–Gastaut syndrome (LGS) is an epileptic encephalopathy with an onset at the age of ~4 years. LGS is notoriously difficult to manage, as most patients experience multiple seizures per day, despite their concomitant use of several antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Rufinamide (BANZEL®) is an AED approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the adjunctive treatment of seizures associated with LGS in pediatric patients aged ≥1 year and in adults. The expert care of nurses knowledgeable in the treatment options for LGS is valuable to patients and caregivers. This review summarizes the existing knowledge on LGS and data from clinical and real-world studies on the use of rufinamide in patients with LGS.Methods: Recent review articles and information from the Epilepsy Foundation Website were reviewed for data on LGS treatment. Primary articles on rufinamide were also selected for review.Results and conclusion: The efficacy and safety of rufinamide have been evaluated in children and adults by using double-blind, open-label, and observational studies. In general, these studies indicate that rufinamide effectively reduces the frequency and severity of multiple seizure types associated with LGS and has tolerable side effects, the most common being vomiting and somnolence. Dosing modifications based on age, weight, and concomitant AED usage are recommended for patients using rufinamide. Keywords: Lennox–Gastaut syndrome, anticonvulsants, rufinamide

Readability Trends of Online Information by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation.

Objective Previous studies have shown that patient education materials published by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation may be too difficult for the average reader to understand. The purpose of this study was to determine if current educational materials show improvements in readability. Study Design Cross-sectional analysis. Setting The Patient Health Information section of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation website. Subjects and Methods All patient education articles were extracted in plain text. Webpage navigation, references, author information, appointment information, acknowledgments, and disclaimers were removed. Follow-up editing was also performed to remove paragraph breaks, colons, semicolons, numbers, percentages, and bullets. Readability grade was calculated with the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Flesch Reading Ease, Gunning-Fog Index, Coleman-Liau Index, Automated Readability Index, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook. Intra- and interobserver reliability were assessed. Results A total of 126 articles from 7 topics were analyzed. Readability levels across all 6 tools showed that the difficulty of patient education materials exceeded the abilities of an average American. As compared with previous studies, current educational materials by the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation have shown a decrease in difficulty. Intra- and interobserver reliability were both excellent, with intraclass coefficients of 0.99 and 0.96, respectively. Conclusion Improvements in readability is an encouraging finding and one that is consistent with recent trends toward improved health literacy. Nevertheless, online patient educational material is still too difficult for the average reader. Revisions may be necessary for current materials to benefit a larger readership.

Introduction to Abstracts to be Presented at the Fifth Chinese Congress on Gerontology and Health Industry.

It is again with great pleasure that we introduce the research work to be presented at the third Chinese Congress on Gerontology and Health Industry (CCGI), which is published in abstract form in this issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS). The CCGI is a national conference organized by the Chinese Geriatrics Society (CGS), Chinese Medical Association. The third CCGI conference will be held on September 12–14, 2014 in the city of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, the People’s Republic of China. Held in the same city on September 13-15 of last year, the second CCGI conference, received very positive feedback in China and proved to be a great success, with 182 abstracts published by JAGS September 2013 supplement issue [J Am Geriatr Soc 2013; 61 (S3): S307–S370]. As a result, the number of collaborating professional organizations and government agencies related to geriatrics, gerontology, and senior healthcare has increased to 36 this year, compared to 32 last year. In addition, we have 191 quality abstracts to be included in this issue, about 5% increase from last year. Similar to the second CCGI conference last year, the work to be presented at the third CCGI conference this year encompasses many important areas of geriatrics and gerontology, from basic aging research to clinical trials; from clinical observation to large epidemiological studies; and from biological investigations to social and behavioral research. Studies concerning cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative conditions, malignancies, and other common age-dependent chronic conditions are abundant. Moreover, a number of abstracts describe important findings on genetic polymorphisms in Parkinson’s disease and cognitive impairment in the genetically homogeneous population in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest of China. Several others describe promising results from clinical trials of traditional Chinese herbal medicine for age-related chronic diseases. Also well represented are the cutting-edge basic aging research topics including stem cell biology, carcinogenesis, and cellular senescence. Publication of such exemplary work in geriatrics and gerontology in this supplement issue of JAGS will further our effort to promote meaningful scientific and scholarly exchange with the geriatrics community in the United States and around the world. To this end, we would like to thank again the leadership of JAGS, particularly Dr. Thomas Yoshikawa, Editor-in-Chief, and Mr. Kurt Polesky, Business Development Manager at Wiley for their support and effort in making this a success. As pointed out in JAGS September 2013 supplement issue, China has the largest aging population in the world. The need for the development of quality geriatrics care and aging research in that vast country is unprecedented. With the support from Chinese government agencies and the entire society, the current CGS leadership is dedicated to the development of standards for high quality geriatrics clinical care and education as well as advancement of gerontological research, a necessary step towards establishing geriatrics as a medical subspecialty in China. For instance, CGS is leading the way in developing and standardizing geriatric medicine textbooks as well as organizing national training courses for academic leaders in geriatrics and gerontology. In addition, US medical philanthropy such as the Milstein Medical Asian American Partnership (MMAAP) Foundation has established the Irma and Paul Milstein Program for Senior Health to provide private funding for further development of geriatric medicine and aging research programs in China. It is hoped that leaders in the US geriatrics community can partner with their colleagues in China to apply for such funding (see the MMAAP Foundation website www.mmaapf.org for details). Furthermore, the healthcare market in China has been recently opened to the private sector, and the Chinese government encourages the introduction of innovative geriatrics care models and senior healthcare management expertise to meet the healthcare needs of Chinese senior citizens, creating a unique opportunity for geriatrics *From the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 5505 Hopkins Bayview Circle, Baltimore, MD, 21224, USA; The American Geriatrics Society, 40 Fulton St, New York, NY, 10038, USA; and Department of Geriatric Cardiology, Chinese Great Wall Hospital, 28 Fuxing Road, Beijing, 100853, P. R. China.

An exploration of information exchange by adolescents and parents participating in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis online support groups.

BackgroundResearch indicates that healthcare providers frequently fail to adequately address patients’ health information needs. Therefore, it is not surprising that patients or parents of a sick child are seeking health information on the internet, in particular in online support groups (OSGs). In order to improve our understanding of the unmet health information needs of families dealing with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), this study assessed and compared the types of information that adolescents and parents are seeking in OSGs.MethodsThis study used two publicly accessible AIS-related OSGs on the National Scoliosis Foundation (NSF) website that targeted those who are receiving brace treatment and those under observation without treatment. Information exchanges were coded as providing or seeking information. Types of information being exchanged were categorized into several AIS-specific and brace-specific categories. Through a review of over 8,000 messages, 305 adolescents with AIS and 300 parents of a child with AIS were identified and categorized based on stage of illness/treatment. One message from each individual was randomly selected and coded for analysis.ResultsThere were significantly more (p < 0.001) parents that had a recently diagnosed child compared to recently diagnosed adolescents participating in the AIS-related OSGs, whereas there were significantly more (p = 0.004) adolescents that experienced brace treatment compared to parents of a child that experienced brace treatment. The most frequent information exchanged by adolescents and parents was AIS-related concerns regarding causes, diagnosis, and progression of the condition. However, compared to adolescents, parents exchanged this AIS-related information significantly more (p < .001) in their posts. Finally, compared to parents, adolescents exchanged significantly more information about appearance-related concerns regarding both AIS-related deformity (p < 0.002) and wearing a brace (p < 0.001).ConclusionFamilies dealing with AIS are participating in OSGs to exchange information, in particular information related to the condition and to treatment. This study found similarities and differences regarding how information was exchanged (providing or seeking) and regarding frequency and types of information exchanged. Knowledge of these similarities and differences may be useful for improving health communication in the healthcare setting, at home, and for development and improvement of AIS-related website support.

Abstract 359: A high-throughput PPI assay to quantify inhibition of androgen receptor variant 7 (AR-V7) binding to canonical AR full-length (AR-FL) binding partners

Abstract Background: Prostate Cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in the United States, affecting 1 in 7 men over their lifetimes [1]. It is the second most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths for men. Despite significant advancements in the treatment of Prostate Cancer within the past several years, numerous resistance mechanisms have been described for patients administered androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) [2]. Recently, Antonarakis et al. reported that in patients treated with enzaluatmide or abiraterone acetate plus prednisone, high levels of Androgen Receptor Variant 7 (AR-V7) mRNA in circulating tumor cells (CTC’s) were strongly correlated with a lack of clinical response to these drugs [3]. AR-V7 is upregulated following suppression of full-length Androgen Receptor (AR-FL) in vitro [4] and its expression is sufficient to induce canonical and distinct AR-FL downstream pathways [4, 5, 6]. Therefore, development of an inhibitor of AR-V7 activity has become a high-priority in pharmaceutical research. In this abstract, we describe a high-throughput protein-protein interaction PPI FRET-like assay, based on Promega's NanoBiT platform, which is amenable to screening potential inhibitors of AR-V7 binding to AR-FL canonical binding partners. Additionally, we report compounds that antagonize these interactions. Methods: We developed a set of AR full-length, truncated variants, and binding partners (SRC-1, RAP74) to interrogate PPI interactions. These constructs were tethered to one of two components of Promega's NanoBiT system, in which the binding interaction and kinetics are monitored by alterations in the NanoLuciferase (Oplophorus gracilirostris) signal [7]. This platform was validated using described agonists (R1881) and antagonists (enzalutamide and bicalutamide) of N-terminal and C-terminal AR dimerization. Subsequent experiments evaluated the effectiveness of AR-V7/AR-V7 or AR-V7/SRC1 NanoBiT binding and potential for disruption by small molecules. Results: We demonstrate that our system is capable of detecting activation and inhibition of AR-NTD and AR-CTD dimerization with either R1881 or R1881 in the presence of enzalutamide or bicaluatmide, respectively. Additionally, we have evaluated inhibition of AR-V7 binding to canonical AR-FL binding partners, SRC-1 and RAP74. These results demonstrate the utility of this platform to screen molecules for their ability to inhibit both AR-FL and splice variant dimerization and the resulting nuclear translocation and activation of downstream pathways. [1] Prostate Cancer Foundation website. [2] Sprenger and Plymate, Horm Cancer 2014. [3] Antonarakis et al., NEJM, 2014. [4] Hu R, Lu C, Mostaghel EA, et al., Cancer Research, 2014. [5] Hörnberg et al., PLoS ONE, 2011. [6] Zhang et al., PLoS ONE, 2011. [7] Hall et al., ACS Chem Biol., 2012. Citation Format: Jonathan Branch, Michael Quigley, Marco Gottardis, Ian Hickson. A high-throughput PPI assay to quantify inhibition of androgen receptor variant 7 (AR-V7) binding to canonical AR full-length (AR-FL) binding partners. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 359.

Impact of Neurosurgery Medical Student Research Grants on Neurosurgery Residency Choice

Recent decades have seen a rapid expansion of involvement of medical students in biomedical research during medical school training. Research within medical school has been shown to influence medical students with regard to medical knowledge, career development, and residency specialty choice. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of neurosurgery medical student research grants on neurosurgery residency choice and provide an insight on the demographics of grant awardees. In this retrospective study, a search of award recipients was performed using data available on the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation websites. Searched years included the first cycle of American Association of Neurological Surgeons/Neurosurgery Research and Education Foundation (2007) and Council of State Neurosurgical Societies/Congress of Neurological Surgeons (2008-2009) grant awards until the 2015-2016 cycle, which is the latest award cycle to date. The initial search yielded 163 research grants that were awarded to 158 students between the years of 2007 and 2016. Among the 163 grant recipients, 126 (77.3%) were men. Among the 88 recipients who entered postgraduate residency programs, 51% (45 of 88) matched into neurosurgery residency. When considering both neurosurgery and neurology residency programs, the percentage increased to 59.1% (52 of 88). Neurosurgery grants for medical students are highly successful in producing future neurosurgeons with >50% of grant recipients matched into neurosurgery. Women are underrepresented in neurosurgery grants and neurosurgery residency programs. This situation can be improved by providing insight about the field early in medical school, perhaps through increased use of neurosurgery medical student grants.

Exposure to ionizing radiation and brain cancer incidence: The Life Span Study cohort

BackgroundIonizing radiation is a cause of cancer. This paper examines the effects of radiation dose and age at exposure on the incidence of brain cancer using data from the Life Span Study (LSS) of atomic bomb survivors. MethodsThe Radiation Effects Research Foundation website provides demographic details of the LSS population, estimated radiation doses at time of bomb in 1945, person years of follow-up and incident cancers from 1958 to 1998. We modelled brain cancer incidence using background-stratified Poisson regression, and compared the excess relative risk (ERR) per Gray (Gy) of brain dose with estimates from follow-up studies of children exposed to diagnostic CT scans. ResultsAfter exposure to atomic bomb radiation at 10 years of age the estimated ERR/Gy was 0.91 (90%CI 0.53, 1.40) compared with 0.07 (90%CI −0.27, 0.56) following exposure at age 40. Exposure at 10 years of age led to an estimated excess of 17 brain tumors per 100,000 person year (pyr) Gy by 60 years of age. These LSS estimates are substantially less than estimates based on follow-up of children exposed to CT scans. ConclusionEstimates of ERR/Gy for brain cancers in the LSS and haemangioma cohorts seem much smaller than estimates of risk for young persons in the early years after exposure to CT-scans. This could be due to reverse causation bias in the CT cohorts, diagnostic error, measurement error with radiation doses, loss of early follow-up in the LSS, or non-linearity of the dose-response curve.

Use of antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy and lactation: Type of information provided by searching Google.

Surveys among women with epilepsy (WWE) show that they receive their essential pregnancy-related information from many sources, including the internet. Our aim was to assess the types of websites provided by searching Google for the use of four antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) during pregnancy and lactation. The search was performed on 40 computers used by health-care professionals, on 40 computers used by nonhealth-care professionals, and on 5 computers used by WWE in Israel and on 8 computers used by nonhealth-care professionals in the U.S. On each computer, a Google search was conducted for term combinations that included one AED name ("carbamazepine","valproic acid", "lamotrigine", "levetiracetam", or "Keppra") and "Pregnancy", "Lactation", or "Breastfeeding". The top three and top ten websites retrieved in every search were mapped (a total of 45 and 150 websites, respectively, from each computer). Across all searches in English, on both U.S. and Israeli computers, the majority of websites listed among the first three and first ten results were those of independent health portals. The representation of the Epilepsy Foundation website was 10% or less, and only a few results were obtained from the NIH's general public-oriented MedlinePlus. In Hebrew, results included almost exclusively Israeli or Hebrew-translated websites. As in English, results from public-oriented, professionally-written websites in Hebrew accounted for less than 50% of entries. Overall, the availability of readable and high-quality information on AEDs used by pregnant and breastfeeding women is limited. Guiding patients towards accurate web resources can help them navigate among the huge amount of available online information.

Eudora Welty Foundation

Eudora Welty Foundation Jeanne B. Luckett, Communications Consultant The Eudora Welty Foundation continues to undertake ventures in collaboration with partners to encourage the reading, study, enjoyment, and appreciation of Welty’s written and photographic works, visitation of the Welty House and Garden, and research in the Welty Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Inaugural Eudora Welty Lecture to Feature Author Salman Rushdie One of the strategic goals of the Welty Foundation and its National Advisory Board has been to create an endowed initiative of significant prominence in honor of Eudora Welty. Working in partnership with the PEN/Faulkner Foundation, the Welty Foundation announced in February 2016 the creation of The Eudora Welty Lecture. The inaugural speaker will be author Salman Rushdie, who will present on October 20, 2016, at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, as part of the PEN/Faulkner Reading Series. The lecture will be open to the public, and information about tickets will be forthcoming. Details will be posted on the Welty Foundation website: eudorawelty.org. Lecturers will be chosen from the most prominent writers working in the English language today. Each lecturer will present an original talk on the topic of his/her creative origins and will receive a $20,000 honorarium. The Eudora Welty Lecture is inspired by the lectures Welty delivered at Harvard University in 1983 as part of the William E. Massey, Sr. series. Over three lectures (Listening, Learning to See, and Finding a Voice), Welty surveyed her life as a writer and detailed the bonds between her upbringing in Jackson, Mississippi, and her remarkable literary voice. Following in the tradition of Welty, Rushdie will lead the audience along his own thread of revelation. Scholastic Writing Award Winners to Hear Author Shalanda Stanley at Ceremony; Gold and Silver Key Winners Eligible for McMullan Young Writers Workshop From a record 572 submissions, 272 have been selected by judges to receive Scholastic Writing Awards. The awards ceremony was held April [End Page 139] 10, 2016, at the Eudora Welty House and Garden. There are 32 gold key winners, 102 silver key winners, and 142 honorable mentions. A generous grant from the C Spire Foundation enables the Welty Foundation, in association with the Welty House and Garden, to offer the Scholastic Writing program statewide. Shalanda Stanley, author of Drowning Is Inevitable and assistant professor of curriculum, instruction, and leadership at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, was the ceremony’s keynote speaker. Stanley participated by Skype with the students who attended the McMullan Young Writers Workshop for Scholastic medalists last summer at Millsaps College. This year’s Scholastic medalists will be eligible to attend the workshop in the summer of 2016. The Scholastic Writing Awards Ceremony in April was part of a week-long celebration of the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Welty House. Visit the Welty Foundation website for details: eudorawelty.org. Pulitzer Prize Centennial To Be Celebrated with Focus on The Optimist’s Daughter The centennial of the Pulitzer Prize is being celebrated in 2016, and the Eudora Welty Foundation and Welty House and Garden, with support from the Mississippi Humanities Council, will host special events featuring The Optimist’s Daughter beginning in May 2016. The Foundation will produce a reader’s guide which will include photographs of artifacts in the Welty House and Education and Visitors center and flowers in the Garden that are referenced in The Optimist’s Daughter. The month of May will have the book’s focus included in the daily tours. Fundraising Under Way to Endow Eudora Welty Chair of Southern Literature at Millsaps Efforts to endow the Eudora Welty Chair of Southern Literature at Millsaps College have received a significant boost with two gifts of $250,000 each from Joe and Kathy Sanderson of Laurel, Mississippi, and the Phil Hardin Foundation. The $500,000 will be used to stimulate other contributions to meet the $2.5 million goal for endowing the chair. The endowment will enable the college to begin a national search for a preeminent scholar to fill the position. The Welty Chair is being endowed to continue the nationally and internationally renowned work of Suzanne Marrs, who retired from Millsaps in...

Fatigue, Quality of Life and Related Symptoms: Patient Reported Outcomes in Myelodysplastic Syndrome, Aplastic Anemia and Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria

Background: Fatigue is common and very distressing among patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), aplastic anemia (AA), and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), frequently affecting their quality of life. Often, this is combined with other symptoms such as pain, depression, anxiety, and stress. Limited data exists on the perceived level and impact of fatigue, quality of life and related symptoms in these patients.The objectives are to describe fatigue, quality of life (QOL) and related symptoms in patients with MDS, AA, and PNH by prospectively assessing these using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Anemia (FACT-An) for fatigue and QOL (subscales within FACT- An), pain using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), and depression, anxiety and stress using the DASS-21, and to define management strategies routinely used.Methods: Surveys were administered via the AA and MDS International Foundation's patient database from 10/2014 through 1/2015 via a secure internet portal associated with the Foundation's website. Descriptive statistics were utilized.Results: Of 313 pts, 145 (46%) had MDS, 84 (27%) had AA, 74 (24%) PNH, and 10 (3%) unreported [31 (10%), >1 diagnosis]. The mean age was 57 years with 210 (67%) female, 197 (92%) white among 214 with known race and 70 (25%) received a blood transfusion in the past 90 days. The mean fatigue score overall was 25 (range 1-52) and 28, 25, and 24 for AA, MDS, and PNH, respectively, p=0.12. (severe level). The overall quality of life score was 68 (range 10-104) and 67, 69, 67 for AA, MDS, PNH, respectively, p=0.82. Please note with the FACT-An, FACT-G and FACT-F -The higher the score, the better the QOL. The overall ranges for stress were normal; pain and depression, mild; and anxiety, moderate. Among the subgroups, stress was normal (all); pain and depression were mild (all); anxiety was mild in MDS, moderate in AA, PNH. None of the subgroups had statistical significance for these symptoms including anxiety.Most common management strategies used for fatigue in the past month were preserving energy 252 (81%); physical activity 234 (75%); naps 228 (73%). The strategies that were helpful to extremely helpful were preserving energy 216/252 (86%), physical activity 162/234 (69%), and naps 154/228 (68%). Among subgroups, physical activity (p=0.03) and meditation (p=0.03) showed significant differences. Frequency of use 3 or more times/week were preserving energy 166/237 (70%), physical activity 128/226 (57%), and naps 131/213 (62%) among those who indicated the frequency of use. Among subgroups, the frequency of physical activity p= 0.03, eating healthy p=0.005, and counseling p=.005 showed significant differences.Conclusions: There are few patient reported outcomes of fatigue, QOL and related symptoms in this population of rare disorders. Fatigue and QOL are significant challenges with similar findings of fatigue, QOL and related symptoms among the subgroups. However, there were differences among the types of management strategies and the frequency of use among the subgroups. Further focus on development of interventions tailored for AA, MDS, and PNH may assist in better management of fatigue with potential improvement in QOL. DisclosuresNo relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Surgical Specialty Residents More Likely to Receive the Arnold P. Gold Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award

The Arnold P. Gold Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Awards are given by medical students to residents. The aim of this study is to evaluate the distribution of this award based on residency specialty. The hypothesis is that surgical residents more commonly receive this award. This was a retrospective study from 2004 to 2013. All award recipients were obtained from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation website. The specialties of award recipients were tabulated. The number of award winners per thousand specialty residents was estimated using the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Data Resource Book, adjusting for the number of awarding schools and resident specialties. All statistics used an α = 0.05. There were 2489 awards given during the study period, with 52.6% in medical specialties and 47.4% in surgical specialties (p = 0.45). The specialties most commonly awarded were General Surgery (22.3%), Internal Medicine (20.9%), and Obstetrics/Gynecology (20.4%). Adjusting for the number of eligible residents, there were 59.9 awards/1000 Obstetrics/Gynecology residents, 43.1 awards/1000 General Surgery residents, and 20.2 awards/1000 Internal Medicine residents (p < 0.001). Controlling for the number of eligible residents, the Arnold P. Gold Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Awards are more commonly given to surgical specialty residents.

The minimal important difference of the epistaxis severity score in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia.

Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is a disease of abnormal angiogenesis, causing epistaxis in over 96% of patients. The Epistaxis Severity Score (ESS) was developed as a standardized measurement of nasal symptoms among HHT patients. The minimal important difference (MID) of a disease index estimates the smallest change that a patient and clinician would identify as important. This study aims to establish the MID of the ESS in a diverse population of HHT patients. Retrospective cross-sectional study in patients with a diagnosis of HHT using Curacao criteria or genetic testing. The ESS questionnaire and Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form (SF-36) were administered to participants recruited through the HHT Foundation Web site. Demographics and relevant medical histories were collected from all participants. An anchor-based method using a change of 5 in the Physical Component Summary (PCS) of the SF-36 and a distributional method were used to estimate the MID. A total of 604 subjects were recruited between April and August 2008. All participants reported epistaxis. An increasing ESS in the study cohort showed a significant negative correlation to the PCS (r = -0.43, P < 0.001). The MID was determined to be 0.41 via the anchor-based approach and 1.01 via the distribution-based approach, giving a mean MID of 0.71. Using both the anchor-based and distribution-based approaches, the estimated MID for the ESS in HHT is 0.71. Further implications include key metrics to help guide treatment responses in clinical care and essential information to calculate power and sample size for future clinical trials. 4. Laryngoscope, 126:1029-1032, 2016.

National Kidney Foundation/Council on Renal Nutrition Message From the Chairperson

AS I MOVE forward through my term as Chairperson for Council on Renal Nutrition (CRN), I am committed to my goal of enhancement in communication from the CRN Executive Committee to all regional and local council members. Projects have begun to update fundamental resources. Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative Evidence Analysis Project is underway to review and update the KidneyDiseaseOutcomesQuality Initiative guidelines. As you would expect, this is a comprehensive project and may take a few years to complete. As guideline revisions become available, future communications will be provided to keep you informed. The National Renal Diet Project team has had several meetings and is well underway to update this important resource. There is a professional and patient guide reference as part of this project. The professional guide provides nutrient recommendations for patients with kidney disease and offers guidelines for patients with diabetes and patients on peritoneal dialysis. The patient guide is a useful tool for patient education on meal planning. If you are working with chronic kidney disease patients and would like to provide commentary or ideas to be considered, your input is welcomed. Please send your information to me, and I will forward to the project committee. Other projects in the planning process include emergency diet with emphasis on food safety, low-income renal meal preparation, low literacy and large print educational material, and cooking for 1 or 2. If you have an interest in these topics and would like to participate on a committee, please contact me or your regional CRNExecutive Committee representative. A listing of regions can be found on the National Kidney Foundation (NKF)Web site professional/dietitian. Coming up, this summer will be nominations for regional representatives and alternate representatives for the CRN Executive Committee. Regions 1, 3, and 5 will be accepting nominations. Have you ever considered serving on the board? Do you know what the responsibil-

MP82-20 PREOPERATIVE MULTIPARAMETRIC PROSTATE MRI IDENTIFIES PATIENTS AT RISK FOR LYMPH NODE INVOLVEMENT AT RADICAL PROSTATECTOMY

Scholars Program, a public-private partnership supported jointly by the NIH and generous contributions to the Foundation for the NIH from Pfizer Inc., The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. and Mr. and Mrs. Joel S. Marcus, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, as well as other private donors. For a complete list, please visit the Foundation website at: http://fnih.org/work/education-training-0/ medical-research-scholars-program