The purpose of this study is to determine whether nicotine can improve symptoms of memory loss in people experiencing mild memory problems (referred to in this study as “mild cognitive impairment” or MCI). Recent studies have suggested that one of the causes of memory disorders may be a reduction in a particular chemical substance in the brain. This chemical substance, acetylcholine, is thought to act on certain brain cells in a specific way that helps us to remember and use memories as well as affect our attention. In people with MCI (and Alzheimer’s disease), the level of acetylcholine may be changed, and this may impair brain functioning. Preliminary studies have suggested that short-term administration of nicotine appears to improve memory in patients with mild memory loss and early Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It has been known for many years that nicotine imitates many of the actions of acetylcholine. By administering nicotine over a longer period of time to participants with MCI, we hope to better understand whether nicotine may act to improve memory loss symptoms over the longer term and whether it may help to delay the progression of memory loss symptoms. The amount of nicotine in each patch used in this study is the same as patches that are FDA approved for use in people who are trying to quit smoking.

Subjects will be asked to come to the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center for a screening visit, which will determine eligibility. This visit includes blood work, a urine sample, an ECG, a physical and neurological exam, memory/cognitive tasks, and vital signs. Certain portions can be done remotely via phone. If eligible, subjects will be randomized to wear a nicotine patch or placebo and will complete 11 more visits about once every three months over two years. Some visits are longer than others and are a combination of in-person activities and remote participation via phone. Subjects will be asked to report medication changes and adverse events at every visit.

$600

The purpose of this voluntary research study is to learn more about an investigational drug (also known as the “study drug”) called ivaltinostat as a possible treatment for metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Participants will be required to attend all study visits, receive drug treatment, have blood drawn, imaging assessments and tumor biopsy if needed

For many years, overweight and obesity has been highly stigmatized in society, and children are often bullied or teased for their weight. Over time, these experiences can cause adolescents to feel badly about themselves and view themselves as society views them. We call this process the internalization of weight bias or IWB. IWB can increase feelings of depression and anxiety and is associated with unhealthy eating behaviors. For this project, we wanted to create a questionnaire to measure this important topic, and get feedback from adolescents and professionals to make sure the questions are correct and easy to understand. We want to recruit 20 adolescents age 12-17 and medical professionals to review some questions and provide their feedback on these questions by participating in an interview. Participants will be compensated for their time.

We would like to interview teens and health professionals to review some survey questions and make sure that the questions we use to measure this concept are appropriate. These interviews will take 60-90 minutes over ZOOM.

30.00

We are trying to characterize the movement of a shooter in a VR environment.

The study consists of one visit lasting approximately 30-40 minutes: 10 minutes for VR setup, 15 minutes for simulated test, and 5-15 minutes for post-experiment survey. During the simulated test, participants will be asked to move around in the environment and shoot NPCs.

$10

This study aims to evaluate the effect of providing one avocado per day for consumption over a six month period on established health parameters, including visceral adiposity, hepatic lipid content, markers of metabolic syndrome and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), compared to habitual diet.The primary aim of this study is to determine whether providing one avocado per day for consumption for six months will produce a greater decrease in visceral adiposity as measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in Americans with an increased waist circumference as compared to habitual diet.

This research investigates how the human adult brain exploits patterns and regularities in the environment to learn.

The goal of this study is to help ASD adolescents improve social skills during face-to-face interactions. We have designed an immersive computer game to help them learn these skills in a fun way. Adolescents play the game at home 3 times a week for 3 months on a computer that we give you. In order to see how well the game is working to teach them, we have to test it against another game that is similar but teaches other skills. We measure your adolescent’s attention in the lab through computer games and by measuring their eye movements. We invite you to answer questions about their social behavior. We are flexible in how we work with families to accommodate busy schedules (e.g., weekend appointments).Families come to Penn State for three visits. We pay for all travel expenses (mileage, toll, hotel). Families are also compensated up to $450 for their time.

Pending full eligibility, there are 3 in-person visits to the lab spaced 3 months apart from each other. Completing the entire procedure will take slightly more than 6 months. Between the first and second visit, participants will play a version of our game at home 3 times a week for 3 months.

$440 (one remote visit, three in-person visits, and at-home gameplay time)

The purpose of this study is to learn about the relationship between the campus environment and students’ health. It involves a survey consisting questions about campus-related activities, COVID-19, physical activity and health, environmental perceptions, and demographic information.

There will be an online survey that will take about 20-30 minutes. No need to meet in-person.

This experimental study will investigate foot joint function during walking and running and/or hopping and performing heel raises. Participants will walk and run and/or complete heel raises with mass added to their body and will walk and run and/or hop with a plastic wedge secured to the underside of their toes.

Participants will walk and run and/or complete heel raises with mass added to their body and will walk and run and/or hop with a plastic wedge secured to the underside of their toes.

To examine women’s self-reported pregnancy hydration behaviors, especially during a global pandemic. This study will also examine other lifestyle behaviors (e.g., weight gain, exercise, eating behaviors, sleep, pain management). It is hypothesized that hydration behaviors will decrease due to lifestyle changes related to the pandemic. Secondary outcomes will also be influenced by hydration behaviors and pandemic lifestyle changes.

This survey study is looking to see how post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) affects quality of life in people with skin of color.

Participants will complete a one-time survey that will ask about post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation.

This study aims to understand ways to affect how riders perceive and provide feedback to drivers through technology intervention. Particularly, we investigate how presenting drivers’ personal profile under different trip conditions may lead to differences in the ways riders may provide feedback. We hypothesize that riders will provide positive feedback when provided drivers’ personal information when the trip goes well, and that riders will provide less negative feedback when provided drivers’ personal information when the trip goes bad due to uncontrollable reasons.

The purpose of this research study is to collect skin samples from volunteers with HS and volunteers with healthy skin. The collected skin samples will be processed and compared to each other to see if there are specific differences in the skin between the HS volunteer group and the healthy skin volunteer group.

Participants will need to come to a one-time, in-person visit where biopsies (small skin samples) will be collected.- For participants with HS: Up to 4 biopsies will be collected - For participants with healthy skin: Up to 2 biopsies will be collected

The purpose of this study is to investigate the underlying biological causes of the loss of pleasure in individuals diagnosed with depression. This study will examine brain, behavioral, and inflammatory markers of depression. Participants will answer questions, give blood and saliva, undergo fMRI and perform computer tasks. The study is also recruiting healthy controls with no history of major mental illnesses.Participants will be compensated $130 in total. To limit time in-person, the first portion of the study will be conducted remotely (1.5hrs), followed by an in-person appointment (3hrs). Mandatory COVID-19 precautions will be taken to ensure safety for the in-person appointment.

There will be one virtual visit where participants will review consent, answer questions about their mental health, and complete online questionnaires. There will also be one in-person visit where blood will be drawn, vitals (blood pressure, height, weight, and pulse) will be taken, participants will undergo an fMRI scan and complete computer tasks, and saliva samples will be collected at 3 time points.

$130

To compare overall survival (OS) in patients with inoperable, early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) randomized to stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) with or without atezolizumab.

Patients will need to keep all of their radiation treatment appointments and keep all appointments with the study doctor. Patients will be expected to complete questionnaires and have extra blood samples taken at specific time point throughout the study.

The purpose of this study is to see if neck and shoulder function and pain are better after SLN biopsy surgery compared to the usual approach and to see if SLN biopsy surgery is as good as the usual approach in extending your time without cancer. SLN biopsy surgery is potentially less invasive compared to the usual approach, but it requires a radioactive imaging agent to see the lymph nodes and it could also cause side effects. These side effects are described in the risks section below. Your study doctor will choose the appropriate imaging agent, Lymphoseek or sulfur colloid, for use in your surgery.This study will help the study doctors find out if this different approach is better than the usual approach at improving neck and shoulder function. To decide if it is better, in the first part of the study, doctors will be looking to see if shoulder and neck function and quality of life are better after SLN biopsy surgery compared to the END surgery.

We are asking you to take part in a research study. This study has public funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States Department of Health and Human Services. We do research studies to try to answer questions about how to prevent, diagnose, and treat diseases like cancer. We are asking you to take part in this research study because you have early-stage oral cavity cancer and are having neck dissection surgery.

A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a device that has the potential to restore communication by direct translation of brain signals. The BCI used in this study, the P300 Speller, relies on the generation of a P300 evoked potential when a user is presented a rare and unpredictable target stimulus amidst a larger pool of non-target stimuli. This evoked potential is used to perform selections on the computer. Those with advanced ALS demonstrate decreased capacity for BCI control using the P300 speller. With this study, we aim to use a combination of eye tracking and sensory testing to quantify sensory and cognitive processes necessary for the generation of a P300 response. We will test the performance of a multisensory P300 spelling task, where brain potentials are evoked using a combination of visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli. The goal is to demonstrate the perceptual benefits of multisensory integration and generate evidence for its use in this patient group.

A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a device that has the potential to restore communication by direct translation of brain signals. The BCI used in this study, the P300 Speller, relies on the generation of a P300 evoked potential when a user is presented a rare and unpredictable target stimulus amidst a larger pool of non-target stimuli. This evoked potential is used to perform selections on the computer.With this study, we aim to use a combination of eye tracking and sensory testing to quantify sensory and cognitive processes necessary for the generation of a P300 response. We will test the performance of a multisensory P300 spelling task, where brain potentials are evoked using a combination of visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli.

$40

The main purpose of the proposed study is to examine the relationship between emotional body expression and internal emotional and psychophysiological processes among individuals with mental disorders in social interaction situations.

In this study, participants will be asked to answer structured questions. After this, participants will be asked to engage in emotional induction tasks, communicate with another person, and walk. During the interview and experimental procedures, your motion will be video recorded. 

40

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects, good and/or bad, of chemotherapy and radiation therapy with or without the use of atezolizumab, which is used to treat bladder cancer. The combination of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and the immunotherapy atezolizumab is considered experimental.

The purpose of this study is to compare the effects, good and/or bad, of chemotherapy and radiation therapy with or without the use of atezolizumab, which is used to treat bladder cancer. The combination of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and the immunotherapy atezolizumab is considered experimental.If you decide to take part in this study, you will receive combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy which is called “chemoradiotherapy” either with or without the study drug. The chemoradiotherapy you will receive is standard of care and what your doctor thinks is best. You will receive chemoradiotherapy for up to 7 weeks. If you are assigned to the group receiving study drug, you will take the drug for up to 6 months in addition the chemoradiotherapy.Your doctor will continue to follow your condition for up to 5 years after you register to the study, even though you have finished treatment in the first year. Your doctor will watch you for side effects and to see how your cancer affects you. You will have clinic visits at 3 months from the time you stop taking treatment for the first two years and then twice a year for the third year and once a year thereafter until 5 years after you register to the study

The purpose of this study is to test the efficacy of Daromun neoadjuvant treatment followed by surgery and adjuvant therapy to improve in a statistically significant manner the recurrence-free survival (RFS) of Stage IIIB/C melanoma patients with respect to the standard of care (surgery and adjuvant therapy)

•Blood collection for laboratory tests•CT/MRI/PET/CT scans•ECG•Take study drug•Tumor assessment

The objective of this study is to compare to different methods of measuring the size of calf muscles: magnetic resonance (MRI) and ultrasound imaging. Participant will undergo a MRI scan (about 1 hour) and an ultrasound imaging session (about 1 hour). Images obtained from patients with Achilles tendon rupture will also be used to determine the feasibility of quantifying damage to the soleus muscle.

After you accept participating demographic questions will be asked. You will also be asked standard MRI safety/screening questions. These questions are used to determine that it is safe for you to participate in MRI research. You will be asked to leave metal objects and personal belongings and to remove any articles of clothing with metal before entering the MRI room. Please ask the experimenter if you are unsure about any items. If it is safe, an MRI will be performed on your leg. Additionally, several images will be taken from your leg using ultrasound. The ultrasound and MRI sessions can be performed the same day or in different days depending on your preference. Depending on scheduling constraints at the MRI facility, you may be scheduled for the ultrasound session first.

You will receive $25 after completing the MRI and $25 after completing the ultrasound imaging sessions.

The purpose of this study is to expand on previous research looking at respect and relationship satisfaction among heterosexual relationships and compare it to that of same-sex relationships to find where they are similar or different. Participants will complete self-report measures regarding their romantic relationships, including respect toward partner, satisfaction, and attitudes toward love. 30 minutes will be required for the study.

The study examines ways in which technology can be designed to provide support and services to international spouses during their adjustment to a new host environment. In particular, we would like to investigate the needs of spouse’s communities, the challenges faced by this population during adjustment, and propose design implications for developing systems and services to improve their access to social services and to promote community development and civic engagement.

To determine whether, in men with post-prostatectomy PSA recurrences, salvage radiation (SRT) with enhanced anti-androgen therapy with apalutamide will improve biochemical progression-free survival (bPFS) compared to SRT alone.

To determine whether, in men with post-prostatectomy PSA recurrences, salvage radiation (SRT) with enhanced anti-androgen therapy with apalutamide will improve biochemical progression-free survival (bPFS) compared to SRT alone.

This study tests the effect of an audio-based mental health intervention for symptoms of depression. Participants will be asked to listen to an audio program and perform exercises to support their mental health as suggested by the program. Participants will be asked to complete questionnaires about their depression and related mental health symptoms at pre-intervention, mid-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up.

The study takes place over five total weeks, with four survey sessions (the first two of which are live on Zoom), and two weeks of brief daily surveys. Detailed information is below.For the first day, participants would be asked to complete Visit 1, which involves an interview, listening to a mental health audio program, and completing surveys. One week later, participants would be asked to complete Visit 2, which involves listening to another mental health audio program and completing surveys. One week after that, participants would be asked to complete Visit 3, which involves completing surveys. Three weeks after that, participants would be asked to complete Visit 4, which involves completing surveys. For the week following Visits 1 and 2, participants would also be asked to complete daily surveys.

Up to $40

We will investigate the effects of acute intravenous infusion of the hormone, angiotensin-(1-7), on cardiovascular function in healthy older adults in a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study.

Participation in this study will include three separate visits to the Clinical Research Center within the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Participants will first have a screening visit to determine if they are able to participate in this study. If eligible based on the screening visit, they will participate in two study visits separated by at least one week. At each study visit, they will be infused with doses of a placebo or angiotensin-(1-7) for about two hours. Before and at the end of the infusion, we will measure blood pressure and blood flow, nerve activity with an acupuncture-type needle in your leg, and collect blood samples from a small plastic tube (catheter) placed in the arm. Cells will also be collected from inside the vein using the catheter if the participant is willing.The study visits will include intravenous infusion of angiotensin-(1-7) or saline for approximately two hours, starting with increasing doses and holding at a steady-state dose. Endothelial function will be measured and blood samples and endothelial cells (if willing) will be collected at baseline and at the end of infusions. Blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle sympathetic nerve activity via microneurography will be measured throughout the study.

$25 per hour; additional $25 per study visit for cell collection

A study of the safety of idasanutlin for children with solid tumors and leukemias that returned or did not respond to previous treatment.

You will be expected to take your assigned study drug combination (either idasanutlin and venetoclax or idasanutlin and chemotherapy). You will also need to come to all study visits as possible. You will need to make sure you are not in another research study, and that you will take all of the required precautions agaiinst pregnancy.

This study seeks to examine parenting skills in responses to child misbehavior. Parents complete rating scales about their child's symptoms and behaviors and also participate in computer tasks to measure brain wave activity through EEG. There is an optional section where parent and child will be video recorded while completing activities together. Following the testing sessions are 8 weeks of counseling sessions for parents to help better manage their child's attention and behavior symptoms.

Participants will complete C-DISC while caregiver will complete rating scales around ADHD, ODD, and CD symptoms during initial visit. On the second visit, participants will complete emotion regulation tasks while EEG data is collected. Caregivers will also complete a monetary task while connected to EEG equipment. Parents will use LifeData to report inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and oppositional behaviors over 14 days. Optional parent child interaction and 8-week parenting intervention are offered to participating families.

$50

The purpose of this trial is to test different levels of exercise needed to reduce liver fat in patients with NASH.

If you take part in this research, your major responsibilities will include: •Completing exercise sessions (if randomized to exercise group). A typical exercise session will include a 5 minutes warm-up with stretching, 15-45 minutes of brisk walking, jogging or recumbent bike and a 5-minute cool-down.

250.00

This study seeks to explore how social media use may result in increased severity of compulsions and/or obsessions in those with symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants will complete questionnaires, digital sleep and social media journals.