Innovative strategies are needed to reduce the hypertension epidemic among African Americans. Reach Out was a faith-collaborative, mobile health, randomized, pilot intervention trial of four mobile health components to reduce high blood pressure (BP) compared to usual care. It was designed and tested within a community-based participatory research framework among African Americans recruited and randomized from churches in Flint, Michigan. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of the Reach Out processes. Feasibility was assessed by willingness to consent (acceptance of randomization), proportion of weeks participants texted their BP readings (intervention use), number lost to follow-up (retention), and responses to postintervention surveys and focus groups (acceptance of intervention). Of the 425 church members who underwent BP screening, 94 enrolled in the study and 73 (78%) completed the 6-month outcome assessment. Median age was 58 years, and 79% were women. Participants responded with their BPs on an average of 13.7 (SD = 10.7) weeks out of 26 weeks that the BP prompts were sent. All participants reported satisfaction with the intervention. Reach Out, a faith-collaborative, mobile health intervention was feasible. Further study of the efficacy of the intervention and additional mobile health strategies should be considered.

The prairie vole is a socially monogamous rodent that is an excellent animal model for studies of the neurobiology of social attachment. Such studies have demonstrated that activation of reward circuitry during social interactions facilitates pair bond formation. Within this circuitry, -opioid receptors (MORs) modulate naturally rewarding behavior in an anatomically segregated manner; MORs located throughout the striatum (dorsal striatum, NAc core, and the entire NAc shell) are implicated in general motivational processes, whereas those located specifically within the dorsomedial NAc shell mediate positive hedonics (and are referred to as a "hedonic hotspot"). The purpose of the present study was to determine whether MORs within these distinct subregions differentially mediate pair bond formation. We first used receptor autoradiography to compare MOR binding densities between these regions. MOR binding was significantly higher in the NAc core and dorsomedial NAc shell compared with the ventral NAc shell. We next used partner preference testing to determine whether MORs within these subregions differentially mediate pair bonding. Blockade of MORs using 1 or 3 g of H-D-PheCys-Tyr-D-Trp-Arg-Thr-Pen-Thr-NH 2 within the dorsal striatum decreased mating during the cohabitation period and inhibited partner preference formation. In contrast, blockade of MORs within dorsomedial NAc shell inhibited partner preference formation without effecting mating behavior, whereas other regions were not involved. Thus, MORs within the dorsal striatum mediate partner preference formation via impairment of mating, whereas those in the dorsomedial NAc shell appear to mediate pair bond formation through the positive hedonics associated with mating.

Objectives:We aimed to assess the feasibility of a text messaging intervention by determining the proportion of emergency department (ED) patients who responded to prompted home blood pressure (BP) self-monitoring and had persistent hypertension. We also explored the effect of the intervention on systolic blood pressure (sBP) over time.Methods: We conducted a randomized, controlled trial of ED patients with expected discharge to home with elevated BP. Participants were identified by automated alerts from the electronic health record. Those who consented received a BP cuff to take home and enrolled in the 3-week screening phase. Text responders with persistent hypertension were randomized to control or weekly prompted BP self-monitoring and healthy behavior text messages.Results: Among the 104 patients enrolled in the ED, 73 reported at least one home BP over the 3-week run-in (screening) period. A total of 55 of 73 reported a home BP of ≥140/90 and were randomized to SMS intervention (n = 28) or control (n = 27). The intervention group had significant sBP reduction over time with a mean drop of 9.1 mm Hg (95% confidence interval = 1.1 to 17.6). Conclusions:The identification of ED patients with persistent hypertension using home BP self-monitoring and text messaging was feasible. The intervention was associated with a decrease in sBP likely to be clinically meaningful. Future studies are needed to further refine this approach and determine its efficacy.

Cis-regulatory sequences known as enhancers play a key role in regulating gene expression. Evolutionary changes in these DNA sequences contribute to phenotypic evolution. The Drosophila yellow gene, which is required for pigmentation, has emerged as a model system for understanding how cis-regulatory sequences evolve, providing some of the most detailed insights available into how activities of orthologous enhancers have diverged between species. Here, we examine the evolution of yellow cis-regulatory sequences on a broader scale, by comparing the distribution and function of yellow enhancer activities throughout the 59 intergenic and intronic sequences of Drosophila melanogaster, D. pseudoobscura, and D. willistoni. We find that cis-regulatory sequences driving expression in a particular tissue are not as modular as previously described, but rather have many redundant and cryptic enhancer activities distributed throughout the regions surveyed. Interestingly, cryptic enhancer activities of sequences from one species often drove patterns of expression observed in other species, suggesting that the frequent evolutionary changes in yellow expression observed among Drosophila species may be facilitated by gaining and losing repression of preexisting cis-regulatory sequences.KEYWORDS cis-regulatory element; evolution; pigmentation; novelty; gene expression C IS-REGULATORY elements known as enhancers affect development and physiology by controlling the time, place, and amount of mRNA that is transcribed from a gene. These DNA sequences range from hundreds to thousands of base pairs, are typically located in noncoding regions of the genome, and contain binding sites for transcription factors (Spitz and Furlong 2012;Long et al. 2016). In multicellular organisms such as Drosophila, most genes are regulated by multiple enhancers. Early studies suggested that each enhancer was responsible for a unique subset of a gene's expression (e.g., Davidson 2001), but it is now known that multiple enhancers with varying degrees of functional redundancy can also contribute to the expression of a gene in a given cell

BackgroundTime‐limited acute stroke treatments are underused, primarily due to prehospital delay. One approach to decreasing prehospital delay is to increase stroke preparedness, the ability to recognize stroke, and the intention to immediately call emergency medical services, through community engagement with high‐risk communities.Methods and ResultsOur community–academic partnership developed and tested “Stroke Ready,” a peer‐led, workshop‐based, health behavior intervention to increase stroke preparedness among African American youth and adults in Flint, Michigan. Outcomes were measured with a series of 9 stroke and nonstroke 1‐minute video vignettes; after each video, participants selected their intended response (primary outcome) and symptom recognition (secondary outcome), receiving 1 point for each appropriate stroke response and recognition. We assessed differences between baseline and posttest appropriate stroke response, which was defined as intent to call 911 for stroke vignettes and not calling 911 for nonstroke, nonemergent vignettes and recognition of stroke. Outcomes assessments were performed before workshop 1 (baseline), at the conclusion of workshop 2 (immediate post‐test), and 1 month later (delayed post‐test). A total of 101 participants completed the baseline assessment (73 adults and 28 youths), 64 completed the immediate post‐test, and 68 the delayed post‐test. All participants were African American. The median age of adults was 56 (interquartile range 35–65) and of youth was 14 (interquartile range 11–16), 65% of adults were women, and 50% of youths were women. Compared to baseline, appropriate stroke response was improved in the immediate post‐test (4.4 versus 5.2, P<0.01) and was sustained in the delayed post‐test (4.4 versus 5.2, P<0.01). Stroke recognition did not change in the immediate post‐test (5.9 versus 6.0, P=0.34), but increased in the delayed post‐test (5.9 versus 6.2, P=0.04).ConclusionsStroke Ready increased stroke preparedness, a necessary step toward increasing acute stroke treatment rates.Clinical Trial Registration URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique identifier: NCT01499173.