PROMISE: a tool to identify genomic features with a specific biologically interesting pattern of associations with multiple endpoint variables

PubMed Central

Pounds, Stan; Cheng, Cheng; Cao, Xueyuan; Crews, Kristine R.; Plunkett, William; Gandhi, Varsha; Rubnitz, Jeffrey; Ribeiro, Raul C.; Downing, James R.; Lamba, Jatinder

2009-01-01

Motivation: In some applications, prior biological knowledge can be used to define a specific pattern of association of multiple endpoint variables with a genomic variable that is biologically most interesting. However, to our knowledge, there is no statistical procedure designed to detect specific patterns of association with multiple endpoint variables. Results: Projection onto the most interesting statistical evidence (PROMISE) is proposed as a general procedure to identify genomic variables that exhibit a specific biologically interesting pattern of association with multiple endpoint variables. Biological knowledge of the endpoint variables is used to define a vector that represents the biologically most interesting values for statistics that characterize the associations of the endpoint variables with a genomic variable. A test statistic is defined as the dot-product of the vector of the observed association statistics and the vector of the most interesting values of the association statistics. By definition, this test statistic is proportional to the length of the projection of the observed vector of correlations onto the vector of most interesting associations. Statistical significance is determined via permutation. In simulation studies and an example application, PROMISE shows greater statistical power to identify genes with the interesting pattern of associations than classical multivariate procedures, individual endpoint analyses or listing genes that have the pattern of interest and are significant in more than one individual endpoint analysis. Availability: Documented R routines are freely available from www.stjuderesearch.org/depts/biostats and will soon be available as a Bioconductor package from www.bioconductor.org. Contact: stanley.pounds@stjude.org Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. PMID:19528086

Promising Electric Aircraft Drive Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dudley, Michael R.

2010-01-01

An overview of electric aircraft propulsion technology performance thresholds for key power system components is presented. A weight comparison of electric drive systems with equivalent total delivered energy is made to help identify component performance requirements, and promising research and development opportunities.

The direct support workforce in community supports to individuals with developmental disabilities: issues, implications, and promising practices.

PubMed

Hewitt, Amy; Larson, Sheryl

2007-01-01

Difficulties in finding, keeping, and ensuring the competence of the direct support workforce in community developmental disability services has long been a challenge for individuals, families, providers, and policy makers. Direct support staff recruitment, retention, and competence are widely reported as one of the most significant barriers to the sustainability, growth, and quality of community services for people with developmental disabilities (ANCOR [2001] State of the states report. Alexandria, VA: ANCOR; Colorado Department of Human Services, [2000] Response to Footnote 106 of the FY 2001 appropriations long bill: Capacity of the community services systems for persons with developmental disabilities in Colorado; Hewitt [2000] Dynamics of the workforce crisis. Presentation at the NASDDDS Fall meeting. Alexandria, VA). While long in existence, these challenges are ones of growing concern because the number of people demanding community services is increasing and the population of people from which to recruit workers is declining (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation [2006] The supply of direct support professionals serving individuals with intellectual disabilities and other developmental disabilities: Report to Congress. Washington, DC: Office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy, ASPE, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). As the service system moves towards consumer direction, managed care, and more noncategorical service delivery systems, the difficulties of providing for an adequate and well-prepared workforce to support people with developmental disabilities becomes more complex and multifaceted. The solutions to those challenges are also more complex. This article reviews the literature regarding the complexity of the direct support workforce crisis, the effects of this crisis on various stakeholder groups, promising practices designed to address the challenges, and the related practice and policy implications

Serious Games and Gamification for Mental Health: Current Status and Promising Directions

PubMed Central

Fleming, Theresa M.; Bavin, Lynda; Stasiak, Karolina; Hermansson-Webb, Eve; Merry, Sally N.; Cheek, Colleen; Lucassen, Mathijs; Lau, Ho Ming; Pollmuller, Britta; Hetrick, Sarah

2017-01-01

Computer games are ubiquitous and can be utilized for serious purposes such as health and education. “Applied games” including serious games (in brief, computerized games for serious purposes) and gamification (gaming elements used outside of games) have the potential to increase the impact of mental health internet interventions via three processes. First, by extending the reach of online programs to those who might not otherwise use them. Second, by improving engagement through both game-based and “serious” motivational dynamics. Third, by utilizing varied mechanisms for change, including therapeutic processes and gaming features. In this scoping review, we aim to advance the field by exploring the potential and opportunities available in this area. We review engagement factors which may be exploited and demonstrate that there is promising evidence of effectiveness for serious games for depression from contemporary systematic reviews. We illustrate six major categories of tested applied games for mental health (exergames, virtual reality, cognitive behavior therapy-based games, entertainment games, biofeedback, and cognitive training games) and demonstrate that it is feasible to translate traditional evidence-based interventions into computer gaming formats and to exploit features of computer games for therapeutic change. Applied games have considerable potential for increasing the impact of online interventions for mental health. However, there are few independent trials, and direct comparisons of game-based and non-game-based interventions are lacking. Further research, faster iterations, rapid testing, non-traditional collaborations, and user-centered approaches are needed to respond to diverse user needs and preferences in rapidly changing environments. PMID:28119636

Serious Games and Gamification for Mental Health: Current Status and Promising Directions.

PubMed

Fleming, Theresa M; Bavin, Lynda; Stasiak, Karolina; Hermansson-Webb, Eve; Merry, Sally N; Cheek, Colleen; Lucassen, Mathijs; Lau, Ho Ming; Pollmuller, Britta; Hetrick, Sarah

2016-01-01

Computer games are ubiquitous and can be utilized for serious purposes such as health and education. "Applied games" including serious games (in brief, computerized games for serious purposes) and gamification (gaming elements used outside of games) have the potential to increase the impact of mental health internet interventions via three processes. First, by extending the reach of online programs to those who might not otherwise use them. Second, by improving engagement through both game-based and "serious" motivational dynamics. Third, by utilizing varied mechanisms for change, including therapeutic processes and gaming features. In this scoping review, we aim to advance the field by exploring the potential and opportunities available in this area. We review engagement factors which may be exploited and demonstrate that there is promising evidence of effectiveness for serious games for depression from contemporary systematic reviews. We illustrate six major categories of tested applied games for mental health (exergames, virtual reality, cognitive behavior therapy-based games, entertainment games, biofeedback, and cognitive training games) and demonstrate that it is feasible to translate traditional evidence-based interventions into computer gaming formats and to exploit features of computer games for therapeutic change. Applied games have considerable potential for increasing the impact of online interventions for mental health. However, there are few independent trials, and direct comparisons of game-based and non-game-based interventions are lacking. Further research, faster iterations, rapid testing, non-traditional collaborations, and user-centered approaches are needed to respond to diverse user needs and preferences in rapidly changing environments.

Coalitional game theory as a promising approach to identify candidate autism genes.

PubMed

Gupta, Anika; Sun, Min Woo; Paskov, Kelley Marie; Stockham, Nate Tyler; Jung, Jae-Yoon; Wall, Dennis Paul

2018-01-01

Despite mounting evidence for the strong role of genetics in the phenotypic manifestation of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the specific genes responsible for the variable forms of ASD remain undefined. ASD may be best explained by a combinatorial genetic model with varying epistatic interactions across many small effect mutations. Coalitional or cooperative game theory is a technique that studies the combined effects of groups of players, known as coalitions, seeking to identify players who tend to improve the performance--the relationship to a specific disease phenotype--of any coalition they join. This method has been previously shown to boost biologically informative signal in gene expression data but to-date has not been applied to the search for cooperative mutations among putative ASD genes. We describe our approach to highlight genes relevant to ASD using coalitional game theory on alteration data of 1,965 fully sequenced genomes from 756 multiplex families. Alterations were encoded into binary matrices for ASD (case) and unaffected (control) samples, indicating likely gene-disrupting, inherited mutations in altered genes. To determine individual gene contributions given an ASD phenotype, a "player" metric, referred to as the Shapley value, was calculated for each gene in the case and control cohorts. Sixty seven genes were found to have significantly elevated player scores and likely represent significant contributors to the genetic coordination underlying ASD. Using network and cross-study analysis, we found that these genes are involved in biological pathways known to be affected in the autism cases and that a subset directly interact with several genes known to have strong associations to autism. These findings suggest that coalitional game theory can be applied to large-scale genomic data to identify hidden yet influential players in complex polygenic disorders such as autism.

Metabolomics-based promising candidate biomarkers and pathways in Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Kang, Jian; Lu, Jingli; Zhang, Xiaojian

2015-05-01

Pathologically, loss of synapses and neurons, extracellular senile plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are observed in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). These features are associated with changes Aβ (amyloid β) 40, Aβ42, total tau and phosphorylated tau (p-tau), which are as definitely biomarkers for severe AD state. However, biomarkers for effectively diagnosing AD in the pre-clinical state for directing therapeutic strategies are lacking. Metabolic profiling as a powerful tool to identify new biomarkers is receiving increasing attention in AD. This review will focus on metabolomics-based detection of promising candidate biomarkers and pathways in AD to facilitate the discovery of new medicines and disease pathways.

Understanding retirement: the promise of life-span developmental frameworks.

PubMed

Löckenhoff, Corinna E

2012-09-01

The impending retirement of large population cohorts creates a pressing need for practical interventions to optimize outcomes at the individual and societal level. This necessitates comprehensive theoretical models that acknowledge the multi-layered nature of the retirement process and shed light on the dynamic mechanisms that drive longitudinal patterns of adjustment. The present commentary highlights ways in which contemporary life-span developmental frameworks can inform retirement research, drawing on the specific examples of Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Model, Baltes and Baltes Selective Optimization with Compensation Framework, Schulz and Heckhausen's Motivational Theory of Life-Span Development, and Carstensen's Socioemotional Selectivity Theory. Ultimately, a life-span developmental perspective on retirement offers not only new interpretations of known phenomena but may also help to identify novel directions for future research as well as promising pathways for interventions.

Identifying WIMP dark matter from particle and astroparticle data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertone, Gianfranco; Bozorgnia, Nassim; Kim, Jong Soo; Liem, Sebastian; McCabe, Christopher; Otten, Sydney; Ruiz de Austri, Roberto

2018-03-01

One of the most promising strategies to identify the nature of dark matter consists in the search for new particles at accelerators and with so-called direct detection experiments. Working within the framework of simplified models, and making use of machine learning tools to speed up statistical inference, we address the question of what we can learn about dark matter from a detection at the LHC and a forthcoming direct detection experiment. We show that with a combination of accelerator and direct detection data, it is possible to identify newly discovered particles as dark matter, by reconstructing their relic density assuming they are weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) thermally produced in the early Universe, and demonstrating that it is consistent with the measured dark matter abundance. An inconsistency between these two quantities would instead point either towards additional physics in the dark sector, or towards a non-standard cosmology, with a thermal history substantially different from that of the standard cosmological model.

Promises, promises for neuroscience and law.

PubMed

Buckholtz, Joshua W; Faigman, David L

2014-09-22

Stunning technical advances in the ability to image the human brain have provoked excited speculation about the application of neuroscience to other fields. The 'promise' of neuroscience for law has been touted with particular enthusiasm. Here, we contend that this promise elides fundamental conceptual issues that limit the usefulness of neuroscience for law. Recommendations for overcoming these challenges are offered. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keeping Promises

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howell, Gregory A.

2005-01-01

Commitments are between people, not schedules. Project management as practiced today creates a "commitment-free zone," because it assumes that people will commit to centrally managed schedules without providing a mechanism to ensure their work can be done. So they give it their best, but something always seems to come up ..."I tried, but you know how it is." This form of project management does not provide a mechanism to ensure that what should be done, can in fact be done at the required moment. Too often, promises reliable promise. made in coordination meetings are conditional and unreliable. It has been my experience that at times trust can be low and hard to build in this environment. The absence of reliable promises explains why on well-run projects, people are often only completing 30-50 percent of the deliverables they d promised for the week. We all know what a promise is; we have plenty of experience making them and receiving them from others. So what s the problem? The sad fact is that the project environment-like many other work environments- is often so filled with systemic dishonesty, that we don t expect promises that are reliable. Project managers excel when they manage their projects as networks of commitments and help their people learn to elicit and make reliable promises.

Solutions for Failing High Schools: Converging Visions and Promising Models.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Legters, Nettie; Balfanz, Robert; McPartland, James

Promising solutions to the failings of traditional comprehensive high schools were reviewed to identify basic principles and strategies for improving high schools nationwide. Selected research studies, policy documents, and promising high school programs were reviewed. The review revealed the following principles for helping high schools better…

Identifying the theory of dark matter with direct detection

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gluscevic, Vera; Gresham, Moira I.; McDermott, Samuel D.

2015-12-01

Identifying the true theory of dark matter depends crucially on accurately characterizing interactions of dark matter (DM) with other species. In the context of DM direct detection, we present a study of the prospects for correctly identifying the low-energy effective DM-nucleus scattering operators connected to UV-complete models of DM-quark interactions. We take a census of plausible UV-complete interaction models with different low-energy leading-order DM-nuclear responses. For each model (corresponding to different spin–, momentum–, and velocity-dependent responses), we create a large number of realizations of recoil-energy spectra, and use Bayesian methods to investigate the probability that experiments will be able tomore » select the correct scattering model within a broad set of competing scattering hypotheses. We conclude that agnostic analysis of a strong signal (such as Generation-2 would see if cross sections are just below the current limits) seen on xenon and germanium experiments is likely to correctly identify momentum dependence of the dominant response, ruling out models with either 'heavy' or 'light' mediators, and enabling downselection of allowed models. However, a unique determination of the correct UV completion will critically depend on the availability of measurements from a wider variety of nuclear targets, including iodine or fluorine. We investigate how model-selection prospects depend on the energy window available for the analysis. In addition, we discuss accuracy of the DM particle mass determination under a wide variety of scattering models, and investigate impact of the specific types of particle-physics uncertainties on prospects for model selection.« less

Identifying the theory of dark matter with direct detection

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gluscevic, Vera; Gresham, Moira I.; McDermott, Samuel D.

2015-12-29

Identifying the true theory of dark matter depends crucially on accurately characterizing interactions of dark matter (DM) with other species. In the context of DM direct detection, we present a study of the prospects for correctly identifying the low-energy effective DM-nucleus scattering operators connected to UV-complete models of DM-quark interactions. We take a census of plausible UV-complete interaction models with different low-energy leading-order DM-nuclear responses. For each model (corresponding to different spin–, momentum–, and velocity-dependent responses), we create a large number of realizations of recoil-energy spectra, and use Bayesian methods to investigate the probability that experiments will be able tomore » select the correct scattering model within a broad set of competing scattering hypotheses. We conclude that agnostic analysis of a strong signal (such as Generation-2 would see if cross sections are just below the current limits) seen on xenon and germanium experiments is likely to correctly identify momentum dependence of the dominant response, ruling out models with either “heavy” or “light” mediators, and enabling downselection of allowed models. However, a unique determination of the correct UV completion will critically depend on the availability of measurements from a wider variety of nuclear targets, including iodine or fluorine. We investigate how model-selection prospects depend on the energy window available for the analysis. In addition, we discuss accuracy of the DM particle mass determination under a wide variety of scattering models, and investigate impact of the specific types of particle-physics uncertainties on prospects for model selection.« less

Identifying Seizure Onset Zone From the Causal Connectivity Inferred Using Directed Information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malladi, Rakesh; Kalamangalam, Giridhar; Tandon, Nitin; Aazhang, Behnaam

2016-10-01

In this paper, we developed a model-based and a data-driven estimator for directed information (DI) to infer the causal connectivity graph between electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals recorded from brain and to identify the seizure onset zone (SOZ) in epileptic patients. Directed information, an information theoretic quantity, is a general metric to infer causal connectivity between time-series and is not restricted to a particular class of models unlike the popular metrics based on Granger causality or transfer entropy. The proposed estimators are shown to be almost surely convergent. Causal connectivity between ECoG electrodes in five epileptic patients is inferred using the proposed DI estimators, after validating their performance on simulated data. We then proposed a model-based and a data-driven SOZ identification algorithm to identify SOZ from the causal connectivity inferred using model-based and data-driven DI estimators respectively. The data-driven SOZ identification outperforms the model-based SOZ identification algorithm when benchmarked against visual analysis by neurologist, the current clinical gold standard. The causal connectivity analysis presented here is the first step towards developing novel non-surgical treatments for epilepsy.

Past Strategies and Future Directions for Identifying AMP-Activated Protein Kinase (AMPK) Modulators

PubMed Central

Sinnett, Sarah E.; Brenman, Jay E.

2014-01-01

AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a promising therapeutic target for cancer, type II diabetes, and other illnesses characterized by abnormal energy utilization. During the last decade, numerous labs have published a range of methods for identifying novel AMPK modulators. The current understanding of AMPK structure and regulation, however, has propelled a paradigm shift in which many researchers now consider ADP to be an additional regulatory nucleotide of AMPK. How can the AMPK community apply this new understanding of AMPK signaling to translational research? Recent insights into AMPK structure, regulation, and holoenzyme-sensitive signaling may provide the hindsight needed to clearly evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of past AMPK drug discovery efforts. Improving future strategies for AMPK drug discovery will require pairing the current understanding of AMPK signaling with improved experimental designs. PMID:24583089

Mini-ISES identifies promising carbafructopyranose-based salens for asymmetric catalysis: Tuning ligand shape via the anomeric effect

PubMed Central

Karukurichi, Kannan R.; Fei, Xiang; Swyka, Robert A.; Broussy, Sylvain; Shen, Weijun; Dey, Sangeeta; Roy, Sandip K.; Berkowitz, David B.

2015-01-01

This study introduces new methods of screening for and tuning chiral space and in so doing identifies a promising set of chiral ligands for asymmetric synthesis. The carbafructopyranosyl-1,2-diamine(s) and salens constructed therefrom are particularly compelling. It is shown that by removing the native anomeric effect in this ligand family, one can tune chiral ligand shape and improve chiral bias. This concept is demonstrated by a combination of (i) x-ray crystallographic structure determination, (ii) assessment of catalytic performance, and (iii) consideration of the anomeric effect and its underlying dipolar basis. The title ligands were identified by a new mini version of the in situ enzymatic screening (ISES) procedure through which catalyst-ligand combinations are screened in parallel, and information on relative rate and enantioselectivity is obtained in real time, without the need to quench reactions or draw aliquots. Mini-ISES brings the technique into the nanomole regime (200 to 350 nmol catalyst/20 μl organic volume) commensurate with emerging trends in reaction development/process chemistry. The best-performing β-d-carbafructopyranosyl-1,2-diamine–derived salen ligand discovered here outperforms the best known organometallic and enzymatic catalysts for the hydrolytic kinetic resolution of 3-phenylpropylene oxide, one of several substrates examined for which the ligand is “matched.” This ligand scaffold defines a new swath of chiral space, and anomeric effect tunability defines a new concept in shaping that chiral space. Both this ligand set and the anomeric shape-tuning concept are expected to find broad application, given the value of chiral 1,2-diamines and salens constructed from these in asymmetric catalysis. PMID:26501130

Profiles of Selected Promising Professional Development Initiatives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Carol; Gerber, Peter; Handley, Claire; Kronley, Robert; Parry, Megan

In 2000, the Finance Project received a planning grant to launch a new initiative on financing professional development in education. This report represents efforts to identify and develop a database on promising new approaches to professional development in education, profiling 16 initiatives recommended by knowledge experts and representing a…

Realising the Promise of Cancer Predisposition Genes

PubMed Central

Rahman, Nazneen

2016-01-01

Genes in which germline mutations confer high or moderate increased risks of cancer are called cancer predisposition genes (CPG). Over 100 CPGs have been identified providing important scientific insights in many areas, particularly mechanisms of cancer causation. Moreover, clinical utilisation of CPGs has had substantial impact in diagnosis, optimised management and prevention of cancer. The recent transformative advances in DNA sequencing bring the promise of many more CPG discoveries and greater, broader clinical applications. However, there is also considerable potential for incorrect inferences and inappropriate clinical applications. Realising the promise of cancer predisposition genes for science and medicine will thus require careful navigation. PMID:24429628

A screen to identify drug resistant variants to target-directed anti-cancer agents

PubMed Central

Azam, Mohammad; Raz, Tal; Nardi, Valentina; Opitz, Sarah L.

2003-01-01

The discovery of oncogenes and signal transduction pathways important for mitogenesis has triggered the development of target-specific small molecule anti-cancer compounds. As exemplified by imatinib (Gleevec), a specific inhibitor of the Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML)-associated Bcr-Abl kinase, these agents promise impressive activity in clinical trials, with low levels of clinical toxicity. However, such therapy is susceptible to the emergence of drug resistance due to amino acid substitutions in the target protein. Defining the spectrum of such mutations is important for patient monitoring and the design of next-generation inhibitors. Using imatinib and BCR/ABL as a paradigm for a drug-target pair, we recently reported a retroviral vector-based screening strategy to identify the spectrum of resistance-conferring mutations. Here we provide a detailed methodology for the screen, which can be generally applied to any drug-target pair. PMID:14615817

Pediatric Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome: Promising Therapies.

PubMed

Doctor, Allan; Zimmerman, Jerry; Agus, Michael; Rajasekaran, Surender; Bubeck Wardenburg, Juliane; Fortenberry, James; Zajicek, Anne; Mairson, Emma; Typpo, Katri

2017-03-01

To describe the state of the science, identify knowledge gaps, and offer potential future research questions regarding promising therapies for children with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome presented during the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Workshop on Pediatric Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (March 26-27, 2015). Literature review, research data, and expert opinion. Not applicable. Moderated by an expert from the field, issues relevant to the association of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome with a variety of conditions were presented, discussed, and debated with a focus on identifying knowledge gaps and research priorities. Summary of presentations and discussion supported and supplemented by relevant literature. Among critically ill children, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome is relatively common and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. For outcomes to improve, effective therapies aimed at preventing and treating this condition must be discovered and rigorously evaluated. In this article, a number of potential opportunities to enhance current care are highlighted including the need for a better understanding of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of medications, the effect of early and optimized nutrition, and the impact of effective glucose control in the setting of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. Additionally, a handful of the promising therapies either currently being implemented or developed are described. These include extracorporeal therapies, anticytokine therapies, antitoxin treatments, antioxidant approaches, and multiple forms of exogenous steroids. For the field to advance, promising therapies and other therapies must be assessed in rigorous manner and implemented accordingly.

Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology.

PubMed

Dunlosky, John; Rawson, Katherine A; Marsh, Elizabeth J; Nathan, Mitchell J; Willingham, Daniel T

2013-01-01

numerous reasons. Summarization and imagery use for text learning have been shown to help some students on some criterion tasks, yet the conditions under which these techniques produce benefits are limited, and much research is still needed to fully explore their overall effectiveness. The keyword mnemonic is difficult to implement in some contexts, and it appears to benefit students for a limited number of materials and for short retention intervals. Most students report rereading and highlighting, yet these techniques do not consistently boost students' performance, so other techniques should be used in their place (e.g., practice testing instead of rereading). Our hope is that this monograph will foster improvements in student learning, not only by showcasing which learning techniques are likely to have the most generalizable effects but also by encouraging researchers to continue investigating the most promising techniques. Accordingly, in our closing remarks, we discuss some issues for how these techniques could be implemented by teachers and students, and we highlight directions for future research. © The Author(s) 2013.

Single Measure and Gated Screening Approaches for Identifying Students At-Risk for Academic Problems: Implications for Sensitivity and Specificity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Norman, Ethan R.; Nelson, Peter M.; Klingbeil, David A.

2017-01-01

Educators need recommendations to improve screening practices without limiting students' instructional opportunities. Repurposing previous years' state test scores has shown promise in identifying at-risk students within multitiered systems of support. However, researchers have not directly compared the diagnostic accuracy of previous years' state…

[Promising technologies of packed red blood cells production and storage].

PubMed

Maksimov, A G; Golota, A S; Krassiĭ, A B

2013-10-01

The current article is dedicated to promising technologies of packed red blood cells production and storage. The following new technical approaches are presented: (1) erythrocytes storage in strict anaerobic argon-hydrogen environment, (2) lyophilization of erythrocyte suspension by its atomization in nitrogen gas, (3) lyophilization of erythrocytes by directional freezing under the influence of radio frequency radiation, (4) automated pharming of antigen free packed red blood cells from progenitor cell directly at the battlefield.

Promising Practices in Drug Treatment: Findings from Europe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nemes, Susanna; Libretto, Salvatore; Skinstad, Anne Helene; Garrett, Gerald; Hoffman, Jeffrey A.

2005-01-01

In a study to evaluate the drug treatment and aftercare efforts sponsored by the State Department's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau, residential Therapeutic Community (TC) treatment programs in four European countries-Poland, Spain, Slovenia, and Italy-were examined to identify promising practices and to assess lessons…

Promising Practices for Serving Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burcham, Barbara; Carlson, Laurance

1994-01-01

A recent study examined 25 promising educational practices for serving students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Administrators clearly have the greatest opportunity (and power) to shape the culture of the educational environment, whether as superintendent or principal. The effective administrator provides direction by developing and…

Do promises matter? An exploration of the role of promises in psychological contract breach.

PubMed

Montes, Samantha D; Zweig, David

2009-09-01

Promises are positioned centrally in the study of psychological contract breach and are argued to distinguish psychological contracts from related constructs, such as employee expectations. However, because the effects of promises and delivered inducements are confounded in most research, the role of promises in perceptions of, and reactions to, breach remains unclear. If promises are not an important determinant of employee perceptions, emotions, and behavioral intentions, this would suggest that the psychological contract breach construct might lack utility. To assess the unique role of promises, the authors manipulated promises and delivered inducements separately in hypothetical scenarios in Studies 1 (558 undergraduates) and 2 (441 employees), and they measured them separately (longitudinally) in Study 3 (383 employees). The authors' results indicate that breach perceptions do not represent a discrepancy between what employees believe they were promised and were given. In fact, breach perceptions can exist in the absence of promises. Further, promises play a negligible role in predicting feelings of violation and behavioral intentions. Contrary to the extant literature, the authors' findings suggest that promises may matter little; employees are concerned primarily with what the organization delivers.

Nanostructures as promising tools for delivery of antimicrobial peptides.

PubMed

Brandelli, A

2012-07-01

Antimicrobial peptides have been extensively investigated for their potential applications as therapeutics and food biopreservatives. The antimicrobial activity may be impaired by the susceptibility for proteolytic degradation and undesirable interactions of the antimicrobial peptide in the biological environment. Development of nanostructures for entrapment and delivery of antimicrobial peptides may represent an alternative to the direct application of these substances. Lipid nanovesicles have been developed for encapsulation of antimicrobial peptides. Phosphatidylcholine is often employed in liposome manufacture, which is mostly achieved by the thin-film hydration method. Nanofibers may allow different physical modes of drug loading, including direct adsorption on the nanofiber surface or the assembly of drug-loaded nanoparticles. Self-assembled peptides reveal attractive features as nanostructures for applications in drug delivery and promising as antimicrobial agent for treatment of brain infections. Magnetic nanoparticles and nanotubules are also potential structures for entrapment of antimicrobial peptides. Nanoparticles can be also chemically modified with specific cell surface ligands to enhance cell adhesion and site specific delivery. This article reviews the most important nanostructures as promising tools for peptide delivery systems.

Developing Mathematically Promising Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sheffield, Linda Jensen, Ed.

This book, written on the recommendation of the Task Force on Mathematically Promising Students, investigates issues involving the development of promising mathematics students. Recommendations are made concerning topics such as the definition of promising students; the identification of such students; appropriate curriculum, instruction, and…

A Promising Development: "Promise" Scholarships Targeting Individual Communities Reduce Barriers to College Access--and Completion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pierce, Dennis

2015-01-01

This article discusses Promise Scholarships in community colleges and sources of funding. The following community colleges and their scholarships are mentioned in this article: (1) Oregon Promise, Oregon; (2) Ventura College Promise, California; (3) Kalamazoo Promise, Michigan; (4) Pittsburgh Promise, Pennsylvania; (5) SEED Scholarship, Delaware;…

Utility, Limitations, and Promise of Proteomics in Animal Science

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Proteomics experiments have the ability to simultaneously identify and quantify thousands of proteins in one experiment. The use of this technology in veterinary/animal science is still in its infancy, yet it holds significant promise as a method for advancing veterinary/animal science research. E...

Using the integrative model of behavioral prediction to identify promising message strategies to promote healthy sleep behavior among college students.

PubMed

Robbins, Rebecca; Niederdeppe, Jeff

2015-01-01

This research used the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction (IMBP) to examine cognitive predictors of intentions to engage in healthy sleep behavior among a population of college students. In doing so, we identify promising message strategies to increase healthy sleep behavior during college. In Phase 1, members of a small sample of undergraduates (n = 31) were asked to describe their beliefs about expected outcomes, norms, and perceived behavioral control associated with sleep on an open-ended questionnaire. We analyzed these qualitative responses to create a closed-ended survey about sleep-related attitudes, perceived norms, control beliefs, behavioral intentions, and behavior. In Phase 2, a larger sample of undergraduate students (n = 365) completed the survey. Attitudes and perceived behavioral control were the strongest predictors of both intentions to engage in sleep behavior and self-reported sleep behavior. Control beliefs associated with time management and stress also had substantial room to change, suggesting their potential as message strategies to better promote healthy sleep behavior in college. We conclude with a broader discussion of the study's implications for message design and intervention.

Promising Practices in Drug Treatment: Findings from Southeast Asia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Libretto, Salvatore; Nemes, Susanna; Namur, Jenny; Garrett, Gerald; Hess, Lauren; Kaplan, Linda

2005-01-01

In a study to evaluate the drug treatment and aftercare efforts sponsored by the State Department's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau, residential Therapeutic Community (TC) treatment programs in three countries in Southeast Asia--Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand--were examined to identify promising practices and to…

USE OF BIOASSAY-DIRECTED CHEMICAL ANALYSIS FOR IDENTIFYING MUTAGENIC COMPOUNDS IN URBAN AIR AND COMBUSTION EMISSIONS

EPA Science Inventory

Bioassay-directed chemical analysis fractionation has been used for 30 years to identify mutagenic classes of compounds in complex mixtures. Most studies have used the Salmonella (Ames) mutagenicity assay, and we have recently applied this methodology to two standard reference sa...

21 CFR 801.45 - Devices that must be directly marked with a unique device identifier.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Devices that must be directly marked with a unique device identifier. 801.45 Section 801.45 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF... previously marked under paragraph (a) of this section. (e) Exception to be noted in design history file. A...

Promising Practices in Drug Treatment: Findings from Latin America

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nemes, Susanna; Libretto, Salvatore; Garrett, Gerald; Johansson, Anna Carin; Hess, Lauren

2005-01-01

In a study to evaluate the drug treatment and aftercare efforts sponsored by the State Department's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau, residential Therapeutic Community (TC) treatment programs in three Latin American countries--Brazil, Peru and Argentina--were examined to identify promising practices and to assess lessons…

Keeping the Promise

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whissemore, Tabitha

2016-01-01

Since its launch in September 2015, Heads Up America has collected information on nearly 125 promise programs across the country, many of which were instituted long before President Barack Obama announced the America's College Promise (ACP) plan in 2015. At least 27 new free community college programs have launched in states, communities, and at…

Between worst and best: developing criteria to identify promising practices in health promotion and disease prevention for the Canadian Best Practices Portal.

PubMed

Fazal, Nadia; Jackson, Suzanne F; Wong, Katy; Yessis, Jennifer; Jetha, Nina

2017-11-01

In health promotion and chronic disease prevention, both best and promising practices can provide critical insights into what works for enhancing the healthrelated outcomes of individuals and communities, and how/why these practices work in different situations and contexts. The promising practices criteria were developed using the Public Health Agency of Canada's (PHAC's) existing best practices criteria as the foundation. They were modified and pilot tested (three rounds) using published interventions. Theoretical and methodological issues and challenges were resolved via consultation and in-depth discussions with a working group. The team established a set of promising practices criteria, which differentiated from the best practices criteria via six specific measures. While a number of complex challenges emerged in the development of these criteria, they were thoroughly discussed, debated and resolved. The Canadian Best Practices Portal's screening criteria allow one to screen for both best and promising practices in the fields of public health, health promotion, chronic disease prevention, and potentially beyond.

Directed liquid phase assembly of highly ordered metallic nanoparticle arrays

DOE PAGES

Wu, Yueying; Dong, Nanyi; Fu, Shaofang; ...

2014-04-01

Directed assembly of nanomaterials is a promising route for the synthesis of advanced materials and devices. We demonstrate the directed-assembly of highly ordered two-dimensional arrays of hierarchical nanostructures with tunable size, spacing and composition. The directed assembly is achieved on lithographically patterned metal films that are subsequently pulse-laser melted; during the brief liquid lifetime, the pattened nanostructures assemble into highly ordered primary and secondary nanoparticles, with sizes below that which was originally patterned. Complementary fluid-dynamics simulations emulate the resultant patterns and show how the competition of capillary forces and liquid metal–solid substrate interaction potential drives the directed assembly. Lastly, asmore » an example of the enhanced functionality, a full-wave electromagnetic analysis has been performed to identify the nature of the supported plasmonic resonances.« less

Morphoproteomic-Guided Host-Directed Therapy for Tuberculosis.

PubMed

Brown, Robert E; Hunter, Robert L; Hwang, Shen-An

2017-01-01

In an effort to develop more effective therapy for tuberculosis (TB), research efforts are looking toward host-directed therapy, reprograming the body's natural defenses to better control the infection. While significant progress is being made, the efforts are limited by lack of understanding of the pathology and pathogenesis of adult type TB disease. We have recently published evidence that the developing lesions in human lungs are focal endogenous lipid pneumonia that constitutes a region of local susceptibility in a person with strong systemic immunity. Since most such lesions regress spontaneously, the ability to study them directly with immunohistochemistry provides means to investigate why some progress to clinical disease while others asymptomatically regress. Furthermore, this should enable us to develop more effective host-directed therapies. Morphoproteomics has proven to be an effective means of characterizing protein expression that can be used to identify metabolic pathways, which can lead to more effective therapies. The purpose of this perspective will argue that using morphoproteomics on human TB lung tissue is a particularly promising method to direct selection of host-directed therapeutics.

Service-Learning: Promise and Possibility in Post-Secondary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kalles, Susan; Ryan, Thomas G.

2015-01-01

Herein we identify and address promising practices, essential theories, and related cautions within service-learning. The argument that service-learning is an organized community service which is connected to curriculum in an effort to deepen learning around content was scrutinized and endorsed. We envisioned service-learning as more than a joint…

Promising treatments in development for food allergies.

PubMed

Rancé, Fabienne

2004-11-01

Up to 6% of young children and 2% of adults suffer from food allergy. Among them many have IgE-mediated food allergy, a condition with potentially fatal allergic reactions. The only proven treatment is avoidance of the offending food, which can be identified using standardised allergic tests. However, several studies have addressed possible definite treatment options for food allergy. Immunotherapy, administered orally or by systemic injections, shows promising preliminary results, but these therapeutics are based on studies with insufficient scientific support, or are associated with a high risk of severe side effects. At present, no studies can support pharmacotherapy. However, promising results were recently published with anti-IgE antibodies in a human trial, and various approaches in a mouse model of food allergy (chinese herbal medicine, specific modulation of the T-cell response). Rapidly evolving findings might provide hope for a cure for food allergy in the near future.

England Policy in Gifted Education: Current Problems and Promising Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koshy, Valsa; Smith, Carole Portman; Casey, Ronald

2018-01-01

This article presents and analyzes policies in identification and provisions in England with respect to gifted education. England has developed a national policy to provide services to identified students. Surveys and interviews with teachers illustrate how implementation of both identification and provision policy elements were handled. Although…

GRIL-Seq, a method for identifying direct targets of bacterial small regulatory RNA by in vivo proximity ligation

PubMed Central

Han, Kook; Tjaden, Brian; Lory, Stephen

2017-01-01

The first step in the post-transcriptional regulatory function of most bacterial small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) is base-pairing with partially complementary sequences of targeted transcripts. We present a simple method for identifying sRNA targets in vivo and defining processing sites of the regulated transcripts. The technique (referred to as GRIL-Seq) is based on preferential ligation of sRNAs to ends of base-paired targets in bacteria co-expressing T4 RNA ligase, followed by sequencing to identify the chimeras. In addition to the RNA chaperone Hfq, the GRIL-Seq method depends on the activity of the pyrophosphorylase RppH. Using PrrF1, an iron-regulated sRNA in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we demonstrate that direct regulatory targets of this sRNA can be readily identified. Therefore, GRIL-Seq represents a powerful tool not only for identifying direct targets of sRNAs in a variety of environments, but can also result in uncovering novel roles for sRNAs and their targets in complex regulatory networks. PMID:28005055

The Utility, Limitations, and Promise of Proteomics in Animal Science

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Proteomics experiments have the ability to simultaneously identify and quantify potentially thousands of proteins in one experiment. The use of this technology in animal science is still in its infancy, yet it holds significant promise as a method for advancing animal science research. Examples of...

Improving High School Success: Searching for Evidence of Promise

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mazzeo, Christopher; Fleischman, Steve; Heppen, Jessica; Jahangir, Theresa

2016-01-01

Improving the nation's high schools--particularly those that are low-performing--involves challenges that are far easier to catalog than to surmount. In this chapter, the authors identify a handful of promising approaches that can help to achieve the goal that all students will graduate from high school well-prepared for further learning,…

Predictive Validity of an Empirical Approach for Selecting Promising Message Topics: A Randomized-Controlled Study

PubMed Central

Lee, Stella Juhyun; Brennan, Emily; Gibson, Laura Anne; Tan, Andy S. L.; Kybert-Momjian, Ani; Liu, Jiaying; Hornik, Robert

2016-01-01

Several message topic selection approaches propose that messages based on beliefs pretested and found to be more strongly associated with intentions will be more effective in changing population intentions and behaviors when used in a campaign. This study aimed to validate the underlying causal assumption of these approaches which rely on cross-sectional belief–intention associations. We experimentally tested whether messages addressing promising themes as identified by the above criterion were more persuasive than messages addressing less promising themes. Contrary to expectations, all messages increased intentions. Interestingly, mediation analyses showed that while messages deemed promising affected intentions through changes in targeted promising beliefs, messages deemed less promising also achieved persuasion by influencing nontargeted promising beliefs. Implications for message topic selection are discussed. PMID:27867218

Who chooses a consumer-directed health plan?

PubMed

Barry, Colleen L; Cullen, Mark R; Galusha, Deron; Slade, Martin D; Busch, Susan H

2008-01-01

Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) hold the promise of reining in health spending by giving consumers a greater stake in health care purchasing, yet little is known about employers' experience with these products. In examining the characteristics of those selecting a CDHP offered by one large employer, we found stronger evidence of selection than has been identified in prior research. Our findings suggest that in the context of plan choice, CDHPs may offer little opportunity to greatly lower employers' cost burden, and they highlight concerns about the potential for risk segmentation and the value of conferring preferential tax treatment to CDHPs.

Who Chooses A Consumer-Directed Health Plan?

PubMed Central

Barry, Colleen L.; Cullen, Mark R.; Galusha, Deron; Slade, Martin D.; Busch, Susan H.

2012-01-01

Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) hold the promise of reining in health spending by giving consumers a greater stake in health care purchasing, yet little is known about employers’ experience with these products. In examining the characteristics of those selecting a CDHP offered by one large employer, we found stronger evidence of selection than has been identified in prior research. Our findings suggest that in the context of plan choice, CDHPs may offer little opportunity to greatly lower employers’ cost burden, and they highlight concerns about the potential for risk segmentation and the value of conferring preferential tax treatment to CDHPs. PMID:18997225

Identifying promising accessions of cherry tomato: a sensory strategy using consumers and chefs.

PubMed

Rocha, Mariella C; Deliza, Rosires; Ares, Gastón; Freitas, Daniela De G C; Silva, Aline L S; Carmo, Margarida G F; Abboud, Antonio C S

2013-06-01

An increased production of cherry and gourmet tomato cultivars that are harvested at advanced colour stages and sold at a higher price has been observed in the last 10 years. In this context, producers need information on the sensory characteristics of new cultivars and their perception by potential consumers. The aim of the present work was to obtain a sensory characterisation of nine cherry tomato cultivars produced under Brazilian organic cultivation conditions from a chef and consumer perspective. Nine organic cherry tomato genotypes were evaluated by ten chefs using an open-ended question and by 110 consumers using a check-all-that-apply question. Both methodologies provided similar information on the sensory characteristics of the cherry tomato accessions. The superimposed representation of the samples in a multiple factor analysis was similar for consumers' and chefs' descriptions (RV coefficient 0.728), although they used different methodologies. According to both panels, cherry tomatoes were sorted into five groups of samples with similar sensory characteristics. Results from the present work may provide information to help organic producers in the selection of the most promising cultivars for cultivation, taking into account consumers' and chefs' perceptions, as well as in the design of communication and marketing strategies. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry.

The Promise of Virtual Teams: Identifying Key Factors in Effectiveness and Failure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horwitz, Frank M.; Bravington, Desmond; Silvis, Ulrik

2006-01-01

Purpose: The aim of the investigation is to identify enabling and disenabling factors in the development and operation of virtual teams; to evaluate the importance of factors such as team development, cross-cultural variables, leadership, communication and social cohesion as contributors to virtual team effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach:…

Promising More Information

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

When NASA needed a real-time, online database system capable of tracking documentation changes in its propulsion test facilities, engineers at Stennis Space Center joined with ECT International, of Brookfield, Wisconsin, to create a solution. Through NASA's Dual-Use Program, ECT developed Exdata, a software program that works within the company's existing Promise software. Exdata not only satisfied NASA s requirements, but also expanded ECT s commercial product line. Promise, ECT s primary product, is an intelligent software program with specialized functions for designing and documenting electrical control systems. An addon to AutoCAD software, Promis e generates control system schematics, panel layouts, bills of material, wire lists, and terminal plans. The drawing functions include symbol libraries, macros, and automatic line breaking. Primary Promise customers include manufacturing companies, utilities, and other organizations with complex processes to control.

Can hospital audit teams identify case management problems, analyse their causes, identify and implement improvements? A cross-sectional process evaluation of obstetric near-miss case reviews in Benin.

PubMed

Borchert, Matthias; Goufodji, Sourou; Alihonou, Eusèbe; Delvaux, Thérèse; Saizonou, Jacques; Kanhonou, Lydie; Filippi, Véronique

2012-10-11

Obstetric near-miss case reviews are being promoted as a quality assurance intervention suitable for hospitals in low income countries. We introduced such reviews in five district, regional and national hospitals in Benin, West Africa. In a cross-sectional study we analysed the extent to which the hospital audit teams were able to identify case management problems (CMPs), analyse their causes, agree on solutions and put these solutions into practice. We analysed case summaries, women's interview transcripts and audit minutes produced by the audit teams for 67 meetings concerning one woman with near-miss complications each. We compared the proportion of CMPs identified by an external assessment team to the number found by the audit teams. For the latter, we described the CMP causes identified, solutions proposed and implemented by the audit teams. Audit meetings were conducted regularly and were well attended. Audit teams identified half of the 714 CMPs; they were more likely to find managerial ones (71%) than the ones relating to treatment (30%). Most identified CMPs were valid. Almost all causes of CMPs were plausible, but often too superficial to be of great value for directing remedial action. Audit teams suggested solutions, most of them promising ones, for 38% of the CMPs they had identified, but recorded their implementation only for a minority (8.5%). The importance of following-up and documenting the implementation of solutions should be stressed in future audit interventions. Tools facilitating the follow-up should be made available. Near-miss case reviews hold promise, but their effectiveness to improve the quality of care sustainably and on a large scale still needs to be established.

Can hospital audit teams identify case management problems, analyse their causes, identify and implement improvements? A cross-sectional process evaluation of obstetric near-miss case reviews in Benin

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Obstetric near-miss case reviews are being promoted as a quality assurance intervention suitable for hospitals in low income countries. We introduced such reviews in five district, regional and national hospitals in Benin, West Africa. In a cross-sectional study we analysed the extent to which the hospital audit teams were able to identify case management problems (CMPs), analyse their causes, agree on solutions and put these solutions into practice. Methods We analysed case summaries, women’s interview transcripts and audit minutes produced by the audit teams for 67 meetings concerning one woman with near-miss complications each. We compared the proportion of CMPs identified by an external assessment team to the number found by the audit teams. For the latter, we described the CMP causes identified, solutions proposed and implemented by the audit teams. Results Audit meetings were conducted regularly and were well attended. Audit teams identified half of the 714 CMPs; they were more likely to find managerial ones (71%) than the ones relating to treatment (30%). Most identified CMPs were valid. Almost all causes of CMPs were plausible, but often too superficial to be of great value for directing remedial action. Audit teams suggested solutions, most of them promising ones, for 38% of the CMPs they had identified, but recorded their implementation only for a minority (8.5%). Conclusions The importance of following-up and documenting the implementation of solutions should be stressed in future audit interventions. Tools facilitating the follow-up should be made available. Near-miss case reviews hold promise, but their effectiveness to improve the quality of care sustainably and on a large scale still needs to be established. PMID:23057707

GRIL-seq provides a method for identifying direct targets of bacterial small regulatory RNA by in vivo proximity ligation.

PubMed

Han, Kook; Tjaden, Brian; Lory, Stephen

2016-12-22

The first step in the post-transcriptional regulatory function of most bacterial small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) is base pairing with partially complementary sequences of targeted transcripts. We present a simple method for identifying sRNA targets in vivo and defining processing sites of the regulated transcripts. The technique, referred to as global small non-coding RNA target identification by ligation and sequencing (GRIL-seq), is based on preferential ligation of sRNAs to the ends of base-paired targets in bacteria co-expressing T4 RNA ligase, followed by sequencing to identify the chimaeras. In addition to the RNA chaperone Hfq, the GRIL-seq method depends on the activity of the pyrophosphorylase RppH. Using PrrF1, an iron-regulated sRNA in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we demonstrated that direct regulatory targets of this sRNA can readily be identified. Therefore, GRIL-seq represents a powerful tool not only for identifying direct targets of sRNAs in a variety of environments, but also for uncovering novel roles for sRNAs and their targets in complex regulatory networks.

Fulfill Promises and Avoid Breaches to Retain Satisfied, Committed Nurses.

PubMed

Rodwell, John; Ellershaw, Julia

2016-07-01

This study examines two commonly proposed mechanisms, violation and trust, to see if they mediate the relationships between the components of the psychological contract (i.e., promises, fulfillment, and breach) and their impact on the work-related outcomes of job satisfaction, intent to quit, and organizational commitment. Online surveys were completed by 459 Australian nurses. Structural equation modeling revealed that breach and fulfillment have direct and mediated effects on the outcomes, whereas promises had no impact. Violation partially mediated the relationship between breach and job satisfaction and intent to quit, while trust partially mediated the relationships between fulfillment and organizational commitment, and breach and organizational commitment. Negative experiences (i.e., breaches) were related to both increased feelings of violation and decreased feelings of trust. In contrast, positive experiences (i.e., fulfillment) increased trust but did not significantly reduce feelings of violation. Nurse and organizational managers can use these findings to improve communication with nurses so as to minimize the negative effects of breach and maximize the positive effects of fulfillment and thus improve attitudes. Nurse managers need to be careful to make promises regarding their nurses' employment that they can fulfill and to particularly avoid breaking the psychological contract. The potentially disproportionate negative effect of breach means that a breach can undo a lot of efforts to fulfill employment-related promises. © 2016 Sigma Theta Tau International.

The Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartik, Timothy J.; Lachowska, Marta

2014-01-01

This study takes advantage of the unexpected announcement of the Kalamazoo Promise to study its effects on student achievement and behavior in high school. The Kalamazoo Promise provides college scholarships to graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS), a midsized urban school district in Michigan that is racially and economically diverse.…

Gender Equity Expert Panel: Exemplary & Promising Gender Equity Programs, 2000.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Department of Education, Washington, DC.

The U.S. Department of Education developed the Gender Equity Expert Panel to identify promising and exemplary programs that promote gender equity in and through education. This panel of experts reviewed self-nominated programs to determine whether they met four criteria: evidence of success/effectiveness in promoting gender equity; quality of the…

The promise of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression: current evidence and future directions

PubMed Central

DeWilde, Kaitlin E.; Levitch, Cara F.; Murrough, James W.; Mathew, Sanjay J.; Iosifescu, Dan V.

2014-01-01

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most disabling diseases worldwide and is a significant public health threat. Current treatments for MDD primarily consist of monoamine-targeting agents and have limited efficacy. However, the glutamate neurotransmitter system has recently come into focus as a promising alternative for novel antidepressant treatments. We review the current data on the glutamate NMDA receptor antagonist ketamine, which has been shown in clinical trials to act as a rapid antidepressant in MDD. We also examine ketamine efficacy on dimensions of psychopathology, including anhedonia, cognition, and suicidality, consistent with the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative. Other aspects of ketamine reviewed in this paper include safety and efficacy, different administration methods, and the risks of misuse of ketamine outside of medical settings. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of other glutamatergic agents other than ketamine currently being tested as novel antidepressants. PMID:25649308

IspE Inhibitors Identified by a Combination of In Silico and In Vitro High-Throughput Screening

PubMed Central

Tidten-Luksch, Naomi; Grimaldi, Raffaella; Torrie, Leah S.; Frearson, Julie A.; Hunter, William N.; Brenk, Ruth

2012-01-01

CDP-ME kinase (IspE) contributes to the non-mevalonate or deoxy-xylulose phosphate (DOXP) pathway for isoprenoid precursor biosynthesis found in many species of bacteria and apicomplexan parasites. IspE has been shown to be essential by genetic methods and since it is absent from humans it constitutes a promising target for antimicrobial drug development. Using in silico screening directed against the substrate binding site and in vitro high-throughput screening directed against both, the substrate and co-factor binding sites, non-substrate-like IspE inhibitors have been discovered and structure-activity relationships were derived. The best inhibitors in each series have high ligand efficiencies and favourable physico-chemical properties rendering them promising starting points for drug discovery. Putative binding modes of the ligands were suggested which are consistent with established structure-activity relationships. The applied screening methods were complementary in discovering hit compounds, and a comparison of both approaches highlights their strengths and weaknesses. It is noteworthy that compounds identified by virtual screening methods provided the controls for the biochemical screens. PMID:22563402

Amygdala neural activity reflects spatial attention towards stimuli promising reward or threatening punishment

PubMed Central

Peck, Christopher J; Salzman, C Daniel

2014-01-01

Humans and other animals routinely identify and attend to sensory stimuli so as to rapidly acquire rewards or avoid aversive experiences. Emotional arousal, a process mediated by the amygdala, can enhance attention to stimuli in a non-spatial manner. However, amygdala neural activity was recently shown to encode spatial information about reward-predictive stimuli, and to correlate with spatial attention allocation. If representing the motivational significance of sensory stimuli within a spatial framework reflects a general principle of amygdala function, then spatially selective neural responses should also be elicited by sensory stimuli threatening aversive events. Recordings from amygdala neurons were therefore obtained while monkeys directed spatial attention towards stimuli promising reward or threatening punishment. Neural responses encoded spatial information similarly for stimuli associated with both valences of reinforcement, and responses reflected spatial attention allocation. The amygdala therefore may act to enhance spatial attention to sensory stimuli associated with rewarding or aversive experiences. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.04478.001 PMID:25358090

One-dimensional CdS nanostructures: a promising candidate for optoelectronics.

PubMed

Li, Huiqiao; Wang, Xi; Xu, Junqi; Zhang, Qi; Bando, Yoshio; Golberg, Dmitri; Ma, Ying; Zhai, Tianyou

2013-06-11

As a promising candidate for optoelectronics, one-dimensional CdS nanostructures have drawn great scientific and technical interest due to their interesting fundamental properties and possibilities of utilization in novel promising optoelectronical devices with augmented performance and functionalities. This progress report highlights a selection of important topics pertinent to optoelectronical applications of one-dimensional CdS nanostructures over the last five years. This article begins with the description of rational design and controlled synthesis of CdS nanostructure arrays, alloyed nanostructucures and kinked nanowire superstructures, and then focuses on the optoelectronical properties, and applications including cathodoluminescence, lasers, light-emitting diodes, waveguides, field emitters, logic circuits, memory devices, photodetectors, gas sensors, photovoltaics and photoelectrochemistry. Finally, the general challenges and the potential future directions of this exciting area of research are highlighted. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Pediatric Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome: Promising Therapies

PubMed Central

Doctor, Allan; Zimmerman, Jerry; Agus, Michael; Rajasekaran, Surender; Wardenburg, Juliane Bubeck; Fortenberry, James; Zajicek, Anne; Typpo, Katri

2016-01-01

Objective To describe the state of the science, identify knowledge gaps, and offer potential future research questions regarding promising therapies for children with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) presented during the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Workshop on Pediatric Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (March 26-27, 2015). Data Sources Literature review, research data, and expert opinion. Study Selection Not applicable. Data Extraction Moderated by an expert from the field, issues relevant to the association of MODS with a variety of conditions were presented, discussed and debated with a focus on identifying knowledge gaps and research priorities. Data Synthesis Summary of presentations and discussion supported and supplemented by relevant literature. Conclusions Among critically ill children, MODS is relatively common and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. For outcomes to improve, effective therapies aimed at preventing and treating this condition must be discovered and rigorously evaluated. In this manuscript, a number of potential opportunities to enhance current care are highlighted including the need for a better understanding of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of medications, the effect of early and optimized nutrition, and the impact of effective glucose control in the setting of MODS. Additionally, a handful of the promising therapies either currently being implemented or developed are described. These include extracorporeal therapies, anti-cytokine therapies, anti-toxin treatments, anti-oxidant approaches and multiple forms of exogenous steroids. For the field to advance, these and other therapies must be assessed in rigorous manner and implemented accordingly. PMID:28248836

Cyanobacteria: Promising biocatalysts for sustainable chemical production.

PubMed

Knoot, Cory J; Ungerer, Justin; Wangikar, Pramod P; Pakrasi, Himadri B

2018-04-06

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic prokaryotes showing great promise as biocatalysts for the direct conversion of CO 2 into fuels, chemicals, and other value-added products. Introduction of just a few heterologous genes can endow cyanobacteria with the ability to transform specific central metabolites into many end products. Recent engineering efforts have centered around harnessing the potential of these microbial biofactories for sustainable production of chemicals conventionally produced from fossil fuels. Here, we present an overview of the unique chemistry that cyanobacteria have been co-opted to perform. We highlight key lessons learned from these engineering efforts and discuss advantages and disadvantages of various approaches. © 2018 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Engaging Communities in Identifying Local Strategies for Expanding Integrated Employment During and After High School.

PubMed

Carter, Erik W; Blustein, Carly L; Bumble, Jennifer L; Harvey, Sarah; Henderson, Lynnette M; McMillan, Elise D

2016-09-01

Amidst decades of attention directed toward improving employment outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), few efforts have been made to engage communities in identifying local solutions for expanding integrated employment opportunities. We examined the implementation and outcomes of "community conversation" events held in 6 geographically and economically diverse locales. Each event used an asset-based dialogue approach called the World Café ( Brown & Isaacs, 2005 ) to solicit ideas from a broad cross-section of community members on improving integrated employment that reflect local priorities and possibilities. Six key themes encapsulated the 1,556 strategies generated by the almost 400 attendees. Although considerable consistency was found among the categories of strategies raised across events, the manner in which those individual strategies would be implemented locally reflected the unique accent of each community. Attendees also viewed these events as promising and productive pathways for identifying next steps for their community. We offer recommendations for community-level intervention efforts and suggest directions for future research.

IDENTIFYING IONIZED REGIONS IN NOISY REDSHIFTED 21 cm DATA SETS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Malloy, Matthew; Lidz, Adam, E-mail: mattma@sas.upenn.edu

One of the most promising approaches for studying reionization is to use the redshifted 21 cm line. Early generations of redshifted 21 cm surveys will not, however, have the sensitivity to make detailed maps of the reionization process, and will instead focus on statistical measurements. Here, we show that it may nonetheless be possible to directly identify ionized regions in upcoming data sets by applying suitable filters to the noisy data. The locations of prominent minima in the filtered data correspond well with the positions of ionized regions. In particular, we corrupt semi-numeric simulations of the redshifted 21 cm signalmore » during reionization with thermal noise at the level expected for a 500 antenna tile version of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), and mimic the degrading effects of foreground cleaning. Using a matched filter technique, we find that the MWA should be able to directly identify ionized regions despite the large thermal noise. In a plausible fiducial model in which {approx}20% of the volume of the universe is neutral at z {approx} 7, we find that a 500-tile MWA may directly identify as many as {approx}150 ionized regions in a 6 MHz portion of its survey volume and roughly determine the size of each of these regions. This may, in turn, allow interesting multi-wavelength follow-up observations, comparing galaxy properties inside and outside of ionized regions. We discuss how the optimal configuration of radio antenna tiles for detecting ionized regions with a matched filter technique differs from the optimal design for measuring power spectra. These considerations have potentially important implications for the design of future redshifted 21 cm surveys.« less

Promising New Directions in Biochemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olivera, Baldomero M.

2003-01-01

"Biochemistry," by Lubert Stryer, has become one of the standard textbooks for the field. The Fifth Edition has two new authors: Jeremy Berg, Professor and Director of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and John Tymoczko, the Towsley Professor of Biology at Carleton College. The new edition does,…

Promising Practices in Citywide Afterschool Initiatives. CityWorks: Focus on Infrastructure.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Georgia

This brief is the first in a series featuring promising practices in city-wide after-school initiatives, with a focus at the infrastructure level, focusing on the infrastructure representing the underlying elements or framework that hold a system or initiative together. The brief identifies practices to support the public relations function and…

Earthquake prediction; new studies yield promising results

USGS Publications Warehouse

Robinson, R.

1974-01-01

On Agust 3, 1973, a small earthquake (magnitude 2.5) occurred near Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondack region of northern New York State. This seemingly unimportant event was of great significance, however, because it was predicted. Seismologsits at the Lamont-Doherty geologcal Observatory of Columbia University accurately foretold the time, place, and magnitude of the event. Their prediction was based on certain pre-earthquake processes that are best explained by a hypothesis known as "dilatancy," a concept that has injected new life and direction into the science of earthquake prediction. Although much mroe reserach must be accomplished before we can expect to predict potentially damaging earthquakes with any degree of consistency, results such as this indicate that we are on a promising road. 

Promising Practices in Small High Schools. A Report of 15 Northwest Projects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Northwest Regional Educational Lab., Portland, OR.

Promising methods utilized in small rural high schools to provide a wider range of experiences for students are identified and described. Programs reported on include the Arctic Nursing Program, Career Research Program, Contractual Study Program, Eye-opening Experience, Field Experience Program, Guitar and Folk Music Program, Individualized…

Image is more than a uniform: the promise of assurance.

PubMed

Wocial, Lucia D; Sego, Kelly; Rager, Carrie; Laubersheimer, Shellee; Everett, Linda Q

2014-05-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the meaning of the phrase "image of the nurse" in the context of the desired brand experience of assurance. A brand is a promise that lives in the minds of consumers. Nurses play a key role in delivering on the brand promise of a hospital. Using focus groups, the authors applied a deductive approach to generate data. Discussion transcripts were analyzed by establishing codes and identifying themes. The most frequent comment from participants was that for nurses to communicate assurance, they must 1st be clean, well groomed, and understated in overall appearance. Nurse behaviors that reassure patients include being present with patients, helping patients know what to expect, and demonstrating a consistent team approach. Overall appearance and behaviors define the image of nurses and contribute significantly to the brand of assurance.

National variety trials identify clones with high potential

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Quality potato varieties are the backbone of a strong potato industry. Variety trials have been used to identify promising new varieties for well over a century. Trials are repeated and information collected over many years in order to confidently identify lines that may be well suited for productio...

The Questionable Promise of Social Media for Education: Connective Learning and the Commercial Imperative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friesen, N.; Lowe, S.

2012-01-01

Facebook and other social media have been hailed as delivering the promise of new, socially engaged educational experiences for students in undergraduate, self-directed, and other educational sectors. A theoretical and historical analysis of these media in the light of earlier media transformations, however, helps to situate and qualify this…

Direct conversion technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Massier, Paul F.; Bankston, C. P.; Williams, R.; Underwood, M.; Jeffries-Nakamura, B.; Fabris, G.

1989-01-01

The overall objective of the Direct Conversion Technology task is to develop an experimentally verified technology base for promising direct conversion systems that have potential application for energy conservation in the end-use sectors. This report contains progress of research on the Alkali Metal Thermal-to-Electric Converter (AMTEC), and on the Two-Phase Liquid-Metal Magnetohydrodynamic Electrical Generator (LMMHD) for the period January 1, 1989 through December 31, 1989. Research on these concepts was initiated during October 1987. Reports prepared on previous occasions contain discussions on the following other direct conversion concepts: thermoelectric, pyroelectric, thermionic, thermophotovoltaic, thermoacoustic, thermomagnetic, thermoelastic (nitinol heat engines); and also, more complete discussions of AMTEC and LMMHD systems.

Identifying Ca2+-Binding Sites in Proteins by Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Using Ca2+-Directed Dissociations

PubMed Central

Jamalian, Azadeh; Sneekes, Evert-Jan; Wienk, Hans; Dekker, Lennard J. M.; Ruttink, Paul J. A.; Ursem, Mario; Luider, Theo M.; Burgers, Peter C.

2014-01-01

Here we describe a new method to identify calcium-binding sites in proteins using high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry in concert with calcium-directed collision-induced dissociations. Our method does not require any modifications to the liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry apparatus, uses standard digestion protocols, and can be applied to existing high-resolution MS data files. In contrast to NMR, our method is applicable to very small amounts of complex protein mixtures (femtomole level). Calcium-bound peptides can be identified using three criteria: (1) the calculated exact mass of the calcium containing peptide; (2) specific dissociations of the calcium-containing peptide from threonine and serine residues; and (3) the very similar retention times of the calcium-containing peptide and the free peptide. PMID:25023127

Identifying footprints of directional and balancing selection in marine and freshwater three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) populations.

PubMed

Mäkinen, H S; Cano, J M; Merilä, J

2008-08-01

Natural selection is expected to leave an imprint on the neutral polymorphisms at the adjacent genomic regions of a selected gene. While directional selection tends to reduce within-population genetic diversity and increase among-population differentiation, the reverse is expected under balancing selection. To identify targets of natural selection in the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) genome, 103 microsatellite and two indel markers including expressed sequence tags (EST) and quantitative trait loci (QTL)-associated loci, were genotyped in four freshwater and three marine populations. The results indicated that a high proportion of loci (14.7%) might be affected by balancing selection and a lower proportion (2.8%) by directional selection. The strongest signatures of directional selection were detected in a microsatellite locus and two indel markers located in the intronic regions of the Eda-gene coding for the number of lateral plates. Yet, other microsatellite loci previously found to be informative in QTL-mapping studies revealed no signatures of selection. Two novel microsatellite loci (Stn12 and Stn90) located in chromosomes I and VIII, respectively, showed signals of directional selection and might be linked to genomic regions containing gene(s) important for adaptive divergence. Although the coverage of the total genomic content was relatively low, the predominance of balancing selection signals is in agreement with the contention that balancing, rather than directional selection is the predominant mode of selection in the wild.

Boosters and barriers for direct cardiac reprogramming.

PubMed

Talkhabi, Mahmood; Zonooz, Elmira Rezaei; Baharvand, Hossein

2017-06-01

Heart disease is currently the most significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, which accounts for approximately 33% of all deaths. Recently, a promising and alchemy-like strategy has been developed called direct cardiac reprogramming, which directly converts somatic cells such as fibroblasts to cardiac lineage cells such as cardiomyocytes (CMs), termed induced CMs or iCMs. The first in vitro cardiac reprogramming study, mediated by cardiac transcription factors (TFs)-Gata4, Tbx5 and Mef2C-, was not enough efficient to produce an adequate number of fully reprogrammed, functional iCMs. As a result, numerous combinations of cardiac TFs exist for direct cardiac reprogramming of mouse and human fibroblasts. However, the efficiency of direct cardiac reprogramming remains low. Recently, a number of cellular and molecular mechanisms have been identified to increase the efficiency of direct cardiac reprogramming and the quality of iCMs. For example, microgrooved substrate, cardiogenic growth factors [VEGF, FGF, BMP4 and Activin A], and an appropriate stoichiometry of TFs boost the direct cardiac reprogramming. On the other hand, serum, TGFβ signaling, activators of epithelial to mesenchymal transition, and some epigenetic factors (Bmi1 and Ezh2) are barriers for direct cardiac reprogramming. Manipulating these mechanisms by the application of boosters and removing barriers can increase the efficiency of direct cardiac reprogramming and possibly make iCMs reliable for cell-based therapy or other potential applications. In this review, we summarize the latest trends in cardiac TF- or miRNA-based direct cardiac reprogramming and comprehensively discuses all molecular and cellular boosters and barriers affecting direct cardiac reprogramming. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Generative models for network neuroscience: prospects and promise

PubMed Central

Betzel, Richard F.

2017-01-01

Network neuroscience is the emerging discipline concerned with investigating the complex patterns of interconnections found in neural systems, and identifying principles with which to understand them. Within this discipline, one particularly powerful approach is network generative modelling, in which wiring rules are algorithmically implemented to produce synthetic network architectures with the same properties as observed in empirical network data. Successful models can highlight the principles by which a network is organized and potentially uncover the mechanisms by which it grows and develops. Here, we review the prospects and promise of generative models for network neuroscience. We begin with a primer on network generative models, with a discussion of compressibility and predictability, and utility in intuiting mechanisms, followed by a short history on their use in network science, broadly. We then discuss generative models in practice and application, paying particular attention to the critical need for cross-validation. Next, we review generative models of biological neural networks, both at the cellular and large-scale level, and across a variety of species including Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, mouse, rat, cat, macaque and human. We offer a careful treatment of a few relevant distinctions, including differences between generative models and null models, sufficiency and redundancy, inferring and claiming mechanism, and functional and structural connectivity. We close with a discussion of future directions, outlining exciting frontiers both in empirical data collection efforts as well as in method and theory development that, together, further the utility of the generative network modelling approach for network neuroscience. PMID:29187640

DMirNet: Inferring direct microRNA-mRNA association networks.

PubMed

Lee, Minsu; Lee, HyungJune

2016-12-05

-based model [1] which has shown the best performance across the same three datasets, with a factor of up to 1.29. Further, we identify 43 putative novel multi-cancer-related miRNA-mRNA association relationships from an inferred Top 1000 direct miRNA-mRNA association network. We believe that DMirNet is a promising method to identify novel direct miRNA-mRNA relations and to elucidate the direct miRNA-mRNA association networks. Since DMirNet infers direct relationships from the observed data, DMirNet can contribute to reconstructing various direct regulatory pathways, including, but not limited to, the direct miRNA-mRNA association networks.

Contexts for Promise: Noteworthy Practices and Innovations in the Identification of Gifted Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Callahan, Carolyn M., Ed.; And Others

This monograph contains 11 papers describing model projects that address the identification of gifted students. An introduction by Carolyn M. Callahan and Carol A. Tomlinson identifies commonalities and themes in the promising practices highlighted in the papers. The papers include: (1) "Project STREAM: Support, Training and Resources for…

Mindfulness practice: A promising approach to reducing the effects of clinician implicit bias on patients.

PubMed

Burgess, Diana J; Beach, Mary Catherine; Saha, Somnath

2017-02-01

Like the population at large, health care providers hold implicit racial and ethnic biases that may contribute to health care disparities. Little progress has been made in identifying and implementing effective strategies to address these normal but potentially harmful unconscious cognitive processes. We propose that meditation training designed to increase healthcare providers' mindfulness skills is a promising and potentially sustainable way to address this problem. Emerging evidence suggests that mindfulness practice can reduce the provider contribution to healthcare disparities through several mechanisms including: reducing the likelihood that implicit biases will be activated in the mind, increasing providers' awareness of and ability to control responses to implicit biases once activated, increasing self-compassion and compassion toward patients, and reducing internal sources of cognitive load (e.g., stress, burnout, and compassion fatigue). Mindfulness training may also have advantages over current approaches to addressing implicit bias because it focuses on the development of skills through practice, promotes a nonjudgmental approach, can circumvent resistance some providers feel when directly confronted with evidence of racism, and constitutes a holistic approach to promoting providers' well-being. We close with suggestions for how a mindfulness approach can be practically implemented and identify potential challenges and research gaps to be addressed. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Sonographic Examination of The Fetus Vis-à-Vis Shoulder Dystocia: A Vexing Promise.

PubMed

Doty, Morgen S; Al-Hafez, Leen; Chauhan, Suneet P

2016-12-01

Since antepartum and intrapartum risk factors are poor at identifying women whose labor is complicated by shoulder dystocia, sonographic examination of the fetus holds promise. Though there are several measurements of biometric parameters to identify the parturient who will have shoulder dystocia, none are currently clinically useful. Three national guidelines confirm that sonographic measurements do not serve as appropriate diagnostic tests to identify women who will have shoulder dystocia with or without concurrent injury. In summary, biometric measurements of the fetus should not be used to alter clinical management with the aim of averting shoulder dystocia.

Making Something of It: The Untold Stories of Promising Black Males at a Predominately White Institution of Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Funk, Michael Sean

2012-01-01

Promising Black males are an understudied and underserved population in the field of higher education. The purpose of this study was to understand how promising Black males define academic success and to identify the factors that affect academic success at a large predominately White public institutions of higher education located in the…

How might contact with nature promote human health? Promising mechanisms and a possible central pathway.

PubMed

Kuo, Ming

2015-01-01

How might contact with nature promote human health? Myriad studies have linked the two; at this time the task of identifying the mechanisms underlying this link is paramount. This article offers: (1) a compilation of plausible pathways between nature and health; (2) criteria for identifying a possible central pathway; and (3) one promising candidate for a central pathway. The 21 pathways identified here include environmental factors, physiological and psychological states, and behaviors or conditions, each of which has been empirically tied to nature and has implications for specific physical and mental health outcomes. While each is likely to contribute to nature's impacts on health to some degree and under some circumstances, this paper explores the possibility of a central pathway by proposing criteria for identifying such a pathway and illustrating their use. A particular pathway is more likely to be central if it can account for the size of nature's impacts on health, account for nature's specific health outcomes, and subsume other pathways. By these criteria, enhanced immune functioning emerges as one promising candidate for a central pathway between nature and health. There may be others.

Spin and Wind Directions I: Identifying Entanglement in Nature and Cognition.

PubMed

Aerts, Diederik; Arguëlles, Jonito Aerts; Beltran, Lester; Geriente, Suzette; Sassoli de Bianchi, Massimiliano; Sozzo, Sandro; Veloz, Tomas

2018-01-01

We present a cognitive psychology experiment where participants were asked to select pairs of spatial directions that they considered to be the best example of Two different wind directions . Data are shown to violate the CHSH version of Bell's inequality with the same magnitude as in typical Bell-test experiments with entangled spins. Wind directions thus appear to be conceptual entities connected through meaning, in human cognition, in a similar way as spins appear to be entangled in experiments conducted in physics laboratories. This is the first part of a two-part article. In the second part (Aerts et al. in Found Sci, 2017) we present a symmetrized version of the same experiment for which we provide a quantum modeling of the collected data in Hilbert space.

Promising behavior change techniques in a multicomponent intervention to reduce concerns about falls in old age: a Delphi study.

PubMed

Vestjens, Lotte; Kempen, Gertrudis I J M; Crutzen, Rik; Kok, Gerjo; Zijlstra, G A Rixt

2015-04-01

Complex behavior change interventions need evidence regarding the effectiveness of individual components to understand how these interventions work. The objective of this study was to identify the least and most promising behavior change techniques (BCTs) within the Dutch intervention 'A Matter of Balance' (AMB-NL) aimed at concerns about falls in old age as an example. After the identification of 27 BCTs within AMB-NL, an online two-round Delphi survey among 16 international experts was conducted to reach consensus on the least and most promising BCTs. The level of consensus and the level of importance of BCTs were determined. In total, 23 of the 27 (>85%) BCTs identified reached consensus. Most promising BCTs were goal setting (behavior), graded tasks and behavioral practice/rehearsal. Information about health consequences, salience of consequences and information about emotional consequences were considered least promising. These outcomes provide a first but important step in the evidence building process regarding the effectiveness of BCTs in a complex intervention. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Potential Direct Regulators of the Drosophila yellow Gene Identified by Yeast One-Hybrid and RNAi Screens

PubMed Central

Kalay, Gizem; Lusk, Richard; Dome, Mackenzie; Hens, Korneel; Deplancke, Bart; Wittkopp, Patricia J.

2016-01-01

The regulation of gene expression controls development, and changes in this regulation often contribute to phenotypic evolution. Drosophila pigmentation is a model system for studying evolutionary changes in gene regulation, with differences in expression of pigmentation genes such as yellow that correlate with divergent pigment patterns among species shown to be caused by changes in cis- and trans-regulation. Currently, much more is known about the cis-regulatory component of divergent yellow expression than the trans-regulatory component, in part because very few trans-acting regulators of yellow expression have been identified. This study aims to improve our understanding of the trans-acting control of yellow expression by combining yeast-one-hybrid and RNAi screens for transcription factors binding to yellow cis-regulatory sequences and affecting abdominal pigmentation in adults, respectively. Of the 670 transcription factors included in the yeast-one-hybrid screen, 45 showed evidence of binding to one or more sequence fragments tested from the 5′ intergenic and intronic yellow sequences from D. melanogaster, D. pseudoobscura, and D. willistoni, suggesting that they might be direct regulators of yellow expression. Of the 670 transcription factors included in the yeast-one-hybrid screen, plus another TF previously shown to be genetically upstream of yellow, 125 were also tested using RNAi, and 32 showed altered abdominal pigmentation. Nine transcription factors were identified in both screens, including four nuclear receptors related to ecdysone signaling (Hr78, Hr38, Hr46, and Eip78C). This finding suggests that yellow expression might be directly controlled by nuclear receptors influenced by ecdysone during early pupal development when adult pigmentation is forming. PMID:27527791

The promise--and peril--of integrated cost systems.

PubMed

Cooper, R; Kaplan, R S

1998-01-01

Recent advances in managerial accounting have helped executives get the information they need to make good strategic decisions. But today's enterprise resource planning systems promise even greater benefits--the chance to integrate activity-based costing, operational-control, and financial reporting systems. But managers need to approach integration very thoughtfully, or they could end up with a system that drives decision making in the wrong direction. Operational-control and ABC systems have fundamentally different purposes. Their requirements for accuracy, timeliness, and aggregation are so different that no single, fully integrated approach can be adequate for both purposes. If an integrated system used real-time cost data instead of standard rates in its ABC subsystem, for example, the result would be dangerously distorted messages about individual product profitability--and that's precisely the problem ABC systems were originally designed to address. Proper linkage and feedback between the two systems is possible, however. Through activity-based budgeting, the ABC system is linked directly to operations control: managers can determine the supply and practical capacity of resources in forthcoming periods. Linking operational control to ABC is also possible. The activity-based portion of an operational control system collects information that, while it mustn't be fed directly into the activity-based strategic cost system, can be extremely useful once it's been properly analyzed. Finally, ABC and operational control can be linked to financial reporting to generate cost of goods sold and inventory valuations--but again, with precautions.

Membrane-based processes for wastewater nutrient recovery: Technology, challenges, and future direction.

PubMed

Xie, Ming; Shon, Ho Kyong; Gray, Stephen R; Elimelech, Menachem

2016-02-01

Wastewater nutrient recovery holds promise for more sustainable water and agricultural industries. We critically review three emerging membrane processes - forward osmosis (FO), membrane distillation (MD) and electrodialysis (ED) - that can advance wastewater nutrient recovery. Challenges associated with wastewater nutrient recovery were identified. The advantages and challenges of applying FO, MD, and ED technologies to wastewater nutrient recovery are discussed, and directions for future research and development are identified. Emphasis is given to exploration of the unique mass transfer properties of these membrane processes in the context of wastewater nutrient recovery. We highlight that hybridising these membrane processes with existing nutrient precipitation process will lead to better management of and more diverse pathways for near complete nutrient recovery in wastewater treatment facilities. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Internship Divide: The Promise and Challenges of Internships in the Arts. Special Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frenette, Alexandre

2015-01-01

The Strategic National Alumni Project (SNAAP)--an online survey, data management, and institutional improvement system designed to enhance the impact of arts-school education--brings much-needed nuance to assessing the promise and addressing the challenges of the intern economy. In particular, SNAAP data help participants identify historical…

Detection of residues from explosive manipulation by near infrared hyperspectral imaging: a promising forensic tool.

PubMed

Fernández de la Ossa, Mª Ángeles; Amigo, José Manuel; García-Ruiz, Carmen

2014-09-01

In this study near infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI) is used to provide a fast, non-contact, non-invasive and non-destructive method for the analysis of explosive residues on human handprints. Volunteers manipulated individually each of these explosives and after deposited their handprints on plastic sheets. For this purpose, classical explosives, potentially used as part of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as ammonium nitrate, blackpowder, single- and double-base smokeless gunpowders and dynamite were studied. A partial-least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) model was built to detect and classify the presence of explosive residues in handprints. High levels of sensitivity and specificity for the PLS-DA classification model created to identify ammonium nitrate, blackpowder, single- and double-base smokeless gunpowders and dynamite residues were obtained, allowing the development of a preliminary library and facilitating the direct and in situ detection of explosives by NIR-HSI. Consequently, this technique is showed as a promising forensic tool for the detection of explosive residues and other related samples. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

76 FR 55889 - Reopening Notice: Promise Neighborhoods Program-Implementation Grant Competition; Promise...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-09

... AGENCY: Office of Innovation and Improvement, Department of Education. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Department of Education (Department) reopens the competition for transmittal of applications for new awards... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION [CFDA Numbers 84.215N; 84.215P] Reopening Notice: Promise Neighborhoods...

The Degradation Interface of Magnesium Based Alloys in Direct Contact with Human Primary Osteoblast Cells

PubMed Central

Willumeit-Römer, Regine; Laipple, Daniel; Luthringer, Bérengère; Feyerabend, Frank

2016-01-01

Magnesium alloys have been identified as a new generation material of orthopaedic implants. In vitro setups mimicking physiological conditions are promising for material / degradation analysis prior to in vivo studies however the direct influence of cell on the degradation mechanism has never been investigated. For the first time, the direct, active, influence of human primary osteoblasts on magnesium-based materials (pure magnesium, Mg-2Ag and Mg-10Gd alloys) is studied for up to 14 days. Several parameters such as composition of the degradation interface (directly beneath the cells) are analysed with a scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive X-ray and focused ion beam. Furthermore, influence of the materials on cell metabolism is examined via different parameters like active mineralisation process. The results are highlighting the influences of the selected alloying element on the initial cells metabolic activity. PMID:27327435

The Degradation Interface of Magnesium Based Alloys in Direct Contact with Human Primary Osteoblast Cells.

PubMed

Ahmad Agha, Nezha; Willumeit-Römer, Regine; Laipple, Daniel; Luthringer, Bérengère; Feyerabend, Frank

2016-01-01

Magnesium alloys have been identified as a new generation material of orthopaedic implants. In vitro setups mimicking physiological conditions are promising for material / degradation analysis prior to in vivo studies however the direct influence of cell on the degradation mechanism has never been investigated. For the first time, the direct, active, influence of human primary osteoblasts on magnesium-based materials (pure magnesium, Mg-2Ag and Mg-10Gd alloys) is studied for up to 14 days. Several parameters such as composition of the degradation interface (directly beneath the cells) are analysed with a scanning electron microscope equipped with energy dispersive X-ray and focused ion beam. Furthermore, influence of the materials on cell metabolism is examined via different parameters like active mineralisation process. The results are highlighting the influences of the selected alloying element on the initial cells metabolic activity.

Nutrigenomics and the stewardship of scientific promises.

PubMed

Penders, Bart; Goven, Joanna

2010-09-01

Here we analyze the rise and establishment of nutrigenomics versus nutrition science from a political perspective. We argue that the exceptionalist status of nutrigenomics has been brought about by a carefully orchestrated economy of expectation, enabling the nutrigenomics community to develop its own research agenda that differs significantly from that of nutrition science. Nutrigenomics promotes research specifically directed towards the heterogeneity of dietary guidelines, while nutrition science pursues a public health goal dominated by homogeneous health messages. Through the development of genomic technology and the protective niche created by large global funding initiatives, this heterogeneity-research agenda has been able to develop itself. Those pursuing and supporting it have, through nutrigenomics' economy of expectation, influenced public opinion, and regulatory and political structures dealing with food and health. With many big global nutrigenomics initiatives slowly approaching their end, this article hints at some of the possible political consequences of its economy of expectation and suggests that a "stewardship" of promises and expectations is in order

Promising intervention strategies to reduce parents' use of physical punishment.

PubMed

Gershoff, Elizabeth T; Lee, Shawna J; Durrant, Joan E

2017-09-01

The strong and ever-growing evidence base demonstrating that physical punishment places children at risk for a range of negative outcomes, coupled with global recognition of children's inherent rights to protection and dignity, has led to the emergence of programs specifically designed to prevent physical punishment by parents. This paper describes promising programs and strategies designed for each of three levels of intervention - indicated, selective, and universal - and summarizes the existing evidence base of each. Areas for further program development and evaluation are identified. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

New insights into old methods for identifying causal rare variants.

PubMed

Wang, Haitian; Huang, Chien-Hsun; Lo, Shaw-Hwa; Zheng, Tian; Hu, Inchi

2011-11-29

The advance of high-throughput next-generation sequencing technology makes possible the analysis of rare variants. However, the investigation of rare variants in unrelated-individuals data sets faces the challenge of low power, and most methods circumvent the difficulty by using various collapsing procedures based on genes, pathways, or gene clusters. We suggest a new way to identify causal rare variants using the F-statistic and sliced inverse regression. The procedure is tested on the data set provided by the Genetic Analysis Workshop 17 (GAW17). After preliminary data reduction, we ranked markers according to their F-statistic values. Top-ranked markers were then subjected to sliced inverse regression, and those with higher absolute coefficients in the most significant sliced inverse regression direction were selected. The procedure yields good false discovery rates for the GAW17 data and thus is a promising method for future study on rare variants.

Directed shotgun proteomics guided by saturated RNA-seq identifies a complete expressed prokaryotic proteome

PubMed Central

Omasits, Ulrich; Quebatte, Maxime; Stekhoven, Daniel J.; Fortes, Claudia; Roschitzki, Bernd; Robinson, Mark D.; Dehio, Christoph; Ahrens, Christian H.

2013-01-01

Prokaryotes, due to their moderate complexity, are particularly amenable to the comprehensive identification of the protein repertoire expressed under different conditions. We applied a generic strategy to identify a complete expressed prokaryotic proteome, which is based on the analysis of RNA and proteins extracted from matched samples. Saturated transcriptome profiling by RNA-seq provided an endpoint estimate of the protein-coding genes expressed under two conditions which mimic the interaction of Bartonella henselae with its mammalian host. Directed shotgun proteomics experiments were carried out on four subcellular fractions. By specifically targeting proteins which are short, basic, low abundant, and membrane localized, we could eliminate their initial underrepresentation compared to the estimated endpoint. A total of 1250 proteins were identified with an estimated false discovery rate below 1%. This represents 85% of all distinct annotated proteins and ∼90% of the expressed protein-coding genes. Genes that were detected at the transcript but not protein level, were found to be highly enriched in several genomic islands. Furthermore, genes that lacked an ortholog and a functional annotation were not detected at the protein level; these may represent examples of overprediction in genome annotations. A dramatic membrane proteome reorganization was observed, including differential regulation of autotransporters, adhesins, and hemin binding proteins. Particularly noteworthy was the complete membrane proteome coverage, which included expression of all members of the VirB/D4 type IV secretion system, a key virulence factor. PMID:23878158

Directed Shotgun Proteomics Guided by Saturated RNA-seq Identifies a Complete Expressed Prokaryotic Proteome

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Omasits, U.; Quebatte, Maxime; Stekhoven, Daniel J.

2013-11-01

Prokaryotes, due to their moderate complexity, are particularly amenable to the comprehensive identification of the protein repertoire expressed under different conditions. We applied a generic strategy to identify a complete expressed prokaryotic proteome, which is based on the analysis of RNA and proteins extracted from matched samples. Saturated transcriptome profiling by RNA-seq provided an endpoint estimate of the protein-coding genes expressed under two conditions which mimic the interaction of Bartonella henselae with its mammalian host. Directed shotgun proteomics experiments were carried out on four subcellular fractions. By specifically targeting proteins which are short, basic, low abundant, and membrane localized, wemore » could eliminate their initial underrepresentation compared to the estimated endpoint. A total of 1250 proteins were identified with an estimated false discovery rate below 1%. This represents 85% of all distinct annotated proteins and ~90% of the expressed protein-coding genes. Genes that were detected at the transcript but not protein level, were found to be highly enriched in several genomic islands. Furthermore, genes that lacked an ortholog and a functional annotation were not detected at the protein level; these may represent examples of overprediction in genome annotations. A dramatic membrane proteome reorganization was observed, including differential regulation of autotransporters, adhesins, and hemin binding proteins. Particularly noteworthy was the complete membrane proteome coverage, which included expression of all members of the VirB/D4 type IV secretion system, a key virulence factor.« less

The promises of qualitative inquiry.

PubMed

Gergen, Kenneth J; Josselson, Ruthellen; Freeman, Mark

2015-01-01

We address the significance and implications of the formal entry of qualitative inquiry into the American Psychological Association. In our view, the discipline is enriched in new and important ways. Most prominently, the qualitative movement brings with it a pluralist orientation to knowledge and to practices of inquiry. Adding to the traditional view of knowledge as empirically supported theory are research practices congenial with varying accounts of knowledge, including, for example, knowledge as hermeneutic understanding, social construction, and practice-based experience. Added to the goal of prediction are investments in increasing cultural understanding, challenging cultural conventions, and directly fostering social change. The qualitative movement also enriches the discipline as a whole through the special ways in which it inspires new ranges of theory, fosters minority inclusion, and invites interdisciplinary collaboration. Finally, the movement holds promise in terms of the discipline's contribution to society at large. Here we focus on the advantages of knowing with others in addition to about them, and on ways in which qualitative work enhances communication with the society and the world. Realizing these potentials will depend on developments in responsible research and reporting, academic and journal policies, along with the discipline's capacities for appreciating a more comprehensive orientation to inquiry. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Conclusions and Future Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lillibridge, Fred

2012-01-01

Benchmarking, when done properly, offers a lot of promise for higher education units that want to improve how they do business. It is clear that much is known, but still more needs to be learned before it reaches its full potential as a useful tool. Readers of this issue of "New Directions for Institutional Research" have been treated to useful…

Children's understanding of promising, lying, and false belief.

PubMed

Maas, Fay K

2008-07-01

Understanding promising and lying requires an understanding of intention and the ability to interpret mental states. The author examined (a) the extent to which 4- to 6-year-olds focus on the sincerity of the speaker's intention when the 4-to 6-year-olds make judgments about promises and lies and (b) whether false-belief reasoning skills are related to understanding promising and lying. Participants watched videotaped stories and made promise and lie judgments from their own perspective and from the listener-character's perspective. Children also completed false-belief reasoning tasks. Older children made more correct promise judgments from both perspectives. All children made correct lie judgments from the listener's perspective. The author found that Ist-order false-belief reasoning was related to making judgments from the participant's perspective; 2nd-order false-belief reasoning was related to making judgments from the listener-character's perspective. Results suggest that children's understanding of promising and lying moves from a focus on outcome toward a focus on the belief that each utterance is designed to create.

Gravitational-wave astronomy: delivering on the promises

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schutz, B. F.

2018-05-01

Now that LIGO and Virgo have begun to detect gravitational-wave events with regularity, the field of gravitational-wave astronomy is beginning to realize its promise. Binary black holes and, very recently, binary neutron stars have been observed, and we are already learning much from them. The future, with improved sensitivity, more detectors and detectors like LISA in different frequency bands, has even more promise to open a completely hidden side of the Universe to our exploration. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue `The promises of gravitational-wave astronomy'.

Identifying taxonomic and functional surrogates for spring biodiversity conservation.

PubMed

Jyväsjärvi, Jussi; Virtanen, Risto; Ilmonen, Jari; Paasivirta, Lauri; Muotka, Timo

2018-02-27

Surrogate approaches are widely used to estimate overall taxonomic diversity for conservation planning. Surrogate taxa are frequently selected based on rarity or charisma, whereas selection through statistical modeling has been applied rarely. We used boosted-regression-tree models (BRT) fitted to biological data from 165 springs to identify bryophyte and invertebrate surrogates for taxonomic and functional diversity of boreal springs. We focused on these 2 groups because they are well known and abundant in most boreal springs. The best indicators of taxonomic versus functional diversity differed. The bryophyte Bryum weigelii and the chironomid larva Paratrichocladius skirwithensis best indicated taxonomic diversity, whereas the isopod Asellus aquaticus and the chironomid Macropelopia spp. were the best surrogates of functional diversity. In a scoring algorithm for priority-site selection, taxonomic surrogates performed only slightly better than random selection for all spring-dwelling taxa, but they were very effective in representing spring specialists, providing a distinct improvement over random solutions. However, the surrogates for taxonomic diversity represented functional diversity poorly and vice versa. When combined with cross-taxon complementarity analyses, surrogate selection based on statistical modeling provides a promising approach for identifying groundwater-dependent ecosystems of special conservation value, a key requirement of the EU Water Framework Directive. © 2018 Society for Conservation Biology.

VLSI Technology: Impact and Promise. Identifying Emerging Issues and Trends in Technology for Special Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayoumi, Magdy

As part of a 3-year study to identify emerging issues and trends in technology for special education, this paper addresses the implications of very large scale integrated (VLSI) technology. The first section reviews the development of educational technology, particularly microelectronics technology, from the 1950s to the present. The implications…

Understanding the Promise: A Typology of State and Local College Promise Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perna, Laura W.; Leigh, Elaine W.

2018-01-01

Over the past decade, but especially in the past few years, programs with a "promise" label have been advanced at the local, state, and federal levels. To advance understanding of the design, implementation, and impact of the many different versions of emerging programs, policymakers, practitioners, and researchers need an organizing…

Gravitational-wave astronomy: delivering on the promises.

PubMed

Schutz, B F

2018-05-28

Now that LIGO and Virgo have begun to detect gravitational-wave events with regularity, the field of gravitational-wave astronomy is beginning to realize its promise. Binary black holes and, very recently, binary neutron stars have been observed, and we are already learning much from them. The future, with improved sensitivity, more detectors and detectors like LISA in different frequency bands, has even more promise to open a completely hidden side of the Universe to our exploration.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The promises of gravitational-wave astronomy'. © 2018 The Author(s).

Cold atmospheric plasma, a novel promising anti-cancer treatment modality.

PubMed

Yan, Dayun; Sherman, Jonathan H; Keidar, Michael

2017-02-28

Over the past decade, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP), a near room temperature ionized gas has shown its promising application in cancer therapy. Two CAP devices, namely dielectric barrier discharge and plasma jet, show significantly anti-cancer capacity over dozens of cancer cell lines in vitro and several subcutaneous xenograft tumors in vivo. In contrast to conventional anti-cancer approaches and drugs, CAP is a selective anti-cancer treatment modality. Thus far establishing the chemical and molecular mechanism of the anti-cancer capacity of CAP is far from complete. In this review, we provide a comprehensive introduction of the basics of CAP, state of the art research in this field, the primary challenges, and future directions to cancer biologists.

Promises and Pitfalls of Anchoring Vignettes in Health Survey Research

PubMed Central

Verdes-Tennant, Emese; McEniry, Mary; Ispány, Márton

2016-01-01

Data harmonization is a topic of growing importance to demographers, who increasingly conduct domestic or international comparative research. Many self-reported survey items cannot be directly compared across demographic groups or countries because these groups differ in how they use subjective response categories. Anchoring vignettes, already appearing in numerous surveys worldwide, promise to overcome this problem. However, many anchoring vignettes have not been formally evaluated for adherence to the key measurement assumptions of vignette equivalence and response consistency. This article tests these assumptions in some of the most widely fielded anchoring vignettes in the world: the health vignettes in the World Health Organization (WHO) Study on Global AGEing and Adult Health (SAGE) and World Health Survey (WHS) (representing 10 countries; n = 52,388), as well as similar vignettes in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) (n = 4,528). Findings are encouraging regarding adherence to response consistency, but reveal substantial violations of vignette equivalence both cross-nationally and across socioeconomic groups. That is, members of different sociocultural groups appear to interpret vignettes as depicting fundamentally different levels of health. The evaluated anchoring vignettes do not fulfill their promise of providing interpersonally comparable measures of health. Recommendations for improving future implementations of vignettes are discussed. PMID:26335547

The Direct Support Workforce in Community Supports to Individuals with Developmental Disabilities: Issues, Implications, and Promising Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hewitt, Amy; Larson, Sheryl

2007-01-01

Difficulties in finding, keeping, and ensuring the competence of the direct support workforce in community developmental disability services has long been a challenge for individuals, families, providers, and policy makers. Direct support staff recruitment, retention, and competence are widely reported as one of the most significant barriers to…

Promise-based management: the essence of execution.

PubMed

Sull, Donald N; Spinosa, Charles

2007-04-01

Critical initiatives stall for a variety of reasons--employee disengagement, a lack of coordination between functions, complex organizational structures that obscure accountability, and so on. To overcome such obstacles, managers must fundamentally rethink how work gets done. Most of the challenges stem from broken or poorly crafted commitments. That's because every company is, at its heart, a dynamic network of promises made between employees and colleagues, customers, outsourcing partners, or other stakeholders. Executives can overcome many problems in the short-term and foster productive, reliable workforces for the long-term by practicing what the authors call "promise-based management," which involves cultivating and coordinating commitments in a systematic way. Good promises share five qualities: They are public, active, voluntary, explicit, and mission based. To develop and execute an effective promise, the "provider" and the "customer" in the deal should go through three phases of conversation. The first, achieving a meeting of minds, entails exploring the fundamental questions of coordinated effort: What do you mean? Do you understand what I mean? What should I do? What will you do? Who else should we talk to? In the next phase, making it happen, the provider executes on the promise. In the final phase, closing the loop, the customer publicly declares that the provider has either delivered the goods or failed to do so. Leaders must weave and manage their webs of promises with great care-encouraging iterative conversation and making sure commitments are fulfilled reliably. If they do, they can enhance coordination and cooperation among colleagues, build the organizational agility required to seize new business opportunities, and tap employees' entrepreneurial energies.

Personalised Medicine and the Economy of Biotechnological Promise.

PubMed

Sturdy, Steve

2017-04-01

Rather than seek to distinguish hype from legitimate promise, it may be more helpful to think about personalised medicine as embodying a promissory economy which serves both to mobilize resources for research and - partly at least - to determine the ends to which that research is directed. Personalised medicine is a development of the larger promissory economy of medical biotechnology. As such, it systematically conflates public benefit with the pursuit of commercial and especially pharmaceutical interests. Consequently, research and development in personalised medicine tends to favour the production of expensive new treatments over unprofitable forms of prevention or more effective use of older therapies. A rebalancing of research priorities is needed to favour the pursuit of public benefit, even when it does not deliver private profits. This will in turn require sustained reflection, self-criticism and often self-denial on the part of public research funders and the scientists they support.

Inhibition of adenovirus multiplication by short interfering RNAs directly or indirectly targeting the viral DNA replication machinery.

PubMed

Kneidinger, Doris; Ibrišimović, Mirza; Lion, Thomas; Klein, Reinhard

2012-06-01

Human adenoviruses are a common threat to immunocompromised patients, e.g., HIV-positive individuals or solid-organ and, in particular, allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients. Antiviral drugs have a limited effect on adenoviruses, and existing treatment modalities often fail to prevent fatal outcome. Silencing of viral genes by short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) holds a great promise in the treatment of viral infections. The aim of the present study was to identify adenoviral candidate targets for RNA interference-mediated inhibition of adenoviral replication. We investigated the impact of silencing of a set of early, middle, and late viral genes on the replication of adenovirus 5 in vitro. Adenovirus replication was inhibited by siRNAs directed against the adenoviral E1A, DNA polymerase, preterminal protein (pTP), IVa2, hexon, and protease genes. Silencing of early and middle genes was more effective in inhibiting adenovirus multiplication than was silencing of late genes. A siRNA directed against the viral DNA polymerase mRNA decreased viral genome copy numbers and infectious virus progeny by several orders of magnitude. Since silencing of any of the early genes directly or indirectly affected viral DNA synthesis, our data suggest that reducing viral genome copy numbers is a more promising strategy for the treatment of adenoviral infections than is reducing the numbers of proteins necessary for capsid generation. Thus, adenoviral DNA replication was identified as a key target for RNAi-mediated inhibition of adenovirus multiplication. In addition, the E1A transcripts emerged as a second important target, because its knockdown markedly improved the viability of cells at late stages of infection. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Promising medications for cocaine dependence treatment.

PubMed

Somaini, Lorenzo; Donnini, Claudia; Raggi, Maria A; Amore, Mario; Ciccocioppo, Roberto; Saracino, Maria A; Kalluppi, Marsida; Malagoli, Marco; Gerra, Maria L; Gerra, Gilberto

2011-05-01

Cocaine dependence is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and high vulnerability to relapse. Overall, cocaine remains one of the most used illicit drugs in the world. Given the difficulty of achieving sustained recovery, pharmacotherapy of cocaine addiction remains one of the most important clinical challenges. Recent advances in neurobiology, brain imaging and clinical trials suggest that certain medications show promise in the treatment of cocaine addiction. The pharmacotherapeutic approaches for cocaine dependence include medications able to target specific subtypes of dopamine receptors, affect different neurotransmitter systems (i.e. noradrenergic, serotonergic, cholinergic, glutamatergic, GABAergic and opioidergic pathways), and modulate neurological processes. The systematic reviews concerning the pharmacological treatment of cocaine dependence appear to indicate controversial findings and inconclusive results. The aim of future studies should be to identify the effective medications matching the specific needs of patients with specific characteristics, abandoning the strategies extended to the entire population of cocaine dependent patients. In the present review we summarize the current pharmacotherapeutic approaches to the treatment of cocaine dependence with a focus on the new patents.

The promise of a cognitive perspective on jury deliberation.

PubMed

Salerno, Jessica M; Diamond, Shari Seidman

2010-04-01

Despite much psychological research regarding jury decision making, surprisingly little is known about the deliberation process that gives rise to jury verdicts. We review classic jury decision-making research regarding the importance of deliberation and more recent research, investigating deliberation and hung juries, that challenges the view that deliberation does not have an important impact on verdicts. We advocate greater attention to potential cognitive processes during deliberation that might explain the transition between predeliberation preferences and a jury's ultimate verdict. We then review cognitive work in the group context generally, and the jury context specifically, illustrating the promise of a cognitive perspective on jury deliberation. Finally, we identify cognitive phenomena likely to be particularly valuable in illuminating deliberation behavior.

Young children mostly keep, and expect others to keep, their promises.

PubMed

Kanngiesser, Patricia; Köymen, Bahar; Tomasello, Michael

2017-07-01

Promises are speech acts that create an obligation to do the promised action. In three studies, we investigated whether 3- and 5-year-olds (N=278) understand the normative implications of promising in prosocial interactions. In Study 1, children helped a partner who promised to share stickers. When the partner failed to uphold the promise, 3- and 5-year-olds protested and referred to promise norms. In Study 2, when children in this same age range were asked to promise to continue a cleaning task-and they agreed-they persisted longer on the task and mentioned their obligation more frequently than without such a promise. They also persisted longer after a promise than after a cleaning reminder (Study 3). In prosocial interactions, thus, young children feel a normative obligation to keep their promises and expect others to keep their promises as well. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Realizing the promises of marine biotechnology.

PubMed

Luiten, Esther E M; Akkerman, Ida; Koulman, Albert; Kamermans, Pauline; Reith, Hans; Barbosa, Maria J; Sipkema, Detmer; Wijffels, René H

2003-07-01

High-quality research in the field of marine biotechnology is one of the key-factors for successful innovation in exploiting the vast diversity of marine life. However, fascinating scientific research with promising results and claims on promising potential applications (e.g. for pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements, (feed-)products for aquaculture and bioremediation solutions) is not the only factor to realise the commercial applications of marine biotechnology. What else is needed to exploit the promising potential of marine biotechnology and to create new industrial possibilities? In the study project 'Ocean Farming-Sustainable exploitation of marine organisms', we explore the possibilities of marine organisms to fulfill needs, such as safe and healthy food, industrial (raw) materials and renewable energy in a sustainable way. One of the three design groups is envisioning the future of strong land-based 'marine' market chains. Marine biotechnology is one of the foci of attention in this design group. This article provides a model of future-oriented thinking in which a variety of experts actively participate.

Direct conversion technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Massier, P. F.; Bankston, C. P.; Fabris, G.; Kirol, L. D.

1988-01-01

The overall objective of the Direct Conversion Technology task is to develop an experimentally verified technology base for promising direct thermal-to-electric energy conversion systems that have potential application for energy conservation in the end-use sectors. This report contains progress of research on the Alkali Metal Thermal-to-Electric Converter (AMTEC), and on the Two-Phase Liquid-Metal MHD Electrical Generator (LMMHD) for the period January 1988 through December 1988. Research on these concepts was initiated during October 1987. In addition, status reviews and assessments are presented for thermomagnetic converter concepts and for thermoelastic converters (Nitinol heat engines). Reports prepared on previous occasions contain discussions on the following other direct conversion concepts: thermoelectric, pyroelectric, thermionic thermophotovoltaic and thermoacoustic; and also, more complete discussions of AMTEC and LMMHD systems. A tabulated summary of the various systems which have been reviewed thus far has been prepared. Some of the important technical research needs are listed and a schematic of each system is shown.

The Promise of a College Scholarship Transforms a District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritter, Gary W.; Ash, Jennifer

2016-01-01

Promise programs are place-based scholarships, generally tied to a city or school district, offering near-universal access to all living in the "place." While Promise programs share some characteristics with other scholarship programs, they're unique because they seek to change communities and schools. Underlying such promise programs is…

Maternity care and liability: least promising policy strategies for improvement.

PubMed

Sakala, Carol; Yang, Y Tony; Corry, Maureen P

2013-01-01

The present liability system is not serving well childbearing women and newborns, maternity care clinicians, or those who pay for maternity care. Examination of evidence about the impact of this system on maternity care led us to identify seven aims for a high-functioning liability system in this clinical context. Herein, we identify policy strategies that are unlikely to meet the proposed criteria and contribute to needed improvements. A companion paper considers more promising strategies. We considered whether 25 strategies that have been used or proposed for improvement have met or could meet the seven aims. We used a best available evidence approach and drew on more recent empirical legal studies and health services research about maternity care and liability, when available, and considered other studies when unavailable. Fifteen strategies seem to have little potential to improve liability matters in maternity care. Despite support for capping non-economic damages, a series of studies has found a modest impact at best on maternity care. Maternity-specific studies also do not lend support to tort reforms collectively and several other specific tort reforms. Some tort alternative and liability insurance reform strategies have narrow aims and are not policy priorities. Caps on non-economic damages and other tort reforms have narrow aims and have been marginally effective at best in the context of maternity care. Several other possible reforms similarly are not promising. Continued focus on these strategies is unlikely to result in the high-performing liability system that maternity care stakeholders need. Copyright © 2013 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Community Health Workers in the United States: Challenges in Identifying, Surveying, and Supporting the Workforce.

PubMed

Sabo, Samantha; Allen, Caitlin G; Sutkowi, Katherine; Wennerstrom, Ashley

2017-12-01

Community health workers (CHWs) are members of a growing profession in the United States. Studying this dynamic labor force is challenging, in part because its members have more than 100 different job titles. The demand for timely, accurate information about CHWs is increasing as the profession gains recognition for its ability to improve health outcomes and reduce costs. Although numerous surveys of CHWs have been conducted, the field lacks well-delineated methods for gaining access to this hard-to-identify workforce. We outline methods for surveying CHWs and promising approaches to engage the workforce and other stakeholders in conducting local, state, and national studies. We also highlight successful strategies to overcome challenges in CHW surveys and future directions for surveying the field.

Personalised Medicine and the Economy of Biotechnological Promise

PubMed Central

Sturdy, Steve

2017-01-01

Rather than seek to distinguish hype from legitimate promise, it may be more helpful to think about personalised medicine as embodying a promissory economy which serves both to mobilize resources for research and — partly at least — to determine the ends to which that research is directed. Personalised medicine is a development of the larger promissory economy of medical biotechnology. As such, it systematically conflates public benefit with the pursuit of commercial and especially pharmaceutical interests. Consequently, research and development in personalised medicine tends to favour the production of expensive new treatments over unprofitable forms of prevention or more effective use of older therapies. A rebalancing of research priorities is needed to favour the pursuit of public benefit, even when it does not deliver private profits. This will in turn require sustained reflection, self-criticism and often self-denial on the part of public research funders and the scientists they support. PMID:28517983

Discovery of novel drugs for promising targets.

PubMed

Martell, Robert E; Brooks, David G; Wang, Yan; Wilcoxen, Keith

2013-09-01

Once a promising drug target is identified, the steps to actually discover and optimize a drug are diverse and challenging. The goal of this study was to provide a road map to navigate drug discovery. Review general steps for drug discovery and provide illustrating references. A number of approaches are available to enhance and accelerate target identification and validation. Consideration of a variety of potential mechanisms of action of potential drugs can guide discovery efforts. The hit to lead stage may involve techniques such as high-throughput screening, fragment-based screening, and structure-based design, with informatics playing an ever-increasing role. Biologically relevant screening models are discussed, including cell lines, 3-dimensional culture, and in vivo screening. The process of enabling human studies for an investigational drug is also discussed. Drug discovery is a complex process that has significantly evolved in recent years. © 2013 Elsevier HS Journals, Inc. All rights reserved.

NLEAP/GIS approach for identifying and mitigating regional nitrate-nitrogen leaching

USGS Publications Warehouse

Shaffer, M.J.; Hall, M.D.; Wylie, B.K.; Wagner, D.G.; Corwin, D.L.; Loague, K.

1996-01-01

Improved simulation-based methodology is needed to help identify broad geographical areas where potential NO3-N leaching may be occurring from agriculture and suggest management alternatives that minimize the problem. The Nitrate Leaching and Economic Analysis Package (NLEAP) model was applied to estimate regional NO3-N leaching in eastern Colorado. Results show that a combined NLEAP/GIS technology can be used to identify potential NO3-N hot spots in shallow alluvial aquifers under irrigated agriculture. The NLEAP NO3-N Leached (NL) index provided the most promising single index followed by NO3-N Available for Leaching (NAL). The same combined technology also shows promise in identifying Best Management Practice (BMP) methods that help minimize NO3-N leaching in vulnerable areas. Future plans call for linkage of the NLEAP/GIS procedures with groundwater modeling to establish a mechanistic analysis of agriculture-aquifer interactions at a regional scale.

Quasi-adiabatic calorimeter for direct electrocaloric measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sanlialp, Mehmet; Shvartsman, Vladimir V.; Faye, Romain; Karabasov, Maksim O.; Molin, Christian; Gebhardt, Sylvia; Defay, Emmanuel; Lupascu, Doru C.

2018-03-01

The electrocaloric effect (ECE) in ferroelectric materials is a promising candidate for small, effective, low cost, and environmentally friendly solid state cooling applications. Instead of the commonly used indirect estimates based on Maxwell's relations, direct measurements of the ECE are required to obtain reliable values. In this work, we report on a custom-made quasi-adiabatic calorimeter for direct ECE measurements. The ECE is measured for two promising lead-free materials: Ba(Zr0.12Ti0.88)O3 and Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 bulk ceramics. Adiabatic temperature changes of ΔTEC = 0.5 K at 355 K and ΔTEC = 0.3 K at 314 K were achieved under the application of an electric field of 2 kV/mm for the Ba(Zr0.12Ti0.88)O3 and Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 samples, respectively. The quasi-adiabatic ECE measurements reliably match other direct EC measurements using a differential scanning calorimeter or an infrared camera. The data are compared to indirect EC estimations based on Maxwell's relations and show that the indirect measurements typically underestimate the effect to a certain degree.

The Promise and Reality of Formative Assessment Practice in a Continuous Assessment Scheme: The Case of Trinidad and Tobago

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Lisle, Jerome

2015-01-01

Continuous Assessment (CA) systems are externally directed, curriculum-based assessment schemes used for both summative and formative purposes within classrooms. CA has been implemented as national policy in several postcolonial developing countries and is believed to hold great promise for improving education outcomes. This theory-driven…

Nanotechnology: Its Promise and Challenges

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Colvin, Vicki

2009-05-14

Vicki Colvin of Rice University talks about how nanotechnology-enabled systems, with dimensions on the scale of a billionth of a meter, offer great promise for solving difficult social problems and creating enormous possibilities.

The power and promise of applying genomics to honey bee health.

PubMed

Grozinger, Christina M; Robinson, Gene E

2015-08-01

New genomic tools and resources are now being used to both understand honey bee health and develop tools to better manage it. Here, we describe the use of genomic approaches to identify and characterize bee parasites and pathogens, examine interactions among these parasites and pathogens, between them and their bee hosts, and to identify genetic markers for improved breeding of more resilient bee stocks. We also discuss several new genomic techniques that can be used to more efficiently study, monitor and improve bee health. In the case of using RNAi-based technologies to mitigate diseases in bee populations, we highlight advantages, disadvantages and strategies to reduce risk. The increased use of genomic analytical tools and manipulative technologies has already led to significant advances, and holds great promise for improvements in the health of honey bees and other critical pollinator species.

The power and promise of applying genomics to honey bee health

PubMed Central

Robinson, Gene E.

2015-01-01

New genomic tools and resources are now being used to both understand honey bee health and develop tools to better manage it. Here, we describe the use of genomic approaches to identify and characterize bee parasites and pathogens, examine interactions among these parasites and pathogens, between them and their bee hosts, and to identify genetic markers for improved breeding of more resilient bee stocks. We also discuss several new genomic techniques that can be used to more efficiently study, monitor and improve bee health. In the case of using RNAi-based technologies to mitigate diseases in bee populations, we highlight advantages, disadvantages and strategies to reduce risk. The increased use of genomic analytical tools and manipulative technologies has already led to significant advances, and holds great promise for improvements in the health of honey bees and other critical pollinator species. PMID:26273565

Engaging Women in Computer Science and Engineering: Promising Practices for Promoting Gender Equity in Undergraduate Research Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Karen A.; Fann, Amy J.; Misa-Escalante, Kimberly O.

2011-01-01

Building on research that identifies and addresses issues of women's underrepresentation in computing, this article describes promising practices in undergraduate research experiences that promote women's long-term interest in computer science and engineering. Specifically, this article explores whether and how REU programs include programmatic…

When a desired home death does not occur: the consequences of broken promises.

PubMed

Topf, Lorrianne; Robinson, Carole A; Bottorff, Joan L

2013-08-01

Evidence shows that most people prefer to die at home; however, the majority of expected deaths occur away from home. Although home deaths require family caregiver (FCG) commitment and care, we understand very little about their experiences in this context. The study's aim was to gain a better understanding of the experiences of FCGs when circumstances prevented a desired home death for a family member with advanced cancer. An interpretive description approach was used. Data collection involved semistructured interviews. Field notes and reflective journaling aided interpretive and analytical processes. The study was conducted in western Canada and included 18 bereaved FCGs. FCGs were committed to the promises made to care for their family member at home until death. These promises were challenged by a lack of preparedness for caregiving, difficulty accessing professional support and information, and frustration with the inadequate help they received. The events that precipitated dying family members leaving their home for hospital or hospice were unexpected and often influenced by FCGs' lack of situation-specific knowledge and ability to cope with complex caregiving responsibilities. FCGs found it extremely challenging to reconcile with breaking their promise to care at home until death and many were unable to do so. FCGs' despair about not being able to keep their promise for a home death was related to complicated bereavement. Prospective studies of the experiences of FCGs who are aiming for home deaths are needed to identify both short- and long-term interventions to effectively support death at home.

High-throughput matrix screening identifies synergistic and antagonistic antimalarial drug combinations

PubMed Central

Mott, Bryan T.; Eastman, Richard T.; Guha, Rajarshi; Sherlach, Katy S.; Siriwardana, Amila; Shinn, Paul; McKnight, Crystal; Michael, Sam; Lacerda-Queiroz, Norinne; Patel, Paresma R.; Khine, Pwint; Sun, Hongmao; Kasbekar, Monica; Aghdam, Nima; Fontaine, Shaun D.; Liu, Dongbo; Mierzwa, Tim; Mathews-Griner, Lesley A.; Ferrer, Marc; Renslo, Adam R.; Inglese, James; Yuan, Jing; Roepe, Paul D.; Su, Xin-zhuan; Thomas, Craig J.

2015-01-01

Drug resistance in Plasmodium parasites is a constant threat. Novel therapeutics, especially new drug combinations, must be identified at a faster rate. In response to the urgent need for new antimalarial drug combinations we screened a large collection of approved and investigational drugs, tested 13,910 drug pairs, and identified many promising antimalarial drug combinations. The activity of known antimalarial drug regimens was confirmed and a myriad of new classes of positively interacting drug pairings were discovered. Network and clustering analyses reinforced established mechanistic relationships for known drug combinations and identified several novel mechanistic hypotheses. From eleven screens comprising >4,600 combinations per parasite strain (including duplicates) we further investigated interactions between approved antimalarials, calcium homeostasis modulators, and inhibitors of phosphatidylinositide 3-kinases (PI3K) and the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). These studies highlight important targets and pathways and provide promising leads for clinically actionable antimalarial therapy. PMID:26403635

Collaborative project to identify direct and distant pedigree relationships in apple

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Pedigree information is fundamentally important in breeding programs, enabling breeders to know the source of valuable attributes and underlying alleles and to enlarge genetic diversity in a directed way. Many apple cultivars are related to each other through both recent and distant common ancestors...

Si3 AlP: A New Promising Material for Solar Cell Absorber

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Jihui; Zhai, Yingteng; Liu, Hengrui; Xiang, Hongjun; Gong, Xingao; Wei, Suhuai

2014-03-01

First-principles calculations are performed to study the structural and optoelectronic properties of the newly synthesized nonisovalent and lattice-matched (Si2)0.6(AlP)0.4 alloy [T. Watkins et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 16212.] The most stable structure of Si3AlP is a superlattice along the <111>direction with separated AlP and Si layers, which has a similar optical absorption spectrum to silicon. The ordered C1c1-Si3AlP is found to be the most stable one among all the structures with -AlPSi3- motifs, in agreement with the experimental suggestions. We predict that C1c1-Si3AlP has good optical properties, i.e., it has a larger fundamental band gap and a smaller direct band gap than Si, thus it has much higher absorption in the visible light region, making it a promising candidate for improving the performance of the existing Si-based solar cells.

CRISPR-Cas9 therapeutics in cancer: promising strategies and present challenges.

PubMed

Yi, Lang; Li, Jinming

2016-12-01

Cancer is characterized by multiple genetic and epigenetic alterations that drive malignant cell proliferation and confer chemoresistance. The ability to correct or ablate such mutations holds immense promise for combating cancer. Recently, because of its high efficiency and accuracy, the CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technique has been widely used in cancer therapeutic explorations. Several studies used CRISPR-Cas9 to directly target cancer cell genomic DNA in cellular and animal cancer models which have shown therapeutic potential in expanding our anticancer protocols. Moreover, CRISPR-Cas9 can also be employed to fight oncogenic infections, explore anticancer drugs, and engineer immune cells and oncolytic viruses for cancer immunotherapeutic applications. Here, we summarize these preclinical CRISPR-Cas9-based therapeutic strategies against cancer, and discuss the challenges and improvements in translating therapeutic CRISPR-Cas9 into clinical use, which will facilitate better application of this technique in cancer research. Further, we propose potential directions of the CRISPR-Cas9 system in cancer therapy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Recent directions in personalised acute respiratory distress syndrome medicine.

PubMed

Jabaudon, Matthieu; Blondonnet, Raiko; Audard, Jules; Fournet, Marianne; Godet, Thomas; Sapin, Vincent; Constantin, Jean-Michel

2018-06-01

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is heterogeneous by definition and patient response varies depending on underlying biology and their severity of illness. Although ARDS subtypes have been identified with different prognoses in past studies, the concept of phenotypes or endotypes does not extend to the clinical definition of ARDS. This has possibly hampered the development of therapeutic interventions that target select biological mechanisms of ARDS. Recently, a major advance may have been achieved as it may now be possible to identify ARDS subtypes that may confer different responses to therapy. The aim of personalised medicine is to identify, select, and test therapies that are most likely to be associated with a favourable outcome in a specific patient. Several promising approaches to ARDS subtypes capable of predicting therapeutic response, and not just prognosis, are highlighted in this perspective paper. An overview is also provided of current and future directions regarding the provision of personalised ARDS medicine. The importance of delivering the right care, at the right time, to the right patient, is emphasised. Copyright © 2018 Société française d'anesthésie et de réanimation (Sfar). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Establishing an ISO 10001-based promise in inpatients care.

PubMed

Khan, Mohammad Ashiqur Rahman; Karapetrovic, Stanislav

2015-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore ISO 10001:2007 in planning, designing and developing a customer satisfaction promise (CSP) intended for inpatients care. Through meetings and interviews with research participants, who included a program manager, unit managers and registered nurses, information about potential promises and their implementation was obtained and analyzed. A number of promises were drafted and one was finally selected to be developed as a CSP. Applying the standard required adaptation and novel interpretation. Additionally, ISO 10002:2004 (Clause 7) was used to design the feedback handling activities. A promise initially chosen for development turned out to be difficult to implement, experience that helped in selecting and developing the final promise. Research participants found the ISO 10001-based method useful and comprehensible. This paper presents a specific health care example of how to adapt a standard's guideline in establishing customer promises. The authors show how a promise can be used in alleviating an existing issue (i.e. communication between carers and patients). The learning can be beneficial in various health care settings. To the knowledge, this paper shows the first example of applying ISO 10001:2007 in a health care case. A few activities suggested by the standard are further detailed, and a new activity is introduced. The integrated use of ISO 10001:2007 and 10002:2004 is presented and how one can be "augmented" by the other is demonstrated.

Agent-Based Modeling of Chronic Diseases: A Narrative Review and Future Research Directions.

PubMed

Li, Yan; Lawley, Mark A; Siscovick, David S; Zhang, Donglan; Pagán, José A

2016-05-26

The United States is experiencing an epidemic of chronic disease. As the US population ages, health care providers and policy makers urgently need decision models that provide systematic, credible prediction regarding the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases to improve population health management and medical decision-making. Agent-based modeling is a promising systems science approach that can model complex interactions and processes related to chronic health conditions, such as adaptive behaviors, feedback loops, and contextual effects. This article introduces agent-based modeling by providing a narrative review of agent-based models of chronic disease and identifying the characteristics of various chronic health conditions that must be taken into account to build effective clinical- and policy-relevant models. We also identify barriers to adopting agent-based models to study chronic diseases. Finally, we discuss future research directions of agent-based modeling applied to problems related to specific chronic health conditions.

Promise Neighborhoods: The Promise and Politics of Community Capacity Building as Urban School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horsford, Sonya Douglass; Sampson, Carrie

2014-01-01

The purpose of this inquiry is to consider how the U.S. Department of Education's Promise Neighborhoods (PNs) program can improve persistently low-achieving urban schools by making their "neighborhoods whole again" through community capacity building for education reform. As the "first federal initiative to put education at the…

Work-Life Differences and Outcomes for Agency and Consumer-Directed Home-Care Workers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benjamin, A.E.; Matthias, Ruth E.

2004-01-01

Purpose. Research on home-care outcomes has highlighted the promise of consumer-directed models that rely on recipients rather than agencies to arrange and direct services. However, there has been little research on workers employed directly by recipients. This study examined differences in work-life and worker outcomes between workers in…

Research on Self-Management Techniques Used by Students with Disabilities in General Education Settings: A Promise Fulfilled?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDougall, Dennis; Skouge, Jim; Farrell, Anthony; Hoff, Kathy

2006-01-01

This comprehensive review synthesizes findings from 43 studies in which students with disabilities utilized behavioral self-management (BSM) techniques in general education settings. Findings suggest that the long-standing promise of BSM as an inclusive technique has been partially fulfilled. The review identifies strengths and limitations of BSM…

BMI-1, a promising therapeutic target for human cancer

PubMed Central

WANG, MIN-CONG; LI, CHUN-LI; CUI, JIE; JIAO, MIN; WU, TAO; JING, LI; NAN, KE-JUN

2015-01-01

BMI-1 oncogene is a member of the polycomb-group gene family and a transcriptional repressor. Overexpression of BMI-1 has been identified in various human cancer tissues and is known to be involved in cancer cell proliferation, cell invasion, distant metastasis, chemosensitivity and patient survival. Accumulating evidence has revealed that BMI-1 is also involved in the regulation of self-renewal, differentiation and tumor initiation of cancer stem cells (CSCs). However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these biological processes remain unclear. The present review summarized the function of BMI-1 in different human cancer types and CSCs, and discussed the signaling pathways in which BMI-1 is potentially involved. In conclusion, BMI-1 may represent a promising target for the prevention and therapy of various cancer types. PMID:26622537

The Promise of Neuroprotective Agents in Parkinson’s Disease

PubMed Central

Seidl, Stacey E.; Potashkin, Judith A.

2011-01-01

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra of the brain. Since there are limited treatment options for PD, neuroprotective agents are currently being tested as a means to slow disease progression. Agents targeting oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and inflammation are prime candidates for neuroprotection. This review identifies Rasagiline, Minocycline, and creatine, as the most promising neuroprotective agents for PD, and they are all currently in phase III trials. Other agents possessing protective characteristics in delaying PD include stimulants, vitamins, supplements, and other drugs. Additionally, combination therapies also show benefits in slowing PD progression. The identification of neuroprotective agents for PD provides us with therapeutic opportunities for modifying the course of disease progression and, perhaps, reducing the risk of onset when preclinical biomarkers become available. PMID:22125548

The promise of advanced technology for future air transports

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bower, R. E.

1978-01-01

Progress in all weather 4-D navigation and wake vortex attenuation research is discussed and the concept of time based metering of aircraft is recommended for increased emphasis. The far term advances in aircraft efficiency were shown to be skin friction reduction and advanced configuration types. The promise of very large aircraft, possibly all wing aircraft is discussed, as is an advanced concept for an aerial relay transportation system. Very significant technological developments were identified that can improve supersonic transport performance and reduce noise. The hypersonic transport was proposed as the ultimate step in air transportation in the atmosphere. Progress in the key technology areas of propulsion and structures was reviewed. Finally, the impact of alternate fuels on future air transports was considered and shown not to be a growth constraint.

Paediatric stroke: pressing issues and promising directions.

PubMed

Kirton, Adam; deVeber, Gabrielle

2015-01-01

Stroke occurs across the lifespan with unique issues in the fetus, neonate, and child. The past decade has seen substantial advances in paediatric stroke research and clinical care, but many unanswered questions and controversies remain. The pathobiology of perinatal stroke needs to be better understood if prevention strategies are to be realised. Similarly, enhanced understanding of the mechanisms underlying childhood stroke, including cerebral arteriopathies, could inform the development of mechanism-specific treatments. Emerging clinical trials, including studies of neonatal sinovenous thrombosis and childhood arterial stroke, offer the hope of evidence-based treatment options in the near future. Early recognition of stroke in children is a key educational target for both the public and health-care professionals, and has translational potential to advance the application of neuroprotective, thrombolytic, and antithrombotic interventions and rehabilitation strategies to the earliest possible timepoints after stroke onset, improving outcomes and quality of life for affected children and their families. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Final validation of the ProMisE molecular classifier for endometrial carcinoma in a large population-based case series.

PubMed

Kommoss, S; McConechy, M K; Kommoss, F; Leung, S; Bunz, A; Magrill, J; Britton, H; Kommoss, F; Grevenkamp, F; Karnezis, A; Yang, W; Lum, A; Krämer, B; Taran, F; Staebler, A; Lax, S; Brucker, S Y; Huntsman, D G; Gilks, C B; McAlpine, J N; Talhouk, A

2018-05-01

We have previously developed and confirmed a pragmatic molecular classifier for endometrial cancers; ProMisE (Proactive Molecular Risk Classifier for Endometrial Cancer). Inspired by the Cancer Genome Atlas, ProMisE identifies four prognostically distinct molecular subtypes and can be applied to diagnostic specimens (biopsy/curettings) enabling earlier informed decision-making. We have strictly adhered to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) guidelines for the development of genomic biomarkers, and herein present the final validation step of a locked-down classifier before clinical application. We assessed a retrospective cohort of women from the Tübingen University Women's Hospital treated for endometrial carcinoma between 2003 and 2013. Primary outcomes of overall, disease-specific, and progression-free survival were evaluated for clinical, pathological, and molecular features. Complete clinical and molecular data were evaluable from 452 women. Patient age ranged from 29 to 93 (median 65) years, and 87.8% cases were endometrioid histotype. Grade distribution included 282 (62.4%) G1, 75 (16.6%) G2, and 95 (21.0%) G3 tumors. 276 (61.1%) patients had stage IA disease, with the remaining stage IB [89 (19.7%)], stage II [26 (5.8%)], and stage III/IV [61 (13.5%)]. ProMisE molecular classification yielded 127 (28.1%) MMR-D, 42 (9.3%) POLE, 55 (12.2%) p53abn, and 228 (50.4%) p53wt. ProMisE was a prognostic marker for progression-free (P = 0.001) and disease-specific (P = 0.03) survival even after adjusting for known risk factors. Concordance between diagnostic and surgical specimens was highly favorable; accuracy 0.91, κ 0.88. We have developed, confirmed, and now validated a pragmatic molecular classification tool (ProMisE) that provides consistent categorization of tumors and identifies four distinct prognostic molecular subtypes. ProMisE can be applied to diagnostic samples and thus could be used to inform surgical procedure(s) and/or need for adjuvant therapy

The interleukin-23/interleukin-17 immune axis as a promising new target in the treatment of spondyloarthritis.

PubMed

Yeremenko, Nataliya; Paramarta, Jacqueline E; Baeten, Dominique

2014-07-01

Various novel therapies for spondyloarthritis (SpA) are currently under development. In this review, we discuss the scientific rational to target the interleukin (IL)-23/IL-17 axis in SpA and give an overview of the proof-of-concept trials with drugs directed towards this axis. Cumulative evidence from genetics (e.g. the strong genetic association with the IL-23 receptor gene), in-vitro models (e.g. the increased IL-23 production upon HLA-B27 misfolding), human expression studies (e.g. the expansion of IL-17 producing innate cells in SpA) and animal models (e.g. the increased IL-17 production in HLA-B27 transgenic rats) strongly supports the involvement of the IL-23/IL-17 axis in the pathogenesis of SpA. Ustekinumab (a monoclonal antibody directed against the common p40 subunit of IL-23 and IL-12), secukinumab, ixekizumab (both monoclonal antibodies directed against IL-17A), and brodalumab a monoclonal antibody against the IL-17RA receptor) have been recently used in proof-of-concept and randomized trials in the ankylosing spondylitis and/or psoriatic arthritis subforms of SpA, with overall very promising clinical efficacy. The first results for novel drugs blocking key cytokines in the IL-23/IL-17 axis are promising in SpA and more novel compounds are upcoming. This will teach us more on the role of the IL-23/IL-17 axis in the pathophysiology of SpA.

Telepsychiatry: Promise, potential, and challenges

PubMed Central

Malhotra, Savita; Chakrabarti, Subho; Shah, Ruchita

2013-01-01

Despite the high prevalence and potentially disabling consequences of mental disorders, specialized mental health services are extremely deficient, leading to the so-called ‘Mental Health Gap’. Moreover, the services are concentrated in the urban areas, further worsening the rural-urban and tertiary primary care divide. Strengthening of and expanding the existing human resources and infrastructure, and integrating mental health into primary care appear to be the two major solutions. However, both the strategies are riddled with logistic difficulties and have a long gestation period. In such a scenario, telepsychiatry or e-mental health, defined as the use of information and communication technology to provide or support psychiatric services across distances, appears to be a promising answer. Due to its enormous potential, a review of the existing literature becomes imperative. An extensive search of literature was carried out and has been presented to delineate the modes of communication, acceptability and satisfaction, reliability, outcomes, cost-effectiveness, and legal and ethical challenges related to telepsychiatry. Telepsychiatry has been applied for direct patient care (diagnosis and management), consultation, and training, education, and research purposes. Both real-time, live interaction (synchronous) and store–forward (asynchronous) types of technologies have been used for these purposes. A growing amount of literature shows that training, supervision, and consultation by specialists to primary care physicians through telepsychiatry has several advantages. In this background, we have further focused on the models of telepsychiatry best suited for India, considering that mental health care can be integrated into primary care and taken to the doorstep of patients in the community. PMID:23441027

Directional Solidification and Mechanical Properties of NiAl-NiAlTa Alloys

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, D. R.; Chen, X. F.; Oliver, B. F.; Noebe, R. D.; Whittenberger, J. D.

1995-01-01

Directional solidification of eutectic alloys is a promising technique for producing in-situ composite materials exhibiting a balance of properties. Consequently, the microstructure, creep strength and fracture toughness of directionally solidified NiAl-NiAlTa alloys were investigated. Directional solidification was performed by containerless processing techniques to minimize alloy contamination. The eutectic composition was found to be NiAl-15.5 at% Ta and well-aligned microstructures were produced at this composition. A near-eutectic alloy of NiAl-14.5Ta was also investigated. Directional solidification of the near-eutectic composition resulted in microstructures consisting of NiAl dendrites surrounded by aligned eutectic regions. The off-eutectic alloy exhibited promising compressive creep strengths compared to other NiAl-based intermetallics, while preliminary testing indicated that the eutectic alloy was competitive with Ni-base single crystal superalloys. The room temperature toughness of these two-phase alloys was similar to that of polycrystalline NiAl even with the presence of the brittle Laves phase NiAlTa.

Identifying future directions for subsurface hydrocarbon migration research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leifer, I.; Clark, J. F.; Luyendyk, B.; Valentine, D.

Subsurface hydrocarbon migration is important for understanding the input and impacts of natural hydrocarbon seepage on the environment. Great uncertainties remain in most aspects of hydrocarbon migration, including some basic mechanisms of this four-phase flow of tar, oil, water, and gas through the complex fracture-network geometry particularly since the phases span a wide range of properties. Academic, government, and industry representatives recently attended a workshop to identify the areas of greatest need for future research in shallow hydrocarbon migration.Novel approaches such as studying temporal and spatial seepage variations and analogous geofluid systems (e.g., geysers and trickle beds) allow deductions of subsurface processes and structures that remain largely unclear. Unique complexities exist in hydrocarbon migration due to its multiphase flow and complex geometry, including in-situ biological weathering. Furthermore, many aspects of the role of hydrocarbons (positive and negative) in the environment are poorly understood, including how they enter the food chain (respiration, consumption, etc.) and “percolate” to higher trophic levels. But understanding these ecological impacts requires knowledge of the emissions' temporal and spatial variability and trajectories.

Strategies to design clinical studies to identify predictive biomarkers in cancer research.

PubMed

Perez-Gracia, Jose Luis; Sanmamed, Miguel F; Bosch, Ana; Patiño-Garcia, Ana; Schalper, Kurt A; Segura, Victor; Bellmunt, Joaquim; Tabernero, Josep; Sweeney, Christopher J; Choueiri, Toni K; Martín, Miguel; Fusco, Juan Pablo; Rodriguez-Ruiz, Maria Esperanza; Calvo, Alfonso; Prior, Celia; Paz-Ares, Luis; Pio, Ruben; Gonzalez-Billalabeitia, Enrique; Gonzalez Hernandez, Alvaro; Páez, David; Piulats, Jose María; Gurpide, Alfonso; Andueza, Mapi; de Velasco, Guillermo; Pazo, Roberto; Grande, Enrique; Nicolas, Pilar; Abad-Santos, Francisco; Garcia-Donas, Jesus; Castellano, Daniel; Pajares, María J; Suarez, Cristina; Colomer, Ramon; Montuenga, Luis M; Melero, Ignacio

2017-02-01

The discovery of reliable biomarkers to predict efficacy and toxicity of anticancer drugs remains one of the key challenges in cancer research. Despite its relevance, no efficient study designs to identify promising candidate biomarkers have been established. This has led to the proliferation of a myriad of exploratory studies using dissimilar strategies, most of which fail to identify any promising targets and are seldom validated. The lack of a proper methodology also determines that many anti-cancer drugs are developed below their potential, due to failure to identify predictive biomarkers. While some drugs will be systematically administered to many patients who will not benefit from them, leading to unnecessary toxicities and costs, others will never reach registration due to our inability to identify the specific patient population in which they are active. Despite these drawbacks, a limited number of outstanding predictive biomarkers have been successfully identified and validated, and have changed the standard practice of oncology. In this manuscript, a multidisciplinary panel reviews how those key biomarkers were identified and, based on those experiences, proposes a methodological framework-the DESIGN guidelines-to standardize the clinical design of biomarker identification studies and to develop future research in this pivotal field. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Genetic Tools for the Industrially Promising Methanotroph Methylomicrobium buryatense

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Puri, AW; Owen, S; Chu, F

2015-02-10

Aerobic methanotrophs oxidize methane at ambient temperatures and pressures and are therefore attractive systems for methane-based bioconversions. In this work, we developed and validated genetic tools for Methylomicrobium buryatense, a haloalkaliphilic gammaproteobacterial (type I) methanotroph. M. buryatense was isolated directly on natural gas and grows robustly in pure culture with a 3-h doubling time, enabling rapid genetic manipulation compared to many other methanotrophic species. As a proof of concept, we used a sucrose counterselection system to eliminate glycogen production in M. buryatense by constructing unmarked deletions in two redundant glycogen synthase genes. We also selected for a more genetically tractablemore » variant strain that can be conjugated with small incompatibility group P (IncP)-based broad-host-range vectors and determined that this capability is due to loss of the native plasmid. These tools make M. buryatense a promising model system for studying aerobic methanotroph physiology and enable metabolic engineering in this bacterium for industrial biocatalysis of methane.« less

Neuromodulation interventions for addictive disorders: challenges, promise, and roadmap for future research.

PubMed

Spagnolo, Primavera A; Goldman, David

2017-05-01

Addictive disorders are a major public health concern, associated with high relapse rates, significant disability and substantial mortality. Unfortunately, current interventions are only modestly effective. Preclinical studies as well as human neuroimaging studies have provided strong evidence that the observable behaviours that characterize the addiction phenotype, such as compulsive drug consumption, impaired self-control, and behavioural inflexibility, reflect underlying dysregulation and malfunction in specific neural circuits. These developments have been accompanied by advances in neuromodulation interventions, both invasive as deep brain stimulation, and non-invasive such as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation. These interventions appear particularly promising as they may not only allow us to probe affected brain circuits in addictive disorders, but also seem to have unique therapeutic applications to directly target and remodel impaired circuits. However, the available literature is still relatively small and sparse, and the long-term safety and efficacy of these interventions need to be confirmed. Here we review the literature on the use of neuromodulation in addictive disorders to highlight progress limitations with the aim to suggest future directions for this field. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain 2016. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the United States.

Rapid identification of pathogens directly from blood culture bottles by Bruker matrix-assisted laser desorption laser ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry versus routine methods.

PubMed

Jamal, Wafaa; Saleem, Rola; Rotimi, Vincent O

2013-08-01

The use of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) for identification of microorganisms directly from blood culture is an exciting dimension to the microbiologists. We evaluated the performance of Bruker SepsiTyper kit™ (STK) for direct identification of bacteria from positive blood culture. This was done in parallel with conventional methods. Nonrepetitive positive blood cultures from 160 consecutive patients were prospectively evaluated by both methods. Of 160 positive blood cultures, the STK identified 114 (75.6%) isolates and routine conventional method 150 (93%). Thirty-six isolates were misidentified or not identified by the kit. Of these, 5 had score of >2.000 and 31 had an unreliable low score of <1.7. Four of 8 yeasts were identified correctly. The average turnaround time using the STK was 35 min, including extraction steps and 30:12 to 36:12 h with routine method. The STK holds promise for timely management of bacteremic patients. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Role of contextual factors in the rehabilitation of adolescent survivors of traumatic brain injury: emerging concepts identified through modified narrative review.

PubMed

Ciccia, Angela Hein; Threats, Travis

2015-07-01

Recently research in traumatic brain injury (TBI) intervention has identified the benefits of contextualized, embedded, functionally based approaches to maximize treatment outcomes. An essential component of contextualized intervention is the direct and purposeful consideration of the broader context, in which the person with TBI functions. However, systematic consideration of contextual factors remains limited both in research and clinical practice. The purposes of this modified narrative review were (1) to provide a succinct review of the available literature regarding the contextual factors that are specific to adolescent survivors of TBI, one of highest incidence groups for brain injury; (2) to connect these contextual factors to the direct long-term management of TBI and to identify their potential impact on outcome; and (3) to highlight areas that are open to research and clinical advances that could enhance positive outcomes for adolescent survivors of TBI. The framework of the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY; 2007) was used as a foundation for this review. A systematic literature search was conducted using databases and hand searches. A total of 102 articles were originally identified. Twenty-five original research articles, eight review papers and four expert opinion papers met inclusion and exclusion criteria and were included in the final review. The body of research specifically focused on contextual factors is an emerging area. Early findings indicate that a focus on the direct modification of contextual factors is promising for the facilitation of positive outcomes long into the chronic phase of management for adolescences who have survived a TBI. The contextual factors included in this review were the overall ability of the school to support a student post-TBI, family psychosocial risk (sibling/sibling relationships/stress/burden/support), coping

Nurturing Mathematical Promise in a Regular Elementary Classroom: Exploring the Role of the Teacher and Classroom Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dimitriadis, Christos

2016-01-01

This article presents findings from a case study of an in-classroom program based on ability grouping for Year 2 (ages 6-7) primary (elementary) children identified as high ability in mathematics. The study examined the role of classroom setting, classroom environment, and teacher's approach in realizing and developing mathematical promise. The…

CHIMERA: Top-down model for hierarchical, overlapping and directed cluster structures in directed and weighted complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Franke, R.

2016-11-01

In many networks discovered in biology, medicine, neuroscience and other disciplines special properties like a certain degree distribution and hierarchical cluster structure (also called communities) can be observed as general organizing principles. Detecting the cluster structure of an unknown network promises to identify functional subdivisions, hierarchy and interactions on a mesoscale. It is not trivial choosing an appropriate detection algorithm because there are multiple network, cluster and algorithmic properties to be considered. Edges can be weighted and/or directed, clusters overlap or build a hierarchy in several ways. Algorithms differ not only in runtime, memory requirements but also in allowed network and cluster properties. They are based on a specific definition of what a cluster is, too. On the one hand, a comprehensive network creation model is needed to build a large variety of benchmark networks with different reasonable structures to compare algorithms. On the other hand, if a cluster structure is already known, it is desirable to separate effects of this structure from other network properties. This can be done with null model networks that mimic an observed cluster structure to improve statistics on other network features. A third important application is the general study of properties in networks with different cluster structures, possibly evolving over time. Currently there are good benchmark and creation models available. But what is left is a precise sandbox model to build hierarchical, overlapping and directed clusters for undirected or directed, binary or weighted complex random networks on basis of a sophisticated blueprint. This gap shall be closed by the model CHIMERA (Cluster Hierarchy Interconnection Model for Evaluation, Research and Analysis) which will be introduced and described here for the first time.

Educating Homeless Students: Promising Practices.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stronge, James H., Ed.; Reed-Victor, Evelyn, Ed.

This book is for educators who serve homeless students or students temporarily sharing houses with other families. It describes many promising strategies for working with these students. The chapters are: (1) "Educating Homeless Children and Youth: An Introduction" (James H. Stronge); (2) "Meeting the Developmental and Educational Needs of…

Agent-Based Modeling of Chronic Diseases: A Narrative Review and Future Research Directions

PubMed Central

Lawley, Mark A.; Siscovick, David S.; Zhang, Donglan; Pagán, José A.

2016-01-01

The United States is experiencing an epidemic of chronic disease. As the US population ages, health care providers and policy makers urgently need decision models that provide systematic, credible prediction regarding the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases to improve population health management and medical decision-making. Agent-based modeling is a promising systems science approach that can model complex interactions and processes related to chronic health conditions, such as adaptive behaviors, feedback loops, and contextual effects. This article introduces agent-based modeling by providing a narrative review of agent-based models of chronic disease and identifying the characteristics of various chronic health conditions that must be taken into account to build effective clinical- and policy-relevant models. We also identify barriers to adopting agent-based models to study chronic diseases. Finally, we discuss future research directions of agent-based modeling applied to problems related to specific chronic health conditions. PMID:27236380

Determining wave direction using curvature parameters.

PubMed

de Queiroz, Eduardo Vitarelli; de Carvalho, João Luiz Baptista

2016-01-01

The curvature of the sea wave was tested as a parameter for estimating wave direction in the search for better results in estimates of wave direction in shallow waters, where waves of different sizes, frequencies and directions intersect and it is difficult to characterize. We used numerical simulations of the sea surface to determine wave direction calculated from the curvature of the waves. Using 1000 numerical simulations, the statistical variability of the wave direction was determined. The results showed good performance by the curvature parameter for estimating wave direction. Accuracy in the estimates was improved by including wave slope parameters in addition to curvature. The results indicate that the curvature is a promising technique to estimate wave directions.•In this study, the accuracy and precision of curvature parameters to measure wave direction are analyzed using a model simulation that generates 1000 wave records with directional resolution.•The model allows the simultaneous simulation of time-series wave properties such as sea surface elevation, slope and curvature and they were used to analyze the variability of estimated directions.•The simultaneous acquisition of slope and curvature parameters can contribute to estimates wave direction, thus increasing accuracy and precision of results.

Adolescent Cellphone Use While Driving: An Overview of the Literature and Promising Future Directions for Prevention.

PubMed

Delgado, M Kit; Wanner, Kathryn J; McDonald, Catherine

2016-06-16

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in adolescents, and drivers aged 16-19 are the most likely to die in distracted driving crashes. This paper provides an overview of the literature on adolescent cellphone use while driving, focusing on the crash risk, incidence, risk factors for engagement, and the effectiveness of current mitigation strategies. We conclude by discussing promising future approaches to prevent crashes related to cellphone use in adolescents. Handheld manipulation of the phone while driving has been shown to have a 3 to 4-fold increased risk of a near crash or crash, and eye glance duration greater than 2 seconds increases crash risk exponentially. Nearly half of U.S. high school students admit to texting while driving in the last month, but the frequency of use according to vehicle speed and high-risk situations remains unknown. Several risk factors are associated with cell phone use while driving including: parental cellphone use while driving, social norms for quick responses to text messages, and higher levels of temporal discounting. Given the limited effectiveness of current mitigation strategies such as educational campaigns and legal bans, a multi-pronged behavioral and technological approach addressing the above risk factors will be necessary to reduce this dangerous behavior in adolescents.

Adolescent Cellphone Use While Driving: An Overview of the Literature and Promising Future Directions for Prevention

PubMed Central

Delgado, M. Kit; Wanner, Kathryn J.; McDonald, Catherine

2016-01-01

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in adolescents, and drivers aged 16–19 are the most likely to die in distracted driving crashes. This paper provides an overview of the literature on adolescent cellphone use while driving, focusing on the crash risk, incidence, risk factors for engagement, and the effectiveness of current mitigation strategies. We conclude by discussing promising future approaches to prevent crashes related to cellphone use in adolescents. Handheld manipulation of the phone while driving has been shown to have a 3 to 4-fold increased risk of a near crash or crash, and eye glance duration greater than 2 seconds increases crash risk exponentially. Nearly half of U.S. high school students admit to texting while driving in the last month, but the frequency of use according to vehicle speed and high-risk situations remains unknown. Several risk factors are associated with cell phone use while driving including: parental cellphone use while driving, social norms for quick responses to text messages, and higher levels of temporal discounting. Given the limited effectiveness of current mitigation strategies such as educational campaigns and legal bans, a multi-pronged behavioral and technological approach addressing the above risk factors will be necessary to reduce this dangerous behavior in adolescents. PMID:27695663

Single-Construct Polycistronic Doxycycline-Inducible Vectors Improve Direct Cardiac Reprogramming and Can Be Used to Identify the Critical Timing of Transgene Expression.

PubMed

Umei, Tomohiko C; Yamakawa, Hiroyuki; Muraoka, Naoto; Sadahiro, Taketaro; Isomi, Mari; Haginiwa, Sho; Kojima, Hidenori; Kurotsu, Shota; Tamura, Fumiya; Osakabe, Rina; Tani, Hidenori; Nara, Kaori; Miyoshi, Hiroyuki; Fukuda, Keiichi; Ieda, Masaki

2017-08-19

Direct reprogramming is a promising approach in regenerative medicine. Overexpression of the cardiac transcription factors Gata4, Mef2c, and Tbx5 (GMT) or GMT plus Hand2 (GHMT) directly reprogram fibroblasts into cardiomyocyte-like cells (iCMs). However, the critical timing of transgene expression and the molecular mechanisms for cardiac reprogramming remain unclear. The conventional doxycycline (Dox)-inducible temporal transgene expression systems require simultaneous transduction of two vectors (pLVX-rtTA/pLVX-cDNA) harboring the reverse tetracycline transactivator (rtTA) and the tetracycline response element (TRE)-controlled transgene, respectively, leading to inefficient cardiac reprogramming. Herein, we developed a single-construct-based polycistronic Dox-inducible vector (pDox-cDNA) expressing both the rtTA and TRE-controlled transgenes. Fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) analyses, quantitative RT-PCR, and immunostaining revealed that pDox-GMT increased cardiac reprogramming three-fold compared to the conventional pLVX-rtTA/pLVX-GMT. After four weeks, pDox-GMT-induced iCMs expressed multiple cardiac genes, produced sarcomeric structures, and beat spontaneously. Co-transduction of pDox-Hand2 with retroviral pMX-GMT increased cardiac reprogramming three-fold compared to pMX-GMT alone. Temporal Dox administration revealed that Hand2 transgene expression is critical during the first two weeks of cardiac reprogramming. Microarray analyses demonstrated that Hand2 represses cell cycle-promoting genes and enhances cardiac reprogramming. Thus, we have developed an efficient temporal transgene expression system, which could be invaluable in the study of cardiac reprogramming.

Single-Construct Polycistronic Doxycycline-Inducible Vectors Improve Direct Cardiac Reprogramming and Can Be Used to Identify the Critical Timing of Transgene Expression

PubMed Central

Umei, Tomohiko C.; Yamakawa, Hiroyuki; Muraoka, Naoto; Sadahiro, Taketaro; Isomi, Mari; Haginiwa, Sho; Kojima, Hidenori; Kurotsu, Shota; Tamura, Fumiya; Osakabe, Rina; Tani, Hidenori; Nara, Kaori; Miyoshi, Hiroyuki; Fukuda, Keiichi; Ieda, Masaki

2017-01-01

Direct reprogramming is a promising approach in regenerative medicine. Overexpression of the cardiac transcription factors Gata4, Mef2c, and Tbx5 (GMT) or GMT plus Hand2 (GHMT) directly reprogram fibroblasts into cardiomyocyte-like cells (iCMs). However, the critical timing of transgene expression and the molecular mechanisms for cardiac reprogramming remain unclear. The conventional doxycycline (Dox)-inducible temporal transgene expression systems require simultaneous transduction of two vectors (pLVX-rtTA/pLVX-cDNA) harboring the reverse tetracycline transactivator (rtTA) and the tetracycline response element (TRE)-controlled transgene, respectively, leading to inefficient cardiac reprogramming. Herein, we developed a single-construct-based polycistronic Dox-inducible vector (pDox-cDNA) expressing both the rtTA and TRE-controlled transgenes. Fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) analyses, quantitative RT-PCR, and immunostaining revealed that pDox-GMT increased cardiac reprogramming three-fold compared to the conventional pLVX-rtTA/pLVX-GMT. After four weeks, pDox-GMT-induced iCMs expressed multiple cardiac genes, produced sarcomeric structures, and beat spontaneously. Co-transduction of pDox-Hand2 with retroviral pMX-GMT increased cardiac reprogramming three-fold compared to pMX-GMT alone. Temporal Dox administration revealed that Hand2 transgene expression is critical during the first two weeks of cardiac reprogramming. Microarray analyses demonstrated that Hand2 represses cell cycle-promoting genes and enhances cardiac reprogramming. Thus, we have developed an efficient temporal transgene expression system, which could be invaluable in the study of cardiac reprogramming. PMID:28825623

A clinical test of stepping and change of direction to identify multiple falling older adults.

PubMed

Dite, Wayne; Temple, Viviene A

2002-11-01

To establish the reliability and validity of a new clinical test of dynamic standing balance, the Four Square Step Test (FSST), to evaluate its sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value in identifying subjects who fall, and to compare it with 3 established balance and mobility tests. A 3-group comparison performed by using 3 validated tests and 1 new test. A rehabilitation center and university medical school in Australia. Eighty-one community-dwelling adults over the age of 65 years. Subjects were age- and gender-matched to form 3 groups: multiple fallers, nonmultiple fallers, and healthy comparisons. Not applicable. Time to complete the FSST and Timed Up and Go test and the number of steps to complete the Step Test and Functional Reach Test distance. High reliability was found for interrater (n=30, intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]=.99) and retest reliability (n=20, ICC=.98). Evidence for validity was found through correlation with other existing balance tests. Validity was supported, with the FSST showing significantly better performance scores (P<.01) for each of the healthier and less impaired groups. The FSST also revealed a sensitivity of 85%, a specificity of 88% to 100%, and a positive predictive value of 86%. As a clinical test, the FSST is reliable, valid, easy to score, quick to administer, requires little space, and needs no special equipment. It is unique in that it involves stepping over low objects (2.5cm) and movement in 4 directions. The FSST had higher combined sensitivity and specificity for identifying differences between groups in the selected sample population of older adults than the 3 tests with which it was compared. Copyright 2002 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

The potential of using the Ecosystem Approach in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.

PubMed

Vlachopoulou, M; Coughlin, D; Forrow, D; Kirk, S; Logan, P; Voulvoulis, N

2014-02-01

The Ecosystem Approach provides a framework for looking at whole ecosystems in decision making to ensure that society can maintain a healthy and resilient natural environment now and for future generations. Although not explicitly mentioned in the Water Framework Directive, the Ecosystem Approach appears to be a promising concept to help its implementation, on the basis that there is a connection between the aims and objectives of the Directive (including good ecological status) and the provision of ecosystem services. In this paper, methodological linkages between the Ecosystem Approach and the Water Framework Directive have been reviewed and a framework is proposed that links its implementation to the Ecosystem Approach taking into consideration all ecosystem services and water management objectives. Individual River Basin Management Plan objectives are qualitatively assessed as to how strong their link is with individual ecosystem services. The benefits of using this approach to provide a preliminary assessment of how it could support future implementation of the Directive have been identified and discussed. Findings also demonstrate its potential to encourage more systematic and systemic thinking as it can provide a consistent framework for identifying shared aims and evaluating alternative water management scenarios and options in decision making. Allowing for a broad consideration of the benefits, costs and tradeoffs that occur in each case, this approach can further improve the economic case for certain measures, and can also help restore the shift in focus from strict legislative compliance towards a more holistic implementation that can deliver the wider aims and intentions of the Directive. © 2013.

Athletic groin pain (part 2): a prospective cohort study on the biomechanical evaluation of change of direction identifies three clusters of movement patterns

PubMed Central

Franklyn-Miller, A; Richter, C; King, E; Gore, S; Moran, K; Strike, S; Falvey, E C

2017-01-01

Background Athletic groin pain (AGP) is prevalent in sports involving repeated accelerations, decelerations, kicking and change-of-direction movements. Clinical and radiological examinations lack the ability to assess pathomechanics of AGP, but three-dimensional biomechanical movement analysis may be an important innovation. Aim The primary aim was to describe and analyse movements used by patients with AGP during a maximum effort change-of-direction task. The secondary aim was to determine if specific anatomical diagnoses were related to a distinct movement strategy. Methods 322 athletes with a current symptom of chronic AGP participated. Structured and standardised clinical assessments and radiological examinations were performed on all participants. Additionally, each participant performed multiple repetitions of a planned maximum effort change-of-direction task during which whole body kinematics were recorded. Kinematic and kinetic data were examined using continuous waveform analysis techniques in combination with a subgroup design that used gap statistic and hierarchical clustering. Results Three subgroups (clusters) were identified. Kinematic and kinetic measures of the clusters differed strongly in patterns observed in thorax, pelvis, hip, knee and ankle. Cluster 1 (40%) was characterised by increased ankle eversion, external rotation and knee internal rotation and greater knee work. Cluster 2 (15%) was characterised by increased hip flexion, pelvis contralateral drop, thorax tilt and increased hip work. Cluster 3 (45%) was characterised by high ankle dorsiflexion, thorax contralateral drop, ankle work and prolonged ground contact time. No correlation was observed between movement clusters and clinically palpated location of the participant's pain. Conclusions We identified three distinct movement strategies among athletes with long-standing groin pain during a maximum effort change-of-direction task These movement strategies were not related to clinical

Proteomic analysis of first trimester maternal serum to identify candidate biomarkers potentially predictive of spontaneous preterm birth.

PubMed

D'Silva, Arlene M; Hyett, Jon A; Coorssen, Jens R

2018-04-30

Spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) remains a major clinical dilemma; current diagnostics and interventions have not reduced the rate of this serious healthcare burden. This study characterizes differential protein profiles and post-translational modifications (PTMs) in first trimester maternal serum using a refined top-down approach coupling two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE) and mass spectrometry (MS) to directly compare subsequent term and preterm labour events and identify marked protein differences. 30 proteoforms were found to be significantly increased or decreased in the sPTB group including 9 phosphoproteins and 11 glycoproteins. Changes occurred in proteins associated with immune and defence responses. We identified protein species that are associated with several clinically relevant biological processes, including interrelated biological networks linked to regulation of the complement cascade and coagulation pathways, immune modulation, metabolic processes and cell signalling. The finding of altered proteoforms in maternal serum from pregnancies that delivered preterm suggests these as potential early biomarkers of sPTB and also possible mediators of the disorder. Identifying changes in protein profiles is critical in the study of cell biology, and disease treatment and prevention. Identifying consistent changes in the maternal serum proteome during early pregnancy, including specific protein PTMs (e.g. phosphorylation, glycosylation), is likely to provide better opportunities for prediction, intervention and prevention of preterm birth. This is the first study to examine first trimester maternal serum using a highly refined top-down proteomic analytical approach based on high resolution 2DE coupled with mass spectrometry to directly compare preterm (<37 weeks) and preterm (≥37 weeks) events and identify select protein differences between these conditions. As such, the data present a promising avenue for translation of biomarker discovery to a

Direct and indirect costs for adverse drug events identified in medical records across care levels, and their distribution among payers.

PubMed

Natanaelsson, Jennie; Hakkarainen, Katja M; Hägg, Staffan; Andersson Sundell, Karolina; Petzold, Max; Rehnberg, Clas; Jönsson, Anna K; Gyllensten, Hanna

2017-11-01

Adverse drug events (ADEs) cause considerable costs in hospitals. However, little is known about costs caused by ADEs outside hospitals, effects on productivity, and how the costs are distributed among payers. To describe the direct and indirect costs caused by ADEs, and their distribution among payers. Furthermore, to describe the distribution of patient out-of-pocket costs and lost productivity caused by ADEs according to socio-economic characteristics. In a random sample of 5025 adults in a Swedish county, prevalence-based costs for ADEs were calculated. Two different methods were used: 1) based on resource use judged to be caused by ADEs, and 2) as costs attributable to ADEs by comparing costs among individuals with ADEs to costs among matched controls. Payers of costs caused by ADEs were identified in medical records among those with ADEs (n = 596), and costs caused to individual patients were described by socio-economic characteristics. Costs for resource use caused by ADEs were €505 per patient with ADEs (95% confidence interval €345-665), of which 38% were indirect costs. Compared to matched controls, the costs attributable to ADEs were €1631, of which €410 were indirect costs. The local health authorities paid 58% of the costs caused by ADEs. Women had higher productivity loss than men (€426 vs. €109, p = 0.018). Out-of-pocket costs displaced a larger proportion of the disposable income among low-income earners than higher income earners (0.7% vs. 0.2%-0.3%). We used two methods to identify costs for ADEs, both identifying indirect costs as an important component of the overall costs for ADEs. Although the largest payers of costs caused by ADEs were the local health authorities responsible for direct costs, employers and patients costs for lost productivity contributed substantially. Our results indicate inequalities in costs caused by ADEs, by sex and income. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Short communication: Development of a direct in vivo screening model to identify potential probiotic bacteria using Caenorhabditis elegans.

PubMed

Park, M R; Yun, H S; Son, S J; Oh, S; Kim, Y

2014-11-01

Caenorhabditis elegans is an accepted model host to study host-bacteria interactions in the gut, in addition to being a simple model with which to study conserved aspects of biological signaling pathways in intestinal environments, because these nematode worms have similar intestinal cells to those of humans. Here, we used C. elegans to develop a new in vivo screening system for potential probiotic lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Initially, critical colonization ability of LAB strains isolated from Korean infant feces was screened in the worm intestinal tract over a period of 5 d. Furthermore, we investigated host health-promoting activities, including longevity-extending effects and immune-enhancing activities against foodborne pathogen infection. We identified 4 LAB strains that were highly persistent in the nematode gut and that significantly prolonged the longevity of C. elegans and improved the survival of C. elegans in response to infection by Staphylococcus aureus. The 4 LAB strains we identified showed resistance to acid and bile conditions, assimilated cholesterol, and were able to attach to a mucus layer. The 4 LAB isolates were identified as Lactobacillus plantarum using 16S rRNA sequencing analysis. Taken together, we developed a direct in vivo screening system using C. elegans to study host health-promoting LAB. Our system is simple, rapid, cost-effective, and reliable, and we anticipate that this system will result in the discovery of many more potential probiotic bacteria for dairy foods. Copyright © 2014 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Hydrogen: A Promising Fuel and Energy Storage Solution - Continuum

Science.gov Websites

Magazine | NREL Hydrogen: A Promising Fuel and Energy Storage Solution Fuel cell electric Ainscough, NREL Hydrogen: A Promising Fuel and Energy Storage Solution Electrolysis-generated hydrogen may provide a solution to fluctuations in renewable-sourced energy. As electricity from renewable resources

Direct-acting antivirals and host-targeting strategies to combat enterovirus infections.

PubMed

Bauer, Lisa; Lyoo, Heyrhyoung; van der Schaar, Hilde M; Strating, Jeroen Rpm; van Kuppeveld, Frank Jm

2017-06-01

Enteroviruses (e.g., poliovirus, enterovirus-A71, coxsackievirus, enterovirus-D68, rhinovirus) include many human pathogens causative of various mild and more severe diseases, especially in young children. Unfortunately, antiviral drugs to treat enterovirus infections have not been approved yet. Over the past decades, several direct-acting inhibitors have been developed, including capsid binders, which block virus entry, and inhibitors of viral enzymes required for genome replication. Capsid binders and protease inhibitors have been clinically evaluated, but failed due to limited efficacy or toxicity issues. As an alternative approach, host-targeting inhibitors with potential broad-spectrum activity have been identified. Furthermore, drug repurposing screens have recently uncovered promising new inhibitors with disparate viral and host targets. Together, these findings raise hope for the development of (broad-range) anti-enteroviral drugs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Genetic testing for inherited ocular disease: delivering on the promise at last?

PubMed

Gillespie, Rachel L; Hall, Georgina; Black, Graeme C

2014-01-01

Genetic testing is of increasing clinical utility for diagnosing inherited eye disease. Clarifying a clinical diagnosis is important for accurate estimation of prognosis, facilitating genetic counselling and management of families, and in the future will direct gene-specific therapeutic strategies. Often, precise diagnosis of genetic ophthalmic conditions is complicated by genetic heterogeneity, a difficulty that the so-called 'next-generation sequencing' technologies promise to overcome. Despite considerable counselling and ethical complexities, next-generation sequencing offers to revolutionize clinical practice. This will necessitate considerable adjustment to standard practice but has the power to deliver a personalized approach to genomic medicine for many more patients and enhance the potential for preventing vision loss. © 2013 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

Coarse graining for synchronization in directed networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeng, An; Lü, Linyuan

2011-05-01

Coarse-graining model is a promising way to analyze and visualize large-scale networks. The coarse-grained networks are required to preserve statistical properties as well as the dynamic behaviors of the initial networks. Some methods have been proposed and found effective in undirected networks, while the study on coarse-graining directed networks lacks of consideration. In this paper we proposed a path-based coarse-graining (PCG) method to coarse grain the directed networks. Performing the linear stability analysis of synchronization and numerical simulation of the Kuramoto model on four kinds of directed networks, including tree networks and variants of Barabási-Albert networks, Watts-Strogatz networks, and Erdös-Rényi networks, we find our method can effectively preserve the network synchronizability.

Direct instrumental identification of catalytically active surface sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pfisterer, Jonas H. K.; Liang, Yunchang; Schneider, Oliver; Bandarenka, Aliaksandr S.

2017-09-01

The activity of heterogeneous catalysts—which are involved in some 80 per cent of processes in the chemical and energy industries—is determined by the electronic structure of specific surface sites that offer optimal binding of reaction intermediates. Directly identifying and monitoring these sites during a reaction should therefore provide insight that might aid the targeted development of heterogeneous catalysts and electrocatalysts (those that participate in electrochemical reactions) for practical applications. The invention of the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) and the electrochemical STM promised to deliver such imaging capabilities, and both have indeed contributed greatly to our atomistic understanding of heterogeneous catalysis. But although the STM has been used to probe and initiate surface reactions, and has even enabled local measurements of reactivity in some systems, it is not generally thought to be suited to the direct identification of catalytically active surface sites under reaction conditions. Here we demonstrate, however, that common STMs can readily map the catalytic activity of surfaces with high spatial resolution: we show that by monitoring relative changes in the tunnelling current noise, active sites can be distinguished in an almost quantitative fashion according to their ability to catalyse the hydrogen-evolution reaction or the oxygen-reduction reaction. These data allow us to evaluate directly the importance and relative contribution to overall catalyst activity of different defects and sites at the boundaries between two materials. With its ability to deliver such information and its ready applicability to different systems, we anticipate that our method will aid the rational design of heterogeneous catalysts.

Promising Behavior Change Techniques in a Multicomponent Intervention to Reduce Concerns about Falls in Old Age: A Delphi Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vestjens, Lotte; Kempen, Gertrudis I. J. M.; Crutzen, Rik; Kok, Gerjo; Zijlstra, G. A. Rixt

2015-01-01

Complex behavior change interventions need evidence regarding the effectiveness of individual components to understand how these interventions work. The objective of this study was to identify the least and most promising behavior change techniques (BCTs) within the Dutch intervention "A Matter of Balance" (AMB-NL) aimed at concerns…

HEDP and new directions for fusion energy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kirkpatrick, Ronald C

2009-01-01

The Quest for fusion energy has a long history and the demonstration of thermonuclear energy release in 1951 represented a record achievement for high energy density. While this first demonstration was in response to the extreme fears of mankind, it also marked the beginning of a great hope that it would usher in an era of boundless cheap energy. In fact, fusion still promises to be an enabling technology that can be compared to the prehistoric utilization of fire. Why has the quest for fusion energy been so long on promises and so short in fulfillment? This paper briefly reviewsmore » past approaches to fusion energy and suggests new directions. By putting aside the old thinking and vigorously applying our experimental, computational and theoretical tools developed over the past decades we should be able to make rapid progress toward satisfying an urgent need. Fusion not only holds the key to abundant green energy, but also promises to enable deep space missions and the creation of rare elements and isotopes for wide-ranging industrial applications and medical diagnostics.« less

Combining Ordinary Kriging with wind directions to identify sources of industrial odors in Portland, Oregon.

PubMed

Eckmann, Ted C; Wright, Samantha G; Simpson, Logan K; Walker, Joe L; Kolmes, Steven A; Houck, James E; Velasquez, Sandra C

2018-01-01

This study combines Ordinary Kriging, odor monitoring, and wind direction data to demonstrate how these elements can be applied to identify the source of an industrial odor. The specific case study used as an example of how to address this issue was the University Park neighborhood of Portland, Oregon (USA) where residents frequently complain about industrial odors, and suspect the main source to be a nearby Daimler Trucks North America LLC manufacturing plant. We collected 19,665 odor observations plus 105,120 wind measurements, using an automated weather station to measure winds in the area at five-minute intervals, logging continuously from December 2014 through November 2015, while we also measured odors at 19 locations, three times per day, using methods from the American Society of the International Association for Testing and Materials. Our results quantify how winds vary with season and time of day when industrial odors were observed versus when they were not observed, while also mapping spatiotemporal patterns in these odors using Ordinary Kriging. Our analyses show that industrial odors were detected most frequently to the northwest of the Daimler plant, mostly when winds blew from the southeast, suggesting Daimler's facility is a likely source for much of this odor.

Controllability analysis of the directed human protein interaction network identifies disease genes and drug targets

PubMed Central

Vinayagam, Arunachalam; Gibson, Travis E.; Lee, Ho-Joon; Yilmazel, Bahar; Roesel, Charles; Hu, Yanhui; Kwon, Young; Sharma, Amitabh; Liu, Yang-Yu; Perrimon, Norbert; Barabási, Albert-László

2016-01-01

The protein–protein interaction (PPI) network is crucial for cellular information processing and decision-making. With suitable inputs, PPI networks drive the cells to diverse functional outcomes such as cell proliferation or cell death. Here, we characterize the structural controllability of a large directed human PPI network comprising 6,339 proteins and 34,813 interactions. This network allows us to classify proteins as “indispensable,” “neutral,” or “dispensable,” which correlates to increasing, no effect, or decreasing the number of driver nodes in the network upon removal of that protein. We find that 21% of the proteins in the PPI network are indispensable. Interestingly, these indispensable proteins are the primary targets of disease-causing mutations, human viruses, and drugs, suggesting that altering a network’s control property is critical for the transition between healthy and disease states. Furthermore, analyzing copy number alterations data from 1,547 cancer patients reveals that 56 genes that are frequently amplified or deleted in nine different cancers are indispensable. Among the 56 genes, 46 of them have not been previously associated with cancer. This suggests that controllability analysis is very useful in identifying novel disease genes and potential drug targets. PMID:27091990

Combining Ordinary Kriging with wind directions to identify sources of industrial odors in Portland, Oregon

PubMed Central

Kolmes, Steven A.; Houck, James E.; Velasquez, Sandra C.

2018-01-01

This study combines Ordinary Kriging, odor monitoring, and wind direction data to demonstrate how these elements can be applied to identify the source of an industrial odor. The specific case study used as an example of how to address this issue was the University Park neighborhood of Portland, Oregon (USA) where residents frequently complain about industrial odors, and suspect the main source to be a nearby Daimler Trucks North America LLC manufacturing plant. We collected 19,665 odor observations plus 105,120 wind measurements, using an automated weather station to measure winds in the area at five-minute intervals, logging continuously from December 2014 through November 2015, while we also measured odors at 19 locations, three times per day, using methods from the American Society of the International Association for Testing and Materials. Our results quantify how winds vary with season and time of day when industrial odors were observed versus when they were not observed, while also mapping spatiotemporal patterns in these odors using Ordinary Kriging. Our analyses show that industrial odors were detected most frequently to the northwest of the Daimler plant, mostly when winds blew from the southeast, suggesting Daimler’s facility is a likely source for much of this odor. PMID:29385136

Bringing Promise to Washington, DC. The DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative. Program on Neighborhoods and Youth Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Comey, Jennifer; Scott, Molly M.; Popkin, Susan J.; Falkenburger, Elsa

2012-01-01

The U.S. Department of Education's Promise Neighborhood Initiative (DCPNI) is one of the Obama administration's major antipoverty initiatives and a core strategy of the White House's Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative. It is intended to improve educational outcomes by creating a continuum of school readiness, academic services, and family and…

Fusarium species-a promising tool box for industrial biotechnology.

PubMed

Pessôa, Marina Gabriel; Paulino, Bruno Nicolau; Mano, Mario Cezar Rodrigues; Neri-Numa, Iramaia Angélica; Molina, Gustavo; Pastore, Glaucia Maria

2017-05-01

Global demand for biotechnological products has increased steadily over the years. Thus, need for optimized processes and reduced costs appear as a key factor in the success of this market. A process tool of high importance is the direct or indirect use of enzymes to catalyze the generation of various substances. Also, obtaining aromas and pigments from natural sources has becoming priority in cosmetic and food industries in order to supply the demand from consumers to substitute synthetic compounds, especially when by-products can be used as starting material for this purpose. Species from Fusarium genera are recognized as promising sources of several enzymes for industrial application as well as biocatalysts in the production of aromas, pigments and second generation biofuels, among others. In addition, secondary metabolites from these strains can present important biological activities for medical field. In this approach, this review brings focus on the use of Fusarium sp. strains in biotechnological production of compounds of industrial interest, showing the most recent researches in this area, results obtained and the best process conditions for each case.

Natural antimicrobial peptides as promising anti-HIV candidates

PubMed Central

Wang, Guangshun

2015-01-01

Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection remains to be one of the major global health problems. It is thus necessary to identify novel therapeutic molecules to combat HIV-1. Natural antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been recognized as promising templates for developing topical microbicides. This review systematically discusses over 80 anti-HIV peptides annotated in the antimicrobial peptide database (http://aps.unmc.edu/AP). Such peptides have been discovered from bacteria, plants, and animals. Examples include gramicidin and bacteriocins from bacteria, cyclotides from plants, melittins and cecropins from insects, piscidins from fish, ascaphins, caerins, dermaseptins, esculentins, and maximins from amphibians, and cathelicidins and defensins from vertebrates. These peptides appear to work by different mechanisms and could block viral entry in multiple ways. As additional advantages, such anti-HIV peptides may possess other desired features such as antibacterial, antiparasital, spermicidal, and anticancer activity. With continued optimization of peptide stability, production, formulation and delivery methods, it is anticipated that some of these compounds may eventually become new anti-HIV drugs. PMID:26834391

The Promise and Limitations of a College-Going Culture: Toward Cultures of Engaged Learning for Low-SES Latina/o Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Athanases, Steven Z.; Achinstein, Betty; Curry, Marnie Willis; Ogawa, Rodney T.

2016-01-01

Background/Context: Literatures on college-going cultures offer patterns and lists of practices that promote schoolwide attention to college-going for nondominant youth, often with organization-level analyses of policies and procedures. Other literature identifies promising practices and challenges to conventional instruction, often examining…

Promising Practices: Vocational Education Resource Package.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evaluation and Training Inst., Los Angeles, CA.

Developed to assist community college administrators and faculty in enhancing vocational educational programs and services, this Vocational Education Resource Package profiles four vocational education programs at California community colleges that show promise in serving special population students. First, the Applied Mathematics for Electronics…

NExT: Advancing Promising Cancer Therapies

Cancer.gov

The NCI Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) program works with researchers and top scientific experts to advance promising or novel cancer therapies from the earliest stages of research to clinical trials. Learn about recent successes from NExT in this Cancer Currents blog post.

76 FR 39589 - Promise Neighborhoods Program

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-06

... promote student engagement, learning, and digital literacy, as well as neighborhood communication and... that focuses on family-school partnerships and family engagement in learning. Discussion: Family and... whether students who attend a target school in the Promise Neighborhood, but live outside the neighborhood...

Student Teaching: Problems and Promising Practices.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffin, Gary A., Ed.; Edwards, Sara, Ed.

The working conference "Student Teaching: Problems and Promising Practices" brought together experts representing three different role orientations: cooperating teachers, school system representatives, and teacher educators. Under discussion was the student teaching process and the nature of research that might contribute to its better…

Bioactive natural products in cancer prevention and therapy: Progress and promise.

PubMed

Bishayee, Anupam; Sethi, Gautam

2016-10-01

Natural products represent a rich source for the discovery and development of cancer preventive and anticancer drugs. Nearly, 80% of all drugs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration during the last three decades for cancer therapy are either natural products per se or are based thereon, or mimicked natural products in one form or another. With the advent and refinement of new technologies, such as genetic techniques for production of secondary plant metabolites, combinatorial synthesis and high-throughput screening, it is expected that novel compounds from natural sources, including medicinal plants, would be identified and developed as safe and effective chemopreventive and anticancer drugs. Numerous bioactive natural compounds have been shown to be useful in prevention and therapy of cancer by targeting various signaling molecules and pathways. Extensive literature underscores the anticancer and chemopreventive activity of a plethora of naturally occurring agents, including phytochemicals. Several of these molecules have been tested in clinical trials and some of them have shown promise in combination therapy when administered along with standard chemotherapeutic agents. Thus, accelerated chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic drug development from natural sources is of great importance. In this special theme issue, contributions from eminent scientists and scholars around the world presented critical analysis of the current progress and promise of natural bioactive constituents in cancer prevention and therapy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Freedom: A Promise of Possibility.

PubMed

Bunkers, Sandra Schmidt

2015-10-01

The idea of freedom as a promise of possibility is explored in this column. The core concepts from a research study on considering tomorrow (Bunkers, 1998) coupled with humanbecoming community change processes (Parse, 2003) are used to illuminate this notion. The importance of intentionality in human freedom is discussed from both a human science and a natural science perspective. © The Author(s) 2015.

Evaluating the promise of recombinant transmissible vaccines

PubMed Central

Basinski, Andrew J.; Varrelman, Tanner J.; Smithson, Mark W.; May, Ryan H.; Remien, Christopher H.; Nuismer, Scott L.

2018-01-01

Transmissible vaccines have the potential to revolutionize infectious disease control by reducing the vaccination effort required to protect a population against a disease. Recent efforts to develop transmissible vaccines focus on recombinant transmissible vaccine designs (RTVs) because they pose reduced risk if intra-host evolution causes the vaccine to revert to its vector form. However, the shared antigenicity of the vaccine and vector may confer vaccine-immunity to hosts infected with the vector, thwarting the ability of the vaccine to spread through the population. We build a mathematical model to test whether a RTV can facilitate disease management in instances where reversion is likely to introduce the vector into the population or when the vector organism is already established in the host population, and the vector and vaccine share perfect cross-immunity. Our results show that a RTV can autonomously eradicate a pathogen, or protect a population from pathogen invasion, when cross-immunity between vaccine and vector is absent. If cross-immunity between vaccine and vector exists, however, our results show that a RTV can substantially reduce the vaccination effort necessary to control or eradicate a pathogen only when continuously augmented with direct manual vaccination. These results demonstrate that estimating the extent of cross-immunity between vector and vaccine is a critical step in RTV design, and that herpesvirus vectors showing facile reinfection and weak cross-immunity are promising. PMID:29279283

Computers and Curriculum--Promises and Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caldwell, Robert M.

The educational problems of the United States have reached critical proportions, particularly if the nation is to maintain leadership in high technology industries. This document explores the promise technology offers for improving instruction and broadening alternatives for instructional delivery. The author considers how technologically assisted…

Harnessing extracellular vesicles to direct endochondral repair of large bone defects

PubMed Central

Ferreira, E.

2018-01-01

Large bone defects remain a tremendous clinical challenge. There is growing evidence in support of treatment strategies that direct defect repair through an endochondral route, involving a cartilage intermediate. While culture-expanded stem/progenitor cells are being evaluated for this purpose, these cells would compete with endogenous repair cells for limited oxygen and nutrients within ischaemic defects. Alternatively, it may be possible to employ extracellular vesicles (EVs) secreted by culture-expanded cells for overcoming key bottlenecks to endochondral repair, such as defect vascularization, chondrogenesis, and osseous remodelling. While mesenchymal stromal/stem cells are a promising source of therapeutic EVs, other donor cells should also be considered. The efficacy of an EV-based therapeutic will likely depend on the design of companion scaffolds for controlled delivery to specific target cells. Ultimately, the knowledge gained from studies of EVs could one day inform the long-term development of synthetic, engineered nanovesicles. In the meantime, EVs harnessed from in vitro cell culture have near-term promise for use in bone regenerative medicine. This narrative review presents a rationale for using EVs to improve the repair of large bone defects, highlights promising cell sources and likely therapeutic targets for directing repair through an endochondral pathway, and discusses current barriers to clinical translation. Cite this article: E. Ferreira, R. M. Porter. Harnessing extracellular vesicles to direct endochondral repair of large bone defects. Bone Joint Res 2018;7:263–273. DOI: 10.1302/2046-3758.74.BJR-2018-0006. PMID:29922444

Helium Ion Microscopy: A Promising Tool for Probing Biota-Mineral Interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lybrand, R.; Zaharescu, D. G.; Gallery, R. E.

2017-12-01

The study of biogeochemical interfaces in soil requires powerful technologies that can enhance our ability to characterize mineral surfaces and interacting organisms at micro- to nanoscale resolutions. We aim to demonstrate potential applications of Helium Ion Microscopy in the earth and ecological sciences using, as an example, samples from a field experiment. We assessed samples deployed for one year along climatic and topographic gradients in two Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs): a desert to mixed conifer forest gradient (Catalina CZO) and a humid hardwood forest (Calhoun CZO). Sterile ground rock (basalt, quartz, and granite; 53-250 µm) was sealed into nylon mesh bags and buried in the surface soils of both CZOs. We employed helium ion and scanning electron microscopies to compare retrieved ground rock samples with sterile unreacted mineral controls in conjunction with the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA. Our work showed early colonization of mesh bag materials by fungal and bacterial organisms from the field systems and identified morphological changes in mineral grains following exposure to the soil environment. Biological specimens observed on grain surfaces exhibited contrasting features depending on mineral type and ecosystem location, including fungal hyphae that varied in length, diameter, and surface morphologies. We also present imagery that provides evidence for incipient stages of mineral transformation at the fungal-mineral interface. Our findings demonstrate that helium ion microscopy can be successfully used to characterize grain features and biological agents of weathering in experimental field samples, representing a promising avenue for research in the biogeosciences. Future directions of this work will couple high resolution imaging with measures of aqueous and solid geochemistry, fungal morphological characterization, and microbial profiling to better understand mineral

A Broken Promise: Examining the Merit-Aid Policy and Implementation Gap in the Michigan Promise Scholarship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daun-Barnet, Nathan; Hermsen, Albert; Vedder, Lori; Mabry, Beth

2013-01-01

In 2006, Michigan changed their traditional merit award to a credit contingent program based upon successful completion of 60 college credits. The Michigan Promise Scholarship was crafted by state policymakers without input from the financial aid community. This case study suggests that the change in policy resulted in two unintended consequences:…

Personalized direct marketing using digital publishing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kutty, Cheeniyil L.; Prabhakaran, Jayasree K.

2006-02-01

In today's cost-conscious business climate, marketing and customer service decision makers are increasingly concerned with how to increase customer response and retention rates. Companies spend large amounts of money on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions and data acquisition but they don't know how to use the information stored in these systems to improve the effectiveness of their direct marketing campaigns. By leveraging the customer information they already have, companies can create personalized, printed direct mail programs that generate high response rates, greater returns, and stronger customer loyalty, while gaining a significant edge over their competitors. To reach the promised land of one-to-one direct marketing (personalized direct marketing - PDM), companies need an end-to-end solution for creating, managing, printing, and distributing personalized direct mail "on demand." Having access to digital printing is just one piece of the solution. A more complete approach includes leveraging personalization technology into a useful direct marketing tool that provides true one-to-one marketing, allowing variable images and text in a personalized direct mail. This paper discusses integration of CRM with a Print-on-Demand solution so as to create truly personalized printed marketing campaigns for one or many individuals based on the profile information, preferences and purchase history stored in the CRM.

Manipulating regulatory T cells: a promising strategy to treat autoimmunity.

PubMed

Zhang, Dunfang; Tu, Eric; Kasagi, Shimpei; Zanvit, Peter; Chen, Qianming; Chen, WanJun

2015-01-01

CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+)regulatory T cells (Treg cells) are extremely important in maintaining immune tolerance. Manipulation of Treg cells, especially autoantigen-specific Treg cells is a promising approach for treatments of autoimmune disease since Treg cells may provide the advantage of antigen specificity without overall immune suppression. However, the clinical application of Treg cells has long been limited due to low numbers of Treg cells and the difficulty in identifying their antigen specificity. In this review, we summarize studies that demonstrate regression of autoimmune diseases using Treg cells as therapeutics. We also discuss approaches to generate polyclonal and autoantigen-specific Treg cells in vitro and in vivo. We also discuss our recent study that describes a novel approach of generating autoantigen-specific Treg cells in vivo and restoring immune tolerance by two steps apoptosis-antigen therapy.

High-Directivity Emissions with Flexible Beam Numbers and Beam Directions Using Gradient-Refractive-Index Fractal Metamaterial

PubMed Central

Xu, He-Xiu; Wang, Guang-Ming; Tao, Zui; Cui, Tie Jun

2014-01-01

A three-dimensional (3D) highly-directive emission system is proposed to enable beam shaping and beam steering capabilities in wideband frequencies. It is composed of an omnidirectional source antenna and several 3D gradient-refractive-index (GRIN) lenses. To engineer a broadband impedance match, the design method for these 3D lenses is established under the scenario of free-space excitation by using a planar printed monopole. For realizations and demonstrations, a kind of GRIN metamaterial is proposed, which is constructed by non-uniform fractal geometries. Due to the non-resonant and deep-subwavelength features of the fractal elements, the resulting 3D GRIN metamaterial lenses have extra wide bandwidth (3 to 7.5 GHz), and are capable of manipulating electromagnetic wavefronts accurately, advancing the state of the art of available GRIN lenses. The proposal for the versatile highly-directive emissions has been confirmed by simulations and measurements, showing that not only the number of beams can be arbitrarily tailored but also the beam directions can be steerable. The proposal opens a new way to control broadband highly-directive emissions with pre-designed directions, promising great potentials in modern wireless communication systems. PMID:25034268

Vernonia condensata Baker (Asteraceae): A Promising Source of Antioxidants

PubMed Central

da Silva, Jucélia Barbosa; Temponi, Vanessa dos Santos; Gasparetto, Carolina Miranda; Fabri, Rodrigo Luiz; Aragão, Danielle Maria de Oliveira; Pinto, Nícolas de Castro Campos; Ribeiro, Antônia; Scio, Elita; Del-Vechio-Vieira, Glauciemar; de Sousa, Orlando Vieira

2013-01-01

The present study evaluated the antioxidant potential of Vernonia condensata Baker (Asteraceae). Dried and powdered leaves were exhaustively extracted with ethanol by static maceration followed by partition to obtain the hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and butanol fractions. Total phenols and flavonoids contents were determined through spectrophotometry and flavonoids were identified by HPLC-DAD system. The antioxidant activity was assessed by DPPH radical scavenging activity, TLC-bioautography, reducing power of Fe+3, phosphomolybdenum, and TBA assays. The total phenolic content and total flavonoids ranged from 0.19 to 23.11 g/100 g and from 0.13 to 4.10 g/100 g, respectively. The flavonoids apigenin and luteolin were identified in the ethyl acetate fraction. The IC50 of DPPH assay varied from 4.28 to 75.10 µg/mL and TLC-bioautography detected the antioxidant compounds. The reducing power of Fe+3 was 19.98 to 336.48 μg/mL, while the reaction with phosphomolybdenum ranged from 13.54% to 32.63% and 56.02% to 135.00% considering ascorbic acid and rutin as reference, respectively. At 30 mg/mL, the ethanolic extract and fractions revealed significant effect against lipid peroxidation. All these data sustain that V. condensata is an important and promising source of bioactive substances with antioxidant activity. PMID:24489987

Evolution of a mass spectrometry-grade protease with PTM-directed specificity.

PubMed

Tran, Duc T; Cavett, Valerie J; Dang, Vuong Q; Torres, Héctor L; Paegel, Brian M

2016-12-20

Mapping posttranslational modifications (PTMs), which diversely modulate biological functions, represents a significant analytical challenge. The centerpiece technology for PTM site identification, mass spectrometry (MS), requires proteolytic cleavage in the vicinity of a PTM to yield peptides for sequencing. This requirement catalyzed our efforts to evolve MS-grade mutant PTM-directed proteases. Citrulline, a PTM implicated in epigenetic and immunological function, made an ideal first target, because citrullination eliminates arginyl tryptic sites. Bead-displayed trypsin mutant genes were translated in droplets, the mutant proteases were challenged to cleave bead-bound fluorogenic probes of citrulline-dependent proteolysis, and the resultant beads (1.3 million) were screened. The most promising mutant efficiently catalyzed citrulline-dependent peptide bond cleavage (k cat /K M = 6.9 × 10 5 M -1 ⋅s -1 ). The resulting C-terminally citrullinated peptides generated characteristic isotopic patterns in MALDI-TOF MS, and both a fragmentation product y 1 ion corresponding to citrulline (176.1030 m/z) and diagnostic peak pairs in the extracted ion chromatograms of LC-MS/MS analysis. Using these signatures, we identified citrullination sites in protein arginine deiminase 4 (12 sites) and in fibrinogen (25 sites, two previously unknown). The unique mass spectral features of PTM-dependent proteolytic digest products promise a generalized PTM site-mapping strategy based on a toolbox of such mutant proteases, which are now accessible by laboratory evolution.

A policy analysis of adult literacy promotion in the Third World: An accounting of promises made and promises fulfilled

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhola, H. S.

1985-09-01

To the individual, literacy has promised a new mentality, a new social definition, and new economic capacities. At the collective level, literacy has promised modernization of institutions, democratization of political systems, and cultural renewal of societies in the Third World. Have the promises of literacy been fulfilled? The processes of policy formulation, policy analysis and policy assessment are essentially social processes and a search for `proof' of the effects of literacy is naive, to say the least. What we need is a position on literacy promotion that is plausible, credible and probable, and thereby compelling for action. While both the enthusiasts for literacy and the sceptics continue to draw different conclusions from the same research and experience, a consensus is emerging that the question `Why Literacy?' should now be laid to rest. The question to ask now should be: `How Literacy?' In regard to the question of `How Literacy?', there are two basic positions: Should literacy be taught within the specific small-frame of the selective and intensive approach to literacy, with the provision of basic needs? Or, should literacy be taught within a large-frame of literacy as a `potential added', on a mass-scale and with the political orientation? This paper clearly opts for literacy as generative rather than merely instrumental.

Strategies to identify and reduce opioid misuse among patients with gastrointestinal disorders: A systematic scoping review

PubMed Central

Balbale, Salva N.; Trivedi, Itishree; O’Dwyer, Linda C.; McHugh, Megan C.; Evans, Charlesnika T.; Jordan, Neil; Keefer, Laurie A.

2018-01-01

Background Scoping reviews are preliminary assessments intended to characterize the extent and nature of emerging research evidence, identify literature gaps, and offer directions for future research. We conducted a systematic scoping review to describe published scientific literature on strategies to identify and reduce opioid misuse among patients with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and disorders. Methods We performed structured keyword searches to identify manuscripts published through June 2016 in the PubMed MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Scopus, and Web of Science databases to extract original research articles that described health care practices, tools or interventions to identify and reduce opioid misuse among GI patients. The Chronic Care Model (CCM) was used to classify the strategies presented. Results Twelve articles met the inclusion criteria. A majority of studies used quasi-experimental or retrospective cohort study designs. Most studies addressed the CCM’s clinical information systems element. Seven studies involved identification of opioid misuse through prescription drug monitoring and opioid misuse screening tools. Four studies discussed reductions in opioid use by harnessing drug monitoring data and individual care plans, and implementing self-management and opioid detoxification interventions. One study described drug monitoring and an audit-and-feedback intervention to both identify and reduce opioid misuse. Greatest reductions in opioid misuse were observed when drug monitoring, self-management, or audit-and-feedback interventions were used. Conclusions Prescription drug monitoring and self-management interventions may be promising strategies to identify and reduce opioid misuse in gastrointestinal care. Rigorous, empirical research is needed to evaluate the longer-term impact of these strategies. PMID:28780607

Strategies to Identify and Reduce Opioid Misuse Among Patients with Gastrointestinal Disorders: A Systematic Scoping Review.

PubMed

Balbale, Salva N; Trivedi, Itishree; O'Dwyer, Linda C; McHugh, Megan C; Evans, Charlesnika T; Jordan, Neil; Keefer, Laurie A

2017-10-01

Scoping reviews are preliminary assessments intended to characterize the extent and nature of emerging research evidence, identify literature gaps, and offer directions for future research. We conducted a systematic scoping review to describe published scientific literature on strategies to identify and reduce opioid misuse among patients with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and disorders. We performed structured keyword searches to identify manuscripts published through June 2016 in the PubMed MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Scopus, and Web of Science databases to extract original research articles that described healthcare practices, tools, or interventions to identify and reduce opioid misuse among GI patients. The Chronic Care Model (CCM) was used to classify the strategies presented. Twelve articles met the inclusion criteria. A majority of studies used quasi-experimental or retrospective cohort study designs. Most studies addressed the CCM's clinical information systems element. Seven studies involved identification of opioid misuse through prescription drug monitoring and opioid misuse screening tools. Four studies discussed reductions in opioid use by harnessing drug monitoring data and individual care plans, and implementing self-management and opioid detoxification interventions. One study described drug monitoring and an audit-and-feedback intervention to both identify and reduce opioid misuse. Greatest reductions in opioid misuse were observed when drug monitoring, self-management, or audit-and-feedback interventions were used. Prescription drug monitoring and self-management interventions may be promising strategies to identify and reduce opioid misuse in GI care. Rigorous, empirical research is needed to evaluate the longer-term impact of these strategies.

Conformation-Directed Formation of Self-Healing Diblock Copolypeptide Hydrogels via Polyion Complexation.

PubMed

Sun, Yintao; Wollenberg, Alexander L; O'Shea, Timothy Mark; Cui, Yanxiang; Zhou, Z Hong; Sofroniew, Michael V; Deming, Timothy J

2017-10-25

Synthetic diblock copolypeptides were designed to incorporate oppositely charged ionic segments that form β-sheet-structured hydrogel assemblies via polyion complexation when mixed in aqueous media. The observed chain conformation directed assembly was found to be required for efficient hydrogel formation and provided distinct and useful properties to these hydrogels, including self-healing after deformation, microporous architecture, and stability against dilution in aqueous media. While many promising self-assembled materials have been prepared using disordered or liquid coacervate polyion complex (PIC) assemblies, the use of ordered chain conformations in PIC assemblies to direct formation of new supramolecular morphologies is unprecedented. The promising attributes and unique features of the β-sheet-structured PIC hydrogels described here highlight the potential of harnessing conformational order derived from PIC assembly to create new supramolecular materials.

Embolization of direct carotid cavernous fistulas with the novel double-balloon technique

PubMed Central

Niu, Yin; Li, Lin; Tang, Jun; Zhu, Gang

2015-01-01

Multiple endovascular management of direct carotid cavernous fistula (CCF) has been widely accepted as a treatment option. Embolization of the fistula with detachable balloons or thrombogenic coil-based occlusion has been the main choice to treat direct CCF, with good safety and efficacy. This study investigated the safety and efficacy of embolization of direct CCF with the novel double-balloon technique. A retrospective review of a prospective database on cerebral vascular disease was performed. We identified a total of five patients presenting with high-flow direct CCF. All patients were managed with transarterial embolization with the novel double-balloon technique. Three of the five patients were treated with two detachable balloons, and a completely occluded fistula with preservation of the internal carotid artery was achieved. Of the remaining two patients treated with more detachable balloons, one patient achieved a perfect outcome and the other one suffered from recurrent fistula due to balloon migration 3 weeks after embolization. During a follow-up period of 12–18 months, no symptoms reoccurred in any patient. Thus, the double-balloon treatment may be a promising method for CCF complete occlusion. This novel technique may bring more benefits in the following two cases: 1). A single inflated detachable balloon fails to completely occlude the CCF, which causing the next balloon can not pass into the fistula. 2). A giant CCF needs more balloons for fistula embolization. PMID:26586136

A Legal Brief--Unfulfilled Hiring Promises.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zirkel, Perry A.; Gluckman, Ivan B.

1988-01-01

Using a specific case, this article reviews some common areas of contract and tort law applicable to principals and employment practices in public and private schools. The question/answer format treats contract validity, negligent misrepresentation, and constitutionality issues involved in a case based on unfulfilled hiring promises. Includes four…

New Promising Strategies in Oncofertility

PubMed Central

Hudson, Janella N.; Stanley, Nathanael B.; Nahata, Leena; Bowman-Curci, Meghan; Quinn, Gwendolyn P.

2017-01-01

Introduction Approximately 70,000 adolescent and young adults (AYA) are diagnosed with cancer each year. While advancements in treatment have led to improved prognosis and survival for patients, these same treatments can adversely affect AYA reproductive capacity. Localized treatments such as surgery and radiation therapy may affect fertility by removing or damaging reproductive organs, and systemic therapies such as chemotherapy can be toxic to gonads, (ovaries and testicles), thus affecting fertility and/or endocrine function. This can be traumatic for AYA with cancer as survivors often express desire to have genetic children and report feelings of regret or depression as a result of infertility caused by cancer treatments. Areas Covered Emerging technologies in the field of assisted reproductive technology offer new promise for preserving the reproductive capacity of AYA cancer patients prior to treatment as well as providing alternatives for survivors. The following review revisits contemporary approaches to fertility preservation as well newly developing technologies. Expert Commentary There are several advances in ART that hold promise for patients and survivors. However there are challenges that inhibit uptake including poor communication between providers and patients about risks and fertility preservation options; high costs; and lack of insurance coverage for fertility preservation services. PMID:28959743

Rational and random mutagenesis of firefly luciferase to identify an efficient emitter of red bioluminescence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Branchini, Bruce R.; Southworth, Tara L.; Khattak, Neelum F.; Murtiashaw, Martha H.; Fleet, Sarah E.

2004-06-01

Firefly luciferase, which emits yellow-green (557 nm) light, and the corresponding cDNA have been used successfully as a bioluminescence reporter of gene expression. One particularly exciting application is in the area of in vivo bioluminescence imaging. Our interest is in developing improved reagents by identifying Photinus pyralis luciferase mutants that efficiently emit red bioluminescence. In this way, the proven advantages of the P. pyralis protein can be combined with the potential advantages of a red-shifted emitter. Using site-directed mutagenesis techniques, we have identified many mutants emitting red bioluminescence. Unfortunately, these enzymes generally have significantly decreased bioluminescence activity. Interestingly, we discovered a mutation, Ile351Ala, that produced a moderate 16 nm red-shift, while maintaining excellent bioluminescence activity. We then undertook a random mutagenesis approach to identify luciferase mutants that emit further red-shifted bioluminescence with minimal loss of activity. Libraries of mutants were created using an error-prone PCR method and the Ile351Ala luciferase mutant as the template DNA. The libraries were screened by in vivo bacterial assays and the promising mutants were purified to enable accurate determination of bioluminescence emission spectra and total bioluminescence activity. We will report the characterization results, including the identification of the randomly altered amino acids, of several mutants that catalyze bioluminescence with emission maxima of approximately 600 nm.

Single measure and gated screening approaches for identifying students at-risk for academic problems: Implications for sensitivity and specificity.

PubMed

Van Norman, Ethan R; Nelson, Peter M; Klingbeil, David A

2017-09-01

Educators need recommendations to improve screening practices without limiting students' instructional opportunities. Repurposing previous years' state test scores has shown promise in identifying at-risk students within multitiered systems of support. However, researchers have not directly compared the diagnostic accuracy of previous years' state test scores with data collected during fall screening periods to identify at-risk students. In addition, the benefit of using previous state test scores in conjunction with data from a separate measure to identify at-risk students has not been explored. The diagnostic accuracy of 3 types of screening approaches were tested to predict proficiency on end-of-year high-stakes assessments: state test data obtained during the previous year, data from a different measure administered in the fall, and both measures combined (i.e., a gated model). Extant reading and math data (N = 2,996) from 10 schools in the Midwest were analyzed. When used alone, both measures yielded similar sensitivity and specificity values. The gated model yielded superior specificity values compared with using either measure alone, at the expense of sensitivity. Implications, limitations, and ideas for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Alcohol Research: Promise for the Decade.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordis, Enoch

Over the past 20 years, alcohol researchers have made intensive efforts to understand alcohol use and its outcomes. To date, researchers have made much progress toward understanding the causes and consequences of alcoholism and its related problems. This publication attempts to convey the great spirit and promise of alcohol research. Established…

High-Throughput Effect-Directed Analysis Using Downscaled in Vitro Reporter Gene Assays To Identify Endocrine Disruptors in Surface Water

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Effect-directed analysis (EDA) is a commonly used approach for effect-based identification of endocrine disruptive chemicals in complex (environmental) mixtures. However, for routine toxicity assessment of, for example, water samples, current EDA approaches are considered time-consuming and laborious. We achieved faster EDA and identification by downscaling of sensitive cell-based hormone reporter gene assays and increasing fractionation resolution to allow testing of smaller fractions with reduced complexity. The high-resolution EDA approach is demonstrated by analysis of four environmental passive sampler extracts. Downscaling of the assays to a 384-well format allowed analysis of 64 fractions in triplicate (or 192 fractions without technical replicates) without affecting sensitivity compared to the standard 96-well format. Through a parallel exposure method, agonistic and antagonistic androgen and estrogen receptor activity could be measured in a single experiment following a single fractionation. From 16 selected candidate compounds, identified through nontargeted analysis, 13 could be confirmed chemically and 10 were found to be biologically active, of which the most potent nonsteroidal estrogens were identified as oxybenzone and piperine. The increased fractionation resolution and the higher throughput that downscaling provides allow for future application in routine high-resolution screening of large numbers of samples in order to accelerate identification of (emerging) endocrine disruptors. PMID:29547277

77 FR 18967 - Airworthiness Directives; Eurocopter France Helicopters

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-29

...-0339; Directorate Identifier 2011-SW-051-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Eurocopter France...). SUMMARY: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Eurocopter France (Eurocopter... Airworthiness Directive (AD): Eurocopter France: Docket No. FAA-2012-0339; Directorate Identifier 2011-SW-051-AD...

Big data analytics in healthcare: promise and potential.

PubMed

Raghupathi, Wullianallur; Raghupathi, Viju

2014-01-01

To describe the promise and potential of big data analytics in healthcare. The paper describes the nascent field of big data analytics in healthcare, discusses the benefits, outlines an architectural framework and methodology, describes examples reported in the literature, briefly discusses the challenges, and offers conclusions. The paper provides a broad overview of big data analytics for healthcare researchers and practitioners. Big data analytics in healthcare is evolving into a promising field for providing insight from very large data sets and improving outcomes while reducing costs. Its potential is great; however there remain challenges to overcome.

TOMORROW'S READING INSTRUCTION--PARADOX AND PROMISE.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

SMITH, NILA BANTON

THE PARADOXES AND PROMISES OF TOMORROWS READING INSTRUCTION ARE PROJECTED AND ANALYZED. CURRENT AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS IN THE AREAS OF TRANSPORTATION, COMMUNICATION, CHEMISTRY, PSYCHOLOGY, AND MEDICINE ARE DISCUSSED IN LIGHT OF THE IMPACT THESE INNOVATIONS WILL MAKE ON SOCIETY. THE CHANGES IN EDUCATION IN GENERAL AND IN THE TEACHING OF READING IN…

Integrated intravascular ultrasound and optical coherence tomography technology: a promising tool to identify vulnerable plaques [INVITED PAPER

PubMed Central

Li, Jiawen; Chen, Zhongping

2017-01-01

Heart attack is mainly caused by the rupture of a vulnerable plaque. IVUS-OCT is a novel medical imaging modality that provides opportunities for accurate assessment of vulnerable plaques in vivo in patients. IVUS provides deep penetration to image the whole necrotic core while OCT enables accurate measurement of the fibrous cap of a plaque owing to its high resolution. In this paper, the authors describe the fundamentals, the technical designs and the applications of IVUS-OCT technology. Results from cadaver specimens are summarized, which indicated the complementary nature of OCT and IVUS for assessment of vulnerable plaques, plaque composition, and stent-tissue interactions. Furthermore, previously reported in vivo animal experiments are reviewed to assess the clinical adaptability of IVUS-OCT. Future directions for this technology are also discussed in this review. PMID:28966987

An in silico method to identify computer-based protocols worthy of clinical study: An insulin infusion protocol use case

PubMed Central

Wong, Anthony F; Pielmeier, Ulrike; Haug, Peter J; Andreassen, Steen

2016-01-01

Objective Develop an efficient non-clinical method for identifying promising computer-based protocols for clinical study. An in silico comparison can provide information that informs the decision to proceed to a clinical trial. The authors compared two existing computer-based insulin infusion protocols: eProtocol-insulin from Utah, USA, and Glucosafe from Denmark. Materials and Methods The authors used eProtocol-insulin to manage intensive care unit (ICU) hyperglycemia with intravenous (IV) insulin from 2004 to 2010. Recommendations accepted by the bedside clinicians directly link the subsequent blood glucose values to eProtocol-insulin recommendations and provide a unique clinical database. The authors retrospectively compared in silico 18 984 eProtocol-insulin continuous IV insulin infusion rate recommendations from 408 ICU patients with those of Glucosafe, the candidate computer-based protocol. The subsequent blood glucose measurement value (low, on target, high) was used to identify if the insulin recommendation was too high, on target, or too low. Results Glucosafe consistently provided more favorable continuous IV insulin infusion rate recommendations than eProtocol-insulin for on target (64% of comparisons), low (80% of comparisons), or high (70% of comparisons) blood glucose. Aggregated eProtocol-insulin and Glucosafe continuous IV insulin infusion rates were clinically similar though statistically significantly different (Wilcoxon signed rank test P = .01). In contrast, when stratified by low, on target, or high subsequent blood glucose measurement, insulin infusion rates from eProtocol-insulin and Glucosafe were statistically significantly different (Wilcoxon signed rank test, P < .001), and clinically different. Discussion This in silico comparison appears to be an efficient nonclinical method for identifying promising computer-based protocols. Conclusion Preclinical in silico comparison analytical framework allows rapid and inexpensive

CRISPR-Cas9: a promising genetic engineering approach in cancer research.

PubMed

Ratan, Zubair Ahmed; Son, Young-Jin; Haidere, Mohammad Faisal; Uddin, Bhuiyan Mohammad Mahtab; Yusuf, Md Abdullah; Zaman, Sojib Bin; Kim, Jong-Hoon; Banu, Laila Anjuman; Cho, Jae Youl

2018-01-01

Bacteria and archaea possess adaptive immunity against foreign genetic materials through clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) systems. The discovery of this intriguing bacterial system heralded a revolutionary change in the field of medical science. The CRISPR and CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) based molecular mechanism has been applied to genome editing. This CRISPR-Cas9 technique is now able to mediate precise genetic corrections or disruptions in in vitro and in vivo environments. The accuracy and versatility of CRISPR-Cas have been capitalized upon in biological and medical research and bring new hope to cancer research. Cancer involves complex alterations and multiple mutations, translocations and chromosomal losses and gains. The ability to identify and correct such mutations is an important goal in cancer treatment. In the context of this complex cancer genomic landscape, there is a need for a simple and flexible genetic tool that can easily identify functional cancer driver genes within a comparatively short time. The CRISPR-Cas system shows promising potential for modeling, repairing and correcting genetic events in different types of cancer. This article reviews the concept of CRISPR-Cas, its application and related advantages in oncology.

The Struggle between Conflicting Beliefs: On the Promise of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boman, Ylva

2006-01-01

Education is thought to provide a certain outcome--a "promise". I argue that a promise that education will counteract cultural and social disintegration involves a risk of engendering narrow social and cultural incorporation. On what reasonable basis could education contribute to civic life, when contemporary Western society is represented by a…

Progress and Future Directions in Research on the Psychosis Prodrome: A Review for Clinicians

PubMed Central

Woodberry, Kristen A; Shapiro, Daniel I; Bryant, Caitlin; Seidman, Larry J.

2016-01-01

The psychosis prodrome, or period of clinical and functional decline leading up to acute psychosis, offers a unique opportunity for identifying mechanisms of psychosis onset and testing early intervention strategies. We summarize major findings and emerging directions in prodromal research and provide recommendations for clinicians working with individuals suspected to be at high risk for psychosis. The past two decades of research have led to three major advances. First, tools and criteria have been developed that can reliably identify imminent risk for a psychotic disorder. Second, longitudinal clinical and psychobiological data from large multisite studies are strengthening individual risk assessment and offering insights into potential mechanisms of illness onset. Third, psychosocial and pharmacological interventions are demonstrating promise for delaying or preventing the onset of psychosis in help-seeking, high-risk individuals. The dynamic psychobiological processes implicated in both risk and onset of psychosis, including altered gene expression, cognitive dysfunction, inflammation, gray and white matter brain changes, and vulnerability-stress interactions suggest a wide range of potential treatment targets and strategies. The expansion of resources devoted to early intervention and prodromal research worldwide raises hope for investigating them. Future directions include identifying psychosis-specific risk and resilience factors in children, adolescents, and non-help-seeking community samples, improving study designs to test hypothesized mechanisms of change, and intervening with strategies that better engage youth, their environmental contexts, and neurodevelopmental targets to improve functional outcomes. Prospective research on putatively prodromal samples has the potential to substantially reshape our understanding of mental illness and our efforts to combat it. PMID:26954594

The copepod Tigriopus: a promising marine model organism for ecotoxicology and environmental genomics.

PubMed

Raisuddin, Sheikh; Kwok, Kevin W H; Leung, Kenneth M Y; Schlenk, Daniel; Lee, Jae-Seong

2007-07-20

There is an increasing body of evidence to support the significant role of invertebrates in assessing impacts of environmental contaminants on marine ecosystems. Therefore, in recent years massive efforts have been directed to identify viable and ecologically relevant invertebrate toxicity testing models. Tigriopus, a harpacticoid copepod has a number of promising characteristics which make it a candidate worth consideration in such efforts. Tigriopus and other copepods are widely distributed and ecologically important organisms. Their position in marine food chains is very prominent, especially with regard to the transfer of energy. Copepods also play an important role in the transportation of aquatic pollutants across the food chains. In recent years there has been a phenomenal increase in the knowledge base of Tigriopus spp., particularly in the areas of their ecology, geophylogeny, genomics and their behavioural, biochemical and molecular responses following exposure to environmental stressors and chemicals. Sequences of a number of important marker genes have been studied in various Tigriopus spp., notably T. californicus and T. japonicus. These genes belong to normal biophysiological functions (e.g. electron transport system enzymes) as well as stress and toxic chemical exposure responses (heat shock protein 20, glutathione reductase, glutathione S-transferase). Recently, 40,740 expressed sequenced tags (ESTs) from T. japonicus, have been sequenced and of them, 5,673 ESTs showed significant hits (E-value, >1.0E-05) to the red flour beetle Tribolium genome database. Metals and organic pollutants such as antifouling agents, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and polychrlorinated biphenyls (PCB) have shown reproducible biological responses when tested in Tigriopus spp. Promising results have been obtained when Tigriopus was used for assessment of risk associated with exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Application of environmental

The Promise of Quantum Simulation.

PubMed

Muller, Richard P; Blume-Kohout, Robin

2015-08-25

Quantum simulations promise to be one of the primary applications of quantum computers, should one be constructed. This article briefly summarizes the history of quantum simulation in light of the recent result of Wang and co-workers, demonstrating calculation of the ground and excited states for a HeH(+) molecule, and concludes with a discussion of why this and other recent progress in the field suggest that quantum simulations of quantum chemistry have a bright future.

The promise of cyborg intelligence.

PubMed

Brown, Michael F; Brown, Alexander A

2017-03-01

Yu et al. (2016) demonstrated that algorithms designed to find efficient routes in standard mazes can be integrated with the natural processes controlling rat navigation and spatial choices, and they pointed out the promise of such "cyborg intelligence" for biorobotic applications. Here, we briefly describe Yu et al.'s work, explore its relevance to the study of comparative cognition, and indicate how work involving cyborg intelligence would benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration between behavioral scientists and engineers.

The promise of quantum simulation

DOE PAGES

Muller, Richard P.; Blume-Kohout, Robin

2015-07-21

In this study, quantum simulations promise to be one of the primary applications of quantum computers, should one be constructed. This article briefly summarizes the history of quantum simulation in light of the recent result of Wang and co-workers, demonstrating calculation of the ground and excited states for a HeH + molecule, and concludes with a discussion of why this and other recent progress in the field suggest that quantum simulations of quantum chemistry have a bright future.

Complexes of metal chlorides with proton donors — promising polyfunctional catalysts for electrophilic processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Minsker, Karl S.; Ivanova, S. R.; Biglova, Raisa Z.

1995-05-01

The Bronsted acids formed as a result of the interaction of aluminium chlorides with Group I and II metal chlorides in the presence of proton-donating compounds are promising polyfunctional catalysts for electrophilic processes (polymerisation, depolymerisation and degradation of macromolecules, alkylation, desulfurisation, and hydrogenation). The factor determing the electrophilic activity and selectivity of the action of the catalysts is their acidity. This makes it possible to predict the direction of the changes in the activity and selectivity of the catalyst in specific chemical processes in conformity with the opposite variation rule: with increase in the acidity of the electrophilic catalyst, their activity increases but the selectivity of their action diminishes. The bibliography includes 72 references.

Direct Detection of T- and B-Memory Lymphocytes by ImmunoSpot® Assays Reveals HCMV Exposure that Serum Antibodies Fail to Identify.

PubMed

Terlutter, Fredrik; Caspell, Richard; Nowacki, Tobias M; Lehmann, Alexander; Li, Ruliang; Zhang, Ting; Przybyla, Anna; Kuerten, Stefanie; Lehmann, Paul V

2018-05-19

It is essential to identify donors who have not been infected with human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in order to avoid transmission of HCMV to recipients of blood transfusions or organ transplants. In the present study, we tested the reliability of seronegativity as an indicator for the lack of HCMV exposure in healthy human blood donors. Eighty-two HCMV seronegative individuals were identified, and their peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were tested in ImmunoSpot® assays for the presence of HCMV-specific T- and B-memory lymphocytes. Eighty-two percent (67 of 82) of these HCMV seronegative individuals featured at least one memory cell that was lineage specific for HCMV, with the majority of these subjects possessing CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, as well as B cells, providing three independent lines of evidence for having developed immunity to HCMV. Only 15 of these 82 donors (18%) showed neither T- nor B-cell memory to HCMV, consistent with immunological naïveté to the virus. The data suggest that measurements of serum antibodies frequently fail to reveal HCMV exposure in humans, which may be better identified by direct detection of HCMV-specific memory lymphocytes.

Head-Directional Tuning and Theta Modulation of Anatomically Identified Neurons in the Presubiculum.

PubMed

Tukker, John J; Tang, Qiusong; Burgalossi, Andrea; Brecht, Michael

2015-11-18

The presubiculum provides a major input to the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) and contains cells that encode for the animal's head direction (HD), as well as other cells likely to be important for navigation and memory, including grid cells. To understand the mechanisms underlying HD cell firing and its effects on other parts of the circuit, it is important to determine the anatomical identity of these functionally defined cells. Therefore, we juxtacellularly recorded single cells in the presubiculum in freely moving rats, finding two classes of cells based on firing patterns and juxtacellular labeling (of a subset). Regular-firing cells had the anatomical characteristics of pyramidal cells and included most recorded HD cells. Therefore, HD cells are likely to be excitatory pyramidal cells. For one HD cell, we could follow an axon projecting directly to the MEC. Fast-spiking (FS) cells had the anatomical characteristics of interneurons and displayed weak HD tuning. Furthermore, FS cells displayed a surprising lack of theta-rhythmic firing, in strong contrast to the FS cells that we recorded in the MEC. Overall, we show that HD cells in the presubiculum are pyramidal cells, with FS interneurons only showing weak HD tuning; therefore, MEC may receive an excitatory HD input, as previously assumed by many models. The lack of theta rhythmicity in FS interneurons suggests that different mechanisms may underlie theta in different parts of the hippocampal formation. In freely moving rats, we recorded and labeled single neurons in the presubiculum, an area providing one of the major inputs to the medial entorhinal cortex and part of a network involved in spatial navigation and memory. Post hoc identification of labeled cells showed that (fast-spiking, FS) interneurons and pyramidal cells in the presubiculum can be distinguished based on physiological criteria. We found that both moderately and strongly tuned head-direction (HD) cells are pyramidal cells and therefore likely

TurboBrayton Cryocooler: A Flight Worthy and Promising Future

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gibbon, Judith A.; Swift, Walt L.; Zagarola, Mark V.; DiPirro, Mike; Whitehouse, Paul

1999-01-01

A new development in cryocooler technology, a reverse TurboBrayton cycle cryocooler, developed by Creare, Inc. of Hanover, NH, has now been flight tested. This cooler provides high reliability and long life. With no linear moving components common in current flight cryocoolers, the TurboBrayton cooler requires no active control systems to provide a vibration-free signature. The cooler provides first stage cooling for advanced cryogenic systems and serves as a direct replacement for stored cryogen systems with a longer lifetime. Following a successful flight on STS-95, a TurboBrayton cryocooler will be flown on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 2000 to provide renewed refrigeration capability for the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). The TurboBrayton cycle cooler is a promising technology already being considered for additional flight programs such as Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) and Constellation X. These future missions require an advanced generation of the cooler that is currently under development to provide cooling at 10K and less. This paper presents an overview of the current generation cooler with recent flight test results and details the current plans and development progress on the next generation TurboBrayton technology for future missions.

Circulation and Directional Amplification in the Josephson Parametric Converter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hatridge, Michael

Nonreciprocal transport and directional amplification of weak microwave signals are fundamental ingredients in performing efficient measurements of quantum states of flying microwave light. This challenge has been partly met, as quantum-limited amplification is now regularly achieved with parametrically-driven, Josephson-junction based superconducting circuits. However, these devices are typically non-directional, requiring external circulators to separate incoming and outgoing signals. Recently this limitation has been overcome by several proposals and experimental realizations of both directional amplifiers and circulators based on interference between several parametric processes in a single device. This new class of multi-parametrically driven devices holds the promise of achieving a variety of desirable characteristics simultaneously- directionality, reduced gain-bandwidth constraints and quantum-limited added noise, and are good candidates for on-chip integration with other superconducting circuits such as qubits.

Identifying Autism from Resting-State fMRI Using Long Short-Term Memory Networks.

PubMed

Dvornek, Nicha C; Ventola, Pamela; Pelphrey, Kevin A; Duncan, James S

2017-09-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has helped characterize the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and carries promise for producing objective biomarkers for ASD. Recent work has focused on deriving ASD biomarkers from resting-state functional connectivity measures. However, current efforts that have identified ASD with high accuracy were limited to homogeneous, small datasets, while classification results for heterogeneous, multi-site data have shown much lower accuracy. In this paper, we propose the use of recurrent neural networks with long short-term memory (LSTMs) for classification of individuals with ASD and typical controls directly from the resting-state fMRI time-series. We used the entire large, multi-site Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) I dataset for training and testing the LSTM models. Under a cross-validation framework, we achieved classification accuracy of 68.5%, which is 9% higher than previously reported methods that used fMRI data from the whole ABIDE cohort. Finally, we presented interpretation of the trained LSTM weights, which highlight potential functional networks and regions that are known to be implicated in ASD.

Identifying Autism from Resting-State fMRI Using Long Short-Term Memory Networks

PubMed Central

Dvornek, Nicha C.; Ventola, Pamela; Pelphrey, Kevin A.; Duncan, James S.

2017-01-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has helped characterize the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and carries promise for producing objective biomarkers for ASD. Recent work has focused on deriving ASD biomarkers from resting-state functional connectivity measures. However, current efforts that have identified ASD with high accuracy were limited to homogeneous, small datasets, while classification results for heterogeneous, multi-site data have shown much lower accuracy. In this paper, we propose the use of recurrent neural networks with long short-term memory (LSTMs) for classification of individuals with ASD and typical controls directly from the resting-state fMRI time-series. We used the entire large, multi-site Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) I dataset for training and testing the LSTM models. Under a cross-validation framework, we achieved classification accuracy of 68.5%, which is 9% higher than previously reported methods that used fMRI data from the whole ABIDE cohort. Finally, we presented interpretation of the trained LSTM weights, which highlight potential functional networks and regions that are known to be implicated in ASD. PMID:29104967

Band-Limited Masks and Direct Imaging of Exoplanets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kuchner, Marc J.

2009-01-01

Band-limited masks have become the baseline design for what is now called "classical TPF" and also the N|RCamcomnagraphonJW8 .This technology remains one of the most promising paths for direct detection ofmxop|anedm and disks. I'll describe some of the latest progress in the implementation of this technique and what we have learned about where it can and can not be effectively applied.

Carnosol: a promising anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory agent.

PubMed

Johnson, Jeremy J

2011-06-01

The Mediterranean diet and more specifically certain meats, fruits, vegetables, and olive oil found in certain parts of the Mediterranean region have been associated with a decreased cardiovascular and diabetes risk. More recently, several population based studies have observed with these lifestyle choices have reported an overall reduced risk for several cancers. One study in particular observed an inverse relationship between consumption of Mediterranean herbs such as rosemary, sage, parsley, and oregano with lung cancer. In light of these findings there is a need to explore and identify the anti-cancer properties of these medicinal herbs and to identify the phytochemicals therein. One agent in particular, carnosol, has been evaluated for anti-cancer property in prostate, breast, skin, leukemia, and colon cancer with promising results. These studies have provided evidence that carnosol targets multiple deregulated pathways associated with inflammation and cancer that include nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB), apoptotic related proteins, phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3 K)/Akt, androgen and estrogen receptors, as well as molecular targets. In addition, carnosol appears to be well tolerated in that it has a selective toxicity towards cancer cells versus non-tumorigenic cells and is well tolerated when administered to animals. This mini-review reports on the pre-clinical studies that have been performed to date with carnosol describing mechanistic, efficacy, and safety/tolerability studies as a cancer chemoprevention and anti-cancer agent. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mathematical Profiles and Problem Solving Abilities of Mathematically Promising Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Budak, Ibrahim

2012-01-01

Mathematically promising students are defined as those who have the potential to become the leaders and problem solvers of the future. The purpose of this research is to reveal what problem solving abilities mathematically promising students show in solving non-routine problems and type of profiles they present in the classroom and during problem…

The Promises of Moral Foundations Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Musschenga, Bert

2013-01-01

In this article I examine whether Moral Foundations Theory can fulfil the promises that Haidt claims for the theory: that it will help in developing new approaches to moral education and to the moral conflicts that divide our diverse society. I argue that, first, the model that Haidt suggests for understanding the plurality of moralities--a shared…

The Promise of Zoomable User Interfaces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bederson, Benjamin B.

2011-01-01

Zoomable user interfaces (ZUIs) have received a significant amount of attention in the 18 years since they were introduced. They have enjoyed some success, and elements of ZUIs are widely used in computers today, although the grand vision of a zoomable desktop has not materialised. This paper describes the premise and promise of ZUIs along with…

78 FR 59295 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-26

...-0829; Directorate Identifier 2013-NM-085-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to supersede airworthiness directive (AD) 2010-23- 12, which applies to certain Airbus... through Friday, except Federal holidays. For Airbus service information identified in this proposed AD...

Direct identification of microorganisms from positive blood cultures using the lysis-filtration technique and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS): a multicentre study.

PubMed

Farina, Claudio; Arena, Fabio; Casprini, Patrizia; Cichero, Paola; Clementi, Massimo; Cosentino, Marina; Degl'Innocenti, Roberto; Giani, Tommaso; Luzzaro, Francesco; Mattei, Romano; Mauri, Carola; Nardone, Maria; Rossolini, Gian Maria; Serna Ortega, Paula Andrea; Vailati, Francesca

2015-04-01

Microbial identification from blood cultures is essential to institute optimal antibiotic therapy and improve survival possibilities. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been successfully applied to identify bacteria and yeasts from positive blood cultures broths. The aim of this multicentre study was to evaluate the reliability of the lysis-filtration technique associated with MALDI-TOF MS to directly identify microorganisms from 765 positive blood cultures collected in six Italian hospitals. Overall, 675/765 (78.1%) blood isolates were correctly identified at the species level, with significant differences between Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria (92.6%, and 69.8%, respectively). Some difficulties arise in identifying Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, yeasts and anaerobes. The lysis-filtration protocol is a suitable procedure in terms of performance in identifying microorganisms, but it is quite expensive and technically time-consuming since the time of filtration is not regular for all the samples. The application of the MALDI-TOF MS technique to the direct microbial identification from positive blood cultures is a very promising approach, even if more experience must be gained to minimize errors and costs.

Unary probabilistic and quantum automata on promise problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gainutdinova, Aida; Yakaryılmaz, Abuzer

2018-02-01

We continue the systematic investigation of probabilistic and quantum finite automata (PFAs and QFAs) on promise problems by focusing on unary languages. We show that bounded-error unary QFAs are more powerful than bounded-error unary PFAs, and, contrary to the binary language case, the computational power of Las-Vegas QFAs and bounded-error PFAs is equivalent to the computational power of deterministic finite automata (DFAs). Then, we present a new family of unary promise problems defined with two parameters such that when fixing one parameter QFAs can be exponentially more succinct than PFAs and when fixing the other parameter PFAs can be exponentially more succinct than DFAs.

Future directions for H sub x O sub y detection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crosley, David R. (Editor); Hoell, James M. (Editor)

1986-01-01

The activities and recommendations of the NASA workshop on the Future Directions for H sub x O sub y detection are given. The objective of this workshop was to access future directions for the measurement of the OH radical as well as other H sub x O sub y species. The workshop discussions were focused by two broad questions: (1) What are the capabilities of potential measurement methods? and (2) Will the results from the most promising method be useful in furthering understanding of tropospheric chemistry?

Future directions in early cystic fibrosis lung disease research: an NHLBI workshop report.

PubMed

Ramsey, Bonnie W; Banks-Schlegel, Susan; Accurso, Frank J; Boucher, Richard C; Cutting, Garry R; Engelhardt, John F; Guggino, William B; Karp, Christopher L; Knowles, Michael R; Kolls, Jay K; LiPuma, John J; Lynch, Susan; McCray, Paul B; Rubenstein, Ronald C; Singh, Pradeep K; Sorscher, Eric; Welsh, Michael

2012-04-15

Since the 1989 discovery that mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene cause cystic fibrosis (CF), there has been substantial progress toward understanding the molecular basis for CF lung disease, leading to the discovery and development of new therapeutic approaches. However, the earliest impact of the loss of CFTR function on airway physiology and structure and its relationship to initial infection and inflammation are poorly understood. Universal newborn screening for CF in the United States represents an unprecedented opportunity for investigating CF clinical manifestations very early in life. Recently developed animal models with pulmonary phenotypic manifestations also provide a window into the early consequences of this genetic disorder. For these reasons, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) convened a working group of extramural experts, entitled "Future Research Directions in Early CF Lung Disease" on September 21-22, 2010, to identify future research directions of great promise in CF. The priority areas identified included (1) exploring pathogenic mechanisms of early CF lung disease; (2) leveraging newborn screening to elucidate the natural history of early lung disease; (3) developing a spectrum of biomarkers of early lung disease that reflects CF pathophysiology, clinical outcome, and response to treatment; (4) exploring the role of genetics/genomics (e.g., modifier genes, gene-environmental interactions, and epigenetics) in early CF pathogenesis; (5) defining early microbiological events in CF lung disease; and (6) elucidating the initial airway inflammatory, remodeling, and repair mechanisms in CF lung disease.

Shared Curriculum Model: A Promising Practice for Education Transformation.

PubMed

Close, Liz; Gorski, Mary Sue; Sroczynski, Maureen; Farmer, Pat; Wortock, Jean

2015-12-01

The shared curriculum model is one of four successful models of academic progression identified through a consensus-building process facilitated by The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AARP, and the AARP Foundation. Seamless academic progression from the associate degree in nursing (ADN) to the baccalaureate degree in nursing (BSN) is achieved either by simultaneously revising both ADN and BSN curricula or by making targeted adjustments in ADN or BSN curricula to create a unified academic progression. Systematic vetting and definitive agreement on nursing prerequisites and corequisites, general education courses, nursing major content, and general degree requirements are necessary to ensure coordinated degree progression. A standardized set of expectations for beginning professional practice and for unique baccalaureate nursing knowledge ensures vital nursing content across the ADN-to-BSN continuum. Examples of state and regional ADN-to-BSN progression programs using the shared curriculum model are highlighted. The shared curriculum model is a promising practical and sustainable approach to seamless ADN-to-BSN academic progression. Copyright 2015, SLACK Incorporated.

78 FR 18925 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-28

...-0212; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-116-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus Model A330-223F, -223, -321...., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. For Airbus service information identified in this...

77 FR 26996 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-08

...-0427; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-202-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A320-214 and-232... Friday, except Federal holidays. For service information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus...

78 FR 37498 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-21

...-0463; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-165-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A330-200, -200... holidays. For service information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus SAS--Airworthiness Office...

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and language

PubMed Central

Monti, Alessia; Ferrucci, Roberta; Fumagalli, Manuela; Mameli, Francesca; Cogiamanian, Filippo; Ardolino, Gianluca; Priori, Alberto

2013-01-01

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive neuromodulation technique inducing prolonged brain excitability changes and promoting cerebral plasticity, is a promising option for neurorehabilitation. Here, we review progress in research on tDCS and language functions and on the potential role of tDCS in the treatment of post-stroke aphasia. Currently available data suggest that tDCS over language-related brain areas can modulate linguistic abilities in healthy individuals and can improve language performance in patients with aphasia. Whether the results obtained in experimental conditions are functionally important for the quality of life of patients and their caregivers remains unclear. Despite the fact that important variables are yet to be determined, tDCS combined with rehabilitation techniques seems a promising therapeutic option for aphasia. PMID:23138766

Prediction-Oriented Marker Selection (PROMISE): With Application to High-Dimensional Regression.

PubMed

Kim, Soyeon; Baladandayuthapani, Veerabhadran; Lee, J Jack

2017-06-01

In personalized medicine, biomarkers are used to select therapies with the highest likelihood of success based on an individual patient's biomarker/genomic profile. Two goals are to choose important biomarkers that accurately predict treatment outcomes and to cull unimportant biomarkers to reduce the cost of biological and clinical verifications. These goals are challenging due to the high dimensionality of genomic data. Variable selection methods based on penalized regression (e.g., the lasso and elastic net) have yielded promising results. However, selecting the right amount of penalization is critical to simultaneously achieving these two goals. Standard approaches based on cross-validation (CV) typically provide high prediction accuracy with high true positive rates but at the cost of too many false positives. Alternatively, stability selection (SS) controls the number of false positives, but at the cost of yielding too few true positives. To circumvent these issues, we propose prediction-oriented marker selection (PROMISE), which combines SS with CV to conflate the advantages of both methods. Our application of PROMISE with the lasso and elastic net in data analysis shows that, compared to CV, PROMISE produces sparse solutions, few false positives, and small type I + type II error, and maintains good prediction accuracy, with a marginal decrease in the true positive rates. Compared to SS, PROMISE offers better prediction accuracy and true positive rates. In summary, PROMISE can be applied in many fields to select regularization parameters when the goals are to minimize false positives and maximize prediction accuracy.

Directing-Group-mediated C-H-Alkynylations.

PubMed

Caspers, Lucien D; Nachtsheim, Boris J

2018-05-18

C-C triple bonds are amongst the most versatile functional groups in synthetic chemistry. Complementary to the Sonogashira coupling the direct metal-catalyzed alkynylation of C-H bonds has emerged as a highly promising approach in recent years. To guarantee a high regioselectivity suitable directing groups (DGs) are necessary to guide the transition metal (TM) into the right place. In this Focus Review we present the current developments in DG-mediated C(sp 2 )-H and C(sp 3 )-H modifications with terminal alkynes under oxidative conditions and with electrophilic alkynylation reagents. We will discuss further modifications of the alkyne, in particular subsequent cyclizations to carbo- and heterocycles and modifications of the DG in the presence of the alkyne. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Aptamer-Based Analysis: A Promising Alternative for Food Safety Control

PubMed Central

Amaya-González, Sonia; de-los-Santos-Álvarez, Noemí; Miranda-Ordieres, Arturo J.; Lobo-Castañón, Maria Jesús

2013-01-01

Ensuring food safety is nowadays a top priority of authorities and professional players in the food supply chain. One of the key challenges to determine the safety of food and guarantee a high level of consumer protection is the availability of fast, sensitive and reliable analytical methods to identify specific hazards associated to food before they become a health problem. The limitations of existing methods have encouraged the development of new technologies, among them biosensors. Success in biosensor design depends largely on the development of novel receptors with enhanced affinity to the target, while being stable and economical. Aptamers fulfill these characteristics, and thus have surfaced as promising alternatives to natural receptors. This Review describes analytical strategies developed so far using aptamers for the control of pathogens, allergens, adulterants, toxins and other forbidden contaminants to ensure food safety. The main progresses to date are presented, highlighting potential prospects for the future. PMID:24287543

Realizing the promise of social psychology in improving public health.

PubMed

Klein, William M P; Shepperd, James A; Suls, Jerry; Rothman, Alexander J; Croyle, Robert T

2015-02-01

The theories, phenomena, empirical findings, and methodological approaches that characterize contemporary social psychology hold much promise for addressing enduring problems in public health. Indeed, social psychologists played a major role in the development of the discipline of health psychology during the 1970s and 1980s. The health domain allows for the testing, refinement, and application of many interesting and important research questions in social psychology, and offers the discipline a chance to enhance its reach and visibility. Nevertheless, in a review of recent articles in two major social-psychological journals (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology), we found that only 3.2% of 467 studies explored health-related topics. In this article, we identify opportunities for research at the interface of social psychology and health, delineate barriers, and offer strategies that can address these barriers as the discipline continues to evolve. © 2014 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Directional semivariogram analysis to identify and rank controls on the spatial variability of fracture networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanke, John R.; Fischer, Mark P.; Pollyea, Ryan M.

2018-03-01

In this study, the directional semivariogram is deployed to investigate the spatial variability of map-scale fracture network attributes in the Paradox Basin, Utah. The relative variability ratio (R) is introduced as the ratio of integrated anisotropic semivariogram models, and R is shown to be an effective metric for quantifying the magnitude of spatial variability for any two azimuthal directions. R is applied to a GIS-based data set comprising roughly 1200 fractures, in an area which is bounded by a map-scale anticline and a km-scale normal fault. This analysis reveals that proximity to the fault strongly influences the magnitude of spatial variability for both fracture intensity and intersection density within 1-2 km. Additionally, there is significant anisotropy in the spatial variability, which is correlated with trends of the anticline and fault. The direction of minimum spatial correlation is normal to the fault at proximal distances, and gradually rotates and becomes subparallel to the fold axis over the same 1-2 km distance away from the fault. We interpret these changes to reflect varying scales of influence of the fault and the fold on fracture network development: the fault locally influences the magnitude and variability of fracture network attributes, whereas the fold sets the background level and structure of directional variability.

77 FR 16492 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-21

...-0291; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-168-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A318-112, and -121... identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus, Airworthiness Office--EAS, 1 Rond Point Maurice Bellonte...

77 FR 15644 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-16

...-0192; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-225-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A330-200 and -200... information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus SAS--Airworthiness Office--EAL, 1 Rond Point...

78 FR 25902 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-03

...-0363; Directorate Identifier 2013-NM-031-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus Model A330-200, -300 and -200... Friday, except Federal holidays. For service information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus...

77 FR 66760 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-11-07

...-1162; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-002-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus Model A330-200 Freighter, A330... information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus SAS--Airworthiness Office--EAL, 1 Rond Point...

77 FR 66762 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-11-07

...-1159; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-028-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A310-203, -204, -222... information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus SAS--EAW (Airworthiness Office), 1 Rond Point...

78 FR 29666 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-21

...-0422; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-097-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A330-200 and -300... information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus SAS--Airworthiness Office--EAL, 1 Rond Point...

76 FR 72350 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-23

...-1253; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-079-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A319, A320, and A321... Friday, except Federal holidays. For service information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus...

Identifying the immunomodulatory components of helminths.

PubMed

Shepherd, C; Navarro, S; Wangchuk, P; Wilson, D; Daly, N L; Loukas, A

2015-06-01

Immunomodulatory components of helminths offer great promise as an entirely new class of biologics for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Here, we discuss the emerging themes in helminth-driven immunomodulation in the context of therapeutic drug discovery. We broadly define the approaches that are currently applied by researchers to identify these helminth molecules, highlighting key areas of potential exploitation that have been mostly neglected thus far, notably small molecules. Finally, we propose that the investigation of immunomodulatory compounds will enable the translation of current and future research efforts into potential treatments for autoimmune and allergic diseases, while at the same time yielding new insights into the molecular interface of host-parasite biology. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

78 FR 60798 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-10-02

...-0363; Directorate Identifier 2013-NM-031-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes... directive (AD) for all Airbus Model A330-200, -300 and -200 Freighter series airplanes, and Model A340-200... information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus SAS--Airworthiness Office--EAL, 1 Rond Point...

77 FR 11793 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-28

...-0185; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-001-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A300 B4-103, B4-203... Friday, except Federal holidays. For service information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus...

77 FR 51729 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-27

...-0810; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-195-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A330-200, A330-300... identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus SAS--Airworthiness Office--EAL, 1 Rond Point Maurice Bellonte...

77 FR 60325 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-03

...-1253; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-079-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes... directive (AD) that would supersede an existing AD for certain Airbus Model A318, A319, A320, and A321... Friday, except Federal holidays. For service information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus...

Development of high temperature fasteners using directionally solidified eutectic alloys

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

George, F. D.

1972-01-01

The suitability of the eutectics for high temperature fasteners was investigated. Material properties were determined as a function of temperature, and included shear parallel and perpendicular to the growth direction and torsion parallel to it. Techniques for fabricating typical fastener shapes included grinding, creep forming, and direct casting. Both lamellar Ni3Al-Ni3Nb and fibrous (Co,Cr,Al)-(Cr,Co)7C3 alloys showed promise as candidate materials for high temperature fastener applications. A brief evaluation of the performance of the best fabricated fastener design was made.

The first two years of practice: a longitudinal perspective on the learning and professional development of promising novice physical therapists.

PubMed

Hayward, Lorna M; Black, Lisa L; Mostrom, Elizabeth; Jensen, Gail M; Ritzline, Pamela D; Perkins, Jan

2013-03-01

Physical therapists work in complex health care systems requiring professional competence in clinical reasoning and confidence in decision-making skills. For novice physical therapists, the initial practice years are a time for developing professional identity and practical knowledge. The study purpose was to extend previous research describing the experiences, learning, and professional development of 11 promising novice therapists during their first year of practice. The present study examined the continued development of the same therapists during their second year of clinical practice. Seven researchers from 4 physical therapist educational programs in the eastern and midwestern United States used a longitudinal, qualitative, multiple case study approach. Eleven physical therapist graduates identified as "promising novices" were recruited using purposive sampling. Participants ranged in age from 24 to 29 years and entered varied practice settings. Data were collected for 2 years using semistructured interviews, reflective journals, and participant observation. A conceptual model describing the participants' ongoing development during the second year of practice emerged. The 3 themes were formal and informal learning, increasing confidence and expansion of skills, and engagement in an environment characterized by collaborative exchange and opportunities for teaching. The second year represented consolidation and elaboration of practice-based learning and skills. The expansion of confidence, skills, and responsibilities and the externalization of learning the participants experienced promoted professional role formation. Learning previously directed inward and self-focused turned outward, fueled by growing self-confidence. Research illuminating the professional role formation experienced during early clinical practice is not widely available. The current study and further research into the learning and development of novice practitioners may assist educators in

PROMISE AND PLAUSIBILITY: HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION DECISIONS WITH LIMITED EVIDENCE.

PubMed

Campbell, Bruce; Knox, Paul

2016-01-01

The adoption of new medical devices and diagnostics is often hampered by lack of published evidence which makes conventional health technology assessment (HTA) difficult. We now have 5 years' experience of the Medical Technologies Advisory Committee of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom, addressing this problem. This committee assesses devices and diagnostics against claims of advantage, to produce guidance on adoption for the health service. We have reflected on the practical, technical, and intellectual processes we have used in developing guidance for the health service. When scientific and clinical evidence is sparse, promise and plausibility play an increased part in decision-making. Drivers of promise include a clear design and mechanism of action, the possibility of radical improvement in care and/or resource use, and improving health outcomes for large numbers of patients. Plausibility relates to judgements about the whether the promise is likely to be delivered in a "real world" setting. Promise and plausibility need to be balanced against the amount of evidence available. We examine the influence they may have on decision-making compared with other factors such as risk and cost. Decisions about adoption of new devices and diagnostics with little evidence are influenced by judgements of their promise and the plausibility of claims that they will provide benefits in a real-world setting. This kind of decision making needs to be transparent and this article explains how these influences can be balanced against the use of more familiar criteria.

[Mental health: an identification of new directions walking in Archie Cochrane footsteps].

PubMed

Tansella, Michele

2006-10-01

New borders and promising new directions in scientific fields are often difficult to identify and define. This paper attempts to it so in relation to recent developments and new research evidence in mental health, recognizing that this exercise may be biased by many factors, including: the author's own perspective, professional background and research training and the always present dialectic between the analysis of the past and the attraction of the future. A good starting point is the ground-breaking work by Sir Archibald Cochrane. He recommended to adopt a rigorous and continuous evaluation of clinical practice and protocols, promoting well designed clinical research and the use of scientific methods. This evidence-based approach should also be used in mental health. High quality research, continuous education and good clinical practice, incorporating the results of scientific experiments and observations, represent the approach that ensures an improvement in care provision and patient satisfaction. Currently, mental health care is still too "opinion oriented", due to the over emphasis placed on personal experience and traditional approaches by many psychiatrists. In this paper some of the most promising recent results in psychosocial research, psychopharmacological studies and genetics, as well as in neuroimaging studies, are briefly summarised. From a pragmatic point of view, it is possible to achieve a significant improvement in the quality of mental health care if the following procedure is followed: firstly, to start from solid evidence; secondly, to promote the wide implementation of evidence-based research into every day practice; thirdly, to ensure that administrators and policy makers incorporate the available scientific evidence in the planning and evaluating services and mental health systems of care. The integration between research, education and practice remains the hardest border to cross, yet the achievement of it holds the greatest promise for

Melanoma Vaccines: Mixed Past, Promising Future

PubMed Central

Ozao-Choy, Junko; Lee, Delphine J.; Faries, Mark B.

2014-01-01

Synopsis Cancer vaccines were one of the earliest forms of immunotherapy to be investigated. Past attempts to vaccinate against cancer, including melanoma, have mixed results, revealing the complexity of what was thought to be a simple concept. However, several recent successes and the combination of improved knowledge of tumor immunology and the advent of new immunomodulators make vaccination a promising strategy for the future. PMID:25245965

Screen and clean: a tool for identifying interactions in genome-wide association studies.

PubMed

Wu, Jing; Devlin, Bernie; Ringquist, Steven; Trucco, Massimo; Roeder, Kathryn

2010-04-01

Epistasis could be an important source of risk for disease. How interacting loci might be discovered is an open question for genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Most researchers limit their statistical analyses to testing individual pairwise interactions (i.e., marginal tests for association). A more effective means of identifying important predictors is to fit models that include many predictors simultaneously (i.e., higher-dimensional models). We explore a procedure called screen and clean (SC) for identifying liability loci, including interactions, by using the lasso procedure, which is a model selection tool for high-dimensional regression. We approach the problem by using a varying dictionary consisting of terms to include in the model. In the first step the lasso dictionary includes only main effects. The most promising single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are identified using a screening procedure. Next the lasso dictionary is adjusted to include these main effects and the corresponding interaction terms. Again, promising terms are identified using lasso screening. Then significant terms are identified through the cleaning process. Implementation of SC for GWAS requires algorithms to explore the complex model space induced by the many SNPs genotyped and their interactions. We propose and explore a set of algorithms and find that SC successfully controls Type I error while yielding good power to identify risk loci and their interactions. When the method is applied to data obtained from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium study of Type 1 Diabetes it uncovers evidence supporting interaction within the HLA class II region as well as within Chromosome 12q24.

Modelling water use in global hydrological models: review, challenges and directions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bierkens, M. F.; de Graaf, I.; Wada, Y.; Wanders, N.; Van Beek, L. P.

2017-12-01

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, awareness of the shortage of global water resources lead to the first detailed global water resources assessments using regional statistics of water use and observations of meteorological and hydrological variables. Shortly thereafter, the first macroscale hydrological models (MHM) appeared. In these models, blue water (i.e., surface water and renewable groundwater) availability was calculated by accumulating runoff over a stream network and comparing it with population densities or with estimated water demand for agriculture, industry and households. In this talk we review the evolution of human impact modelling in global land models with a focus on global water resources, touching upon developments of the last 15 years: i.e. calculating human water scarcity; estimating groundwater depletion; adding dams and reservoirs; fully integrating water use (demand, withdrawal, consumption, return flow) in the hydrology; simulating the effects of land use change. We show example studies for each of these steps. We identify We identify major challenges that hamper the further development of integrated water resources modelling. Examples of these are: 1) simulating reservoir operations; 2) including local infrastructure and redistribution; 3) using the correct allocations rules; 4) projecting future water demand and water use. For each of these challenges we signify promising directions for further research.

Direct oriented growth of armchair graphene nanoribbons on germanium

PubMed Central

Jacobberger, Robert M.; Kiraly, Brian; Fortin-Deschenes, Matthieu; Levesque, Pierre L.; McElhinny, Kyle M.; Brady, Gerald J.; Rojas Delgado, Richard; Singha Roy, Susmit; Mannix, Andrew; Lagally, Max G.; Evans, Paul G.; Desjardins, Patrick; Martel, Richard; Hersam, Mark C.; Guisinger, Nathan P.; Arnold, Michael S.

2015-01-01

Graphene can be transformed from a semimetal into a semiconductor if it is confined into nanoribbons narrower than 10 nm with controlled crystallographic orientation and well-defined armchair edges. However, the scalable synthesis of nanoribbons with this precision directly on insulating or semiconducting substrates has not been possible. Here we demonstrate the synthesis of graphene nanoribbons on Ge(001) via chemical vapour deposition. The nanoribbons are self-aligning 3° from the Ge〈110〉 directions, are self-defining with predominantly smooth armchair edges, and have tunable width to <10 nm and aspect ratio to >70. In order to realize highly anisotropic ribbons, it is critical to operate in a regime in which the growth rate in the width direction is especially slow, <5 nm h−1. This directional and anisotropic growth enables nanoribbon fabrication directly on conventional semiconductor wafer platforms and, therefore, promises to allow the integration of nanoribbons into future hybrid integrated circuits. PMID:26258594

77 FR 73343 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-12-10

...-1224; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-112-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus Model A300 B4-600, B4-600R, and... holidays. For Airbus service information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus SAS-EAW...

76 FR 62673 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-10-11

...-1066; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-050-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD), for certain Airbus Model A300 B2-1C, B2K-3C... Friday, except Federal holidays. For service information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus...

Immunotherapy for advanced melanoma: future directions.

PubMed

Valpione, Sara; Campana, Luca G

2016-02-01

As calculated by the meta-analysis of Korn et al., the prognosis of metastatic melanoma in the pretarget and immunological therapy era was poor, with a median survival of 6.2 and a 1-year life expectancy of 25.5%. Nowadays, significant advances in melanoma treatment have been gained, and immunotherapy is one of the promising approaches to get to durable responses and survival improvement. The aim of the present review is to highlight the recent innovations in melanoma immunotherapy and to propose a critical perspective of the future directions of this enthralling oncology subspecialty.

A genome-wide RNAi screen identifies potential drug targets in a C. elegans model of α1-antitrypsin deficiency.

PubMed

O'Reilly, Linda P; Long, Olivia S; Cobanoglu, Murat C; Benson, Joshua A; Luke, Cliff J; Miedel, Mark T; Hale, Pamela; Perlmutter, David H; Bahar, Ivet; Silverman, Gary A; Pak, Stephen C

2014-10-01

α1-Antitrypsin deficiency (ATD) is a common genetic disorder that can lead to end-stage liver and lung disease. Although liver transplantation remains the only therapy currently available, manipulation of the proteostasis network (PN) by small molecule therapeutics offers great promise. To accelerate the drug-discovery process for this disease, we first developed a semi-automated high-throughput/content-genome-wide RNAi screen to identify PN modifiers affecting the accumulation of the α1-antitrypsin Z mutant (ATZ) in a Caenorhabditis elegans model of ATD. We identified 104 PN modifiers, and these genes were used in a computational strategy to identify human ortholog-ligand pairs. Based on rigorous selection criteria, we identified four FDA-approved drugs directed against four different PN targets that decreased the accumulation of ATZ in C. elegans. We also tested one of the compounds in a mammalian cell line with similar results. This methodology also proved useful in confirming drug targets in vivo, and predicting the success of combination therapy. We propose that small animal models of genetic disorders combined with genome-wide RNAi screening and computational methods can be used to rapidly, economically and strategically prime the preclinical discovery pipeline for rare and neglected diseases with limited therapeutic options. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Bacteriophages show promise as antimicrobial agents.

PubMed

Alisky, J; Iczkowski, K; Rapoport, A; Troitsky, N

1998-01-01

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has prompted interest in alternatives to conventional drugs. One possible option is to use bacteriophages (phage) as antimicrobial agents. We have conducted a literature review of all Medline citations from 1966-1996 that dealt with the therapeutic use of phage. There were 27 papers from Poland, the Soviet Union, Britain and the U.S.A. The Polish and Soviets administered phage orally, topically or systemically to treat a wide variety of antibiotic-resistant pathogens in both adults and children. Infections included suppurative wound infections, gastroenteritis, sepsis, osteomyelitis, dermatitis, empyemas and pneumonia; pathogens included Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Klebsiella, Escherichia, Proteus, Pseudomonas, Shigella and Salmonella spp. Overall, the Polish and Soviets reported success rates of 80-95% for phage therapy, with rare, reversible gastrointestinal or allergic side effects. However, efficacy of phage was determined almost exclusively by qualitative clinical assessment of patients, and details of dosages and clinical criteria were very sketchy. There were also six British reports describing controlled trials of phage in animal models (mice, guinea pigs and livestock), measuring survival rates and other objective criteria. All of the British studies raised phage against specific pathogens then used to create experimental infections. Demonstrable efficacy against Escherichia, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus spp. was noted in these model systems. Two U.S. papers dealt with improving the bioavailability of phage. Phage is sequestered in the spleen and removed from circulation. This can be overcome by serial passage of phage through mice to isolate mutants that resist sequestration. In conclusion, bacteriophages may show promise for treating antibiotic resistant pathogens. To facilitate further progress, directions for future research are discussed and a directory of authors from the reviewed

Expeditionary Force Health Protection for Global Health Engagement: Lessons Learned from Continuing Promise 2017.

PubMed

Johnson, Lucas A; Lennon, Robert P

2018-05-01

Global health engagement (GHE) is an important priority for the Military Health Service as such activities strengthen the health capabilities of partner nations and improve interoperability. By their very nature, GHE activities are predominantly conducted in low-resource areas with limited infrastructure and substantial humanitarian need. The Department of Defense is evaluating leaner, flexible force packages to accomplish GHE missions and better prepare uniformed medical providers to provide care in austere environments. Observations made during the execution of Continuing Promise 2017, a recurring civil-military humanitarian operation conducted in Central and South America, are offered herein. Descriptions of relevant force health protection (FHP) threats experienced by mission personnel and mitigation measures successfully employed to prevent illness are provided. Relevant Department of Defense instructions are reviewed and risk mitigation strategies are compared with published standards and expert recommendations. In addition to well-described sanitation, hygiene, and infectious disease challenges that traditionally accompany military field activities, providing health care services to host nation populations in low-resource settings generates unique FHP vulnerabilities. Public health expertise leveraged throughout the planning and execution of GHE activities is instrumental for successfully identifying and mitigating the numerous FHP risks present. Experiences from Continuing Promise 2017 demonstrate the expeditionary public health practitioner's role as a force multiplier has never been more relevant. A variety of public health countermeasures are available to successfully mitigate FHP threats experienced during GHE events. The public health lessons learned from Continuing Promise 2017 assist mission planners, commanders, and health care providers ensure that GHE participants remain healthy enough to accomplish the mission and meet America's commitments to

Direct Marketing Goes to College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merante, Joseph A.

1980-01-01

The only form of marketing important to an admissions department, direct marketing, whose principal vehicle is direct mail, is identified as an organized method for sharing and distributing information to prospective students. Target audiences, marketing administration, and effective mailings are discussed. (MLW)

Describing Directional Cell Migration with a Characteristic Directionality Time

PubMed Central

Loosley, Alex J.; O’Brien, Xian M.; Reichner, Jonathan S.; Tang, Jay X.

2015-01-01

Many cell types can bias their direction of locomotion by coupling to external cues. Characteristics such as how fast a cell migrates and the directedness of its migration path can be quantified to provide metrics that determine which biochemical and biomechanical factors affect directional cell migration, and by how much. To be useful, these metrics must be reproducible from one experimental setting to another. However, most are not reproducible because their numerical values depend on technical parameters like sampling interval and measurement error. To address the need for a reproducible metric, we analytically derive a metric called directionality time, the minimum observation time required to identify motion as directionally biased. We show that the corresponding fit function is applicable to a variety of ergodic, directionally biased motions. A motion is ergodic when the underlying dynamical properties such as speed or directional bias do not change over time. Measuring the directionality of nonergodic motion is less straightforward but we also show how this class of motion can be analyzed. Simulations are used to show the robustness of directionality time measurements and its decoupling from measurement errors. As a practical example, we demonstrate the measurement of directionality time, step-by-step, on noisy, nonergodic trajectories of chemotactic neutrophils. Because of its inherent generality, directionality time ought to be useful for characterizing a broad range of motions including intracellular transport, cell motility, and animal migration. PMID:25992908

Wave directional spreading from point field measurements.

PubMed

McAllister, M L; Venugopal, V; Borthwick, A G L

2017-04-01

Ocean waves have multidirectional components. Most wave measurements are taken at a single point, and so fail to capture information about the relative directions of the wave components directly. Conventional means of directional estimation require a minimum of three concurrent time series of measurements at different spatial locations in order to derive information on local directional wave spreading. Here, the relationship between wave nonlinearity and directionality is utilized to estimate local spreading without the need for multiple concurrent measurements, following Adcock & Taylor (Adcock & Taylor 2009 Proc. R. Soc. A 465 , 3361-3381. (doi:10.1098/rspa.2009.0031)), with the assumption that directional spreading is frequency independent. The method is applied to measurements recorded at the North Alwyn platform in the northern North Sea, and the results compared against estimates of wave spreading by conventional measurement methods and hindcast data. Records containing freak waves were excluded. It is found that the method provides accurate estimates of wave spreading over a range of conditions experienced at North Alwyn, despite the noisy chaotic signals that characterize such ocean wave data. The results provide further confirmation that Adcock and Taylor's method is applicable to metocean data and has considerable future promise as a technique to recover estimates of wave spreading from single point wave measurement devices.

RNAi screen identifies Brd4 as a therapeutic target in acute myeloid leukaemia

PubMed Central

Zuber, Johannes; Shi, Junwei; Wang, Eric; Rappaport, Amy R.; Herrmann, Harald; Sison, Edward A.; Magoon, Daniel; Qi, Jun; Blatt, Katharina; Wunderlich, Mark; Taylor, Meredith J.; Johns, Christopher; Chicas, Agustin; Mulloy, James C.; Kogan, Scott C.; Brown, Patrick; Valent, Peter; Bradner, James E.; Lowe, Scott W.; Vakoc, Christopher R.

2012-01-01

Epigenetic pathways can regulate gene expression by controlling and interpreting chromatin modifications. Cancer cells are characterized by altered epigenetic landscapes, and commonly exploit the chromatin regulatory machinery to enforce oncogenic gene expression programs1. Although chromatin alterations are, in principle, reversible and often amenable to drug intervention, the promise of targeting such pathways therapeutically has been limited by an incomplete understanding of cancer-specific dependencies on epigenetic regulators. Here we describe a non-biased approach to probe epigenetic vulnerabilities in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), an aggressive haematopoietic malignancy that is often associated with aberrant chromatin states2. By screening a custom library of small hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) targeting known chromatin regulators in a genetically defined AML mouse model, we identify the protein bromodomain-containing 4 (Brd4) as being critically required for disease maintenance. Suppression of Brd4 using shRNAs or the small-molecule inhibitor JQ1 led to robust antileukaemic effects in vitro and in vivo, accompanied by terminal myeloid differentiation and elimination of leukaemia stem cells. Similar sensitivities were observed in a variety of human AML cell lines and primary patient samples, revealing that JQ1 has broad activity in diverse AML subtypes. The effects of Brd4 suppression are, at least in part, due to its role in sustaining Myc expression to promote aberrant self-renewal, which implicates JQ1 as a pharmacological means to suppress MYC in cancer. Our results establish small-molecule inhibition of Brd4 as a promising therapeutic strategy in AML and, potentially, other cancers, and highlight the utility of RNA interference (RNAi) screening for revealing epigenetic vulnerabilities that can be exploited for direct pharmacological intervention. PMID:21814200

Expert Opinion Editorial Tissue Engineered Blood Vessels as Promising Tools for Testing Drug Toxicity

PubMed Central

Truskey, George A.; Fernandez, Cristina E.

2015-01-01

Drug-induced vascular injury (DIVI) is a serious problem in preclinical studies of vasoactive molecules and for survivors of pediatric cancers. DIVI is often observed in rodents and some larger animals, primarily with drugs affecting vascular tone, but not in humans; however, DIVI observed in animal studies often precludes a drug candidate from continuing along the development pipeline. Thus, there is great interest by the pharmaceutical industry to identify quantifiable human biomarkers of DIVI. Small scale endothelialized tissue-engineered blood vessels using human cells represent a promising approach to screen drug candidates and developed alternatives to cancer therapeutics in vitro. We identify several technical challenges that remain to be addressed, including high throughput systems to screen large numbers of candidates, identification of suitable cell sources, and establishing and maintaining a differentiated state of the vessel wall cells. Adequately addressing these challenges should yield novel platforms to screen drugs and develop new therapeutics to treat cardiovascular disease. PMID:26028128

77 FR 59149 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-26

...-1002; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-052-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A300 B4-600, B4-600R...: Airbus: Docket No. FAA-2012-1002; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM- 052-AD. (a) Comments Due Date We must...

Effective and Promising Summer Learning Programs and Approaches for Economically-Disadvantaged Children and Youth: A White Paper for the Wallace Foundation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Terzian, Mary; Moore, Kristin Anderson; Hamilton, Kathleen

2009-01-01

This White Paper summarizes findings from an extensive literature review that was conducted to identify the most promising models and approaches for meeting the needs of low-income children, youth, and families during the summer months. Special attention is paid to summer learning programs that serve diverse, urban low-income children and youth.…

Direct-drive inertial confinement fusion: A review

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Craxton, R. S.; Anderson, K. S.; Boehly, T. R.

The direct-drive, laser-based approach to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is reviewed from its inception following the demonstration of the first laser to its implementation on the present generation of high-power lasers. The review focuses on the evolution of scientific understanding gained from target-physics experiments in many areas, identifying problems that were demonstrated and the solutions implemented. The review starts with the basic understanding of laser–plasma interactions that was obtained before the declassification of laser-induced compression in the early 1970s and continues with the compression experiments using infrared lasers in the late 1970s that produced thermonuclear neutrons. The problem of suprathermalmore » electrons and the target preheat that they caused, associated with the infrared laser wavelength, led to lasers being built after 1980 to operate at shorter wavelengths, especially 0.35 μm—the third harmonic of the Nd:glass laser—and 0.248 μm (the KrF gas laser). The main physics areas relevant to direct drive are reviewed. The primary absorption mechanism at short wavelengths is classical inverse bremsstrahlung. Nonuniformities imprinted on the target by laser irradiation have been addressed by the development of a number of beam-smoothing techniques and imprint-mitigation strategies. The effects of hydrodynamic instabilities are mitigated by a combination of imprint reduction and target designs that minimize the instability growth rates. Several coronal plasma physics processes are reviewed. The two-plasmon–decay instability, stimulated Brillouin scattering (together with cross-beam energy transfer), and (possibly) stimulated Raman scattering are identified as potential concerns, placing constraints on the laser intensities used in target designs, while other processes (self-focusing and filamentation, the parametric decay instability, and magnetic fields), once considered important, are now of lesser concern for

Direct-drive inertial confinement fusion: A review

DOE PAGES

Craxton, R. S.; Anderson, K. S.; Boehly, T. R.; ...

2015-11-25

In this study, the direct-drive, laser-based approach to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is reviewed from its inception following the demonstration of the first laser to its implementation on the present generation of high-power lasers. The review focuses on the evolution of scientific understanding gained from target-physics experiments in many areas, identifying problems that were demonstrated and the solutions implemented. The review starts with the basic understanding of laser–plasma interactions that was obtained before the declassification of laser-induced compression in the early 1970s and continues with the compression experiments using infrared lasers in the late 1970s that produced thermonuclear neutrons. Themore » problem of suprathermal electrons and the target preheat that they caused, associated with the infrared laser wavelength, led to lasers being built after 1980 to operate at shorter wavelengths, especially 0.35 um—the third harmonic of the Nd:glass laser—and 0.248 um (the KrF gas laser). The main physics areas relevant to direct drive are reviewed. The primary absorption mechanism at short wavelengths is classical inverse bremsstrahlung. Nonuniformities imprinted on the target by laser irradiation have been addressed by the development of a number of beam-smoothing techniques and imprint-mitigation strategies. The effects of hydrodynamic instabilities are mitigated by a combination of imprint reduction and target designs that minimize the instability growth rates. Several coronal plasma physics processes are reviewed. The two-plasmon–decay instability, stimulated Brillouin scattering (together with cross-beam energy transfer), and (possibly) stimulated Raman scattering are identified as potential concerns, placing constraints on the laser intensities used in target designs, while other processes (self-focusing and filamentation, the parametric decay instability, and magnetic fields), once considered important, are now of lesser

Direct-drive inertial confinement fusion: A review

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Craxton, R. S.; Anderson, K. S.; Boehly, T. R.

In this study, the direct-drive, laser-based approach to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is reviewed from its inception following the demonstration of the first laser to its implementation on the present generation of high-power lasers. The review focuses on the evolution of scientific understanding gained from target-physics experiments in many areas, identifying problems that were demonstrated and the solutions implemented. The review starts with the basic understanding of laser–plasma interactions that was obtained before the declassification of laser-induced compression in the early 1970s and continues with the compression experiments using infrared lasers in the late 1970s that produced thermonuclear neutrons. Themore » problem of suprathermal electrons and the target preheat that they caused, associated with the infrared laser wavelength, led to lasers being built after 1980 to operate at shorter wavelengths, especially 0.35 um—the third harmonic of the Nd:glass laser—and 0.248 um (the KrF gas laser). The main physics areas relevant to direct drive are reviewed. The primary absorption mechanism at short wavelengths is classical inverse bremsstrahlung. Nonuniformities imprinted on the target by laser irradiation have been addressed by the development of a number of beam-smoothing techniques and imprint-mitigation strategies. The effects of hydrodynamic instabilities are mitigated by a combination of imprint reduction and target designs that minimize the instability growth rates. Several coronal plasma physics processes are reviewed. The two-plasmon–decay instability, stimulated Brillouin scattering (together with cross-beam energy transfer), and (possibly) stimulated Raman scattering are identified as potential concerns, placing constraints on the laser intensities used in target designs, while other processes (self-focusing and filamentation, the parametric decay instability, and magnetic fields), once considered important, are now of lesser

Direct-drive inertial confinement fusion: A review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Craxton, R. S.; Anderson, K. S.; Boehly, T. R.; Goncharov, V. N.; Harding, D. R.; Knauer, J. P.; McCrory, R. L.; McKenty, P. W.; Meyerhofer, D. D.; Myatt, J. F.; Schmitt, A. J.; Sethian, J. D.; Short, R. W.; Skupsky, S.; Theobald, W.; Kruer, W. L.; Tanaka, K.; Betti, R.; Collins, T. J. B.; Delettrez, J. A.; Hu, S. X.; Marozas, J. A.; Maximov, A. V.; Michel, D. T.; Radha, P. B.; Regan, S. P.; Sangster, T. C.; Seka, W.; Solodov, A. A.; Soures, J. M.; Stoeckl, C.; Zuegel, J. D.

2015-11-01

The direct-drive, laser-based approach to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is reviewed from its inception following the demonstration of the first laser to its implementation on the present generation of high-power lasers. The review focuses on the evolution of scientific understanding gained from target-physics experiments in many areas, identifying problems that were demonstrated and the solutions implemented. The review starts with the basic understanding of laser-plasma interactions that was obtained before the declassification of laser-induced compression in the early 1970s and continues with the compression experiments using infrared lasers in the late 1970s that produced thermonuclear neutrons. The problem of suprathermal electrons and the target preheat that they caused, associated with the infrared laser wavelength, led to lasers being built after 1980 to operate at shorter wavelengths, especially 0.35 μm—the third harmonic of the Nd:glass laser—and 0.248 μm (the KrF gas laser). The main physics areas relevant to direct drive are reviewed. The primary absorption mechanism at short wavelengths is classical inverse bremsstrahlung. Nonuniformities imprinted on the target by laser irradiation have been addressed by the development of a number of beam-smoothing techniques and imprint-mitigation strategies. The effects of hydrodynamic instabilities are mitigated by a combination of imprint reduction and target designs that minimize the instability growth rates. Several coronal plasma physics processes are reviewed. The two-plasmon-decay instability, stimulated Brillouin scattering (together with cross-beam energy transfer), and (possibly) stimulated Raman scattering are identified as potential concerns, placing constraints on the laser intensities used in target designs, while other processes (self-focusing and filamentation, the parametric decay instability, and magnetic fields), once considered important, are now of lesser concern for mainline direct

Direct Reprogramming—The Future of Cardiac Regeneration?

PubMed Central

Doppler, Stefanie A.; Deutsch, Marcus-André; Lange, Rüdiger; Krane, Markus

2015-01-01

Today, the only available curative therapy for end stage congestive heart failure (CHF) is heart transplantation. This therapeutic option is strongly limited by declining numbers of available donor hearts and by restricted long-term performance of the transplanted graft. The disastrous prognosis for CHF with its restricted therapeutic options has led scientists to develop different concepts of alternative regenerative treatment strategies including stem cell transplantation or stimulating cell proliferation of different cardiac cell types in situ. However, first clinical trials with overall inconsistent results were not encouraging, particularly in terms of functional outcome. Among other approaches, very promising ongoing pre-clinical research focuses on direct lineage conversion of scar fibroblasts into functional myocardium, termed “direct reprogramming” or “transdifferentiation.” This review seeks to summarize strategies for direct cardiac reprogramming including the application of different sets of transcription factors, microRNAs, and small molecules for an efficient generation of cardiomyogenic cells for regenerative purposes. PMID:26230692

Evolution of genitalia: theories, evidence, and new directions.

PubMed

Eberhard, William G

2010-01-01

Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain why male intromittent genitalia consistently tend to diverge more rapidly than other body traits of the same individuals in a wide range of animal taxa. Currently the two most popular involve sexual selection: sexually antagonistic coevolution (SAC) and cryptic female choice (CFC). A review of the most extensive attempts to discriminate between these two hypotheses indicates that SAC is not likely to have played a major role in explaining this pattern of genital evolution. Promising lines for future, more direct tests of CFC include experimental modification of male genital form and female sensory abilities, analysis of possible male-female dialogues during copulation, and direct observations of genital behavior.

Some Effects of Target Cooperation and Reciprocated Promises on Conflict Resolution.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonoma, Thomas V.; And Others

Forty female subjects were given intermittent options to transmit noncontingent promises of intent to cooperate during the course of a mixed-motive laboratory game. In a 2 x 2 experimental design, a robot target either reciprocated subjects' promise statements or concealed her behavioral intentions, and was either always cooperative or always…

Exploring New Directions: Title I in the Year 2000.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puma, Michael J.; Drury, Darrel W.

This report takes stock of the present Title I program, identifies the most promising approaches to educating the nation's disadvantaged children, and offers guidance to policymakers seeking to improve Title I's effectiveness. The report draws upon hundreds of studies, evaluations, and other documents, and details the evolution of the Title I…

Promising New High-Explosives: Triaminoguanidinium (TAG) and Dinitramide (DN) Salts

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-12-01

1 PROMISING NEW HIGH- EXPLOSIVES : TRIAMINOGUANIDINIUM (TAG) AND DINITRAMIDE (DN) SALTS Thomas M. Klapötke,* Norbert Mayr, L.d.R. and Jörg...Me-AtNO2, 4) shows great explosion performance and may be an alternative to commonly used and toxic RDX. An improved synthesis for the promising...Including the good thermal stability 9 could be an alternative to RDX as a high explosive . In addition, the thermal behavior under confinement and the

Cell reprogramming: Therapeutic potential and the promise of rejuvenation for the aging brain.

PubMed

López-León, Micaela; Outeiro, Tiago F; Goya, Rodolfo G

2017-11-01

Aging is associated with a progressive increase in the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases, with Alzheimer's (AD) and Parkinson's (PD) disease being the most conspicuous examples. Within this context, the absence of efficacious therapies for most age-related brain pathologies has increased the interest in regenerative medicine. In particular, cell reprogramming technologies have ushered in the era of personalized therapies that not only show a significant potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases but also promise to make biological rejuvenation feasible. We will first review recent evidence supporting the emerging view that aging is a reversible epigenetic phenomenon. Next, we will describe novel reprogramming approaches that overcome some of the intrinsic limitations of conventional induced-pluripotent-stem-cell technology. One of the alternative approaches, lineage reprogramming, consists of the direct conversion of one adult cell type into another by transgenic expression of multiple lineage-specific transcription factors (TF). Another strategy, termed pluripotency factor-mediated direct reprogramming, uses universal TF to generate epigenetically unstable intermediates able to differentiate into somatic cell types in response to specific differentiation factors. In the third part we will review studies showing the potential relevance of the above approaches for the treatment of AD and PD. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Oklahoma's Promise Program: A National Model to Promote College Persistence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mendoza, Pilar; Mendez, Jesse P.

2013-01-01

Using a multi-method approach involving fixed effects and logistic regressions, this study examined the effect of the Oklahoma's Promise Program on student persistence in relation to the Pell and Stafford federal programs and according to socio-economic characteristics and class level. The Oklahoma's Promise is a hybrid state program that pays…

Credible threats and promises.

PubMed

McNamara, John M; Houston, Alasdair I

2002-11-29

We consider various implications of information about the other player in two-player evolutionary games. A simple model of desertion shows that information about the partner's behaviour can be disadvantageous, and highlights the idea of credible threats. We then discuss the general issue of whether the partner can convince the focal player that it will behave in a specific way, i.e. whether the focal player can make credible threats or promises. We show that when desertion decisions depend on reserves, a player can manipulate its reserves so as to create a credible threat of desertion. We then extend previous work on the evolution of trust and commitment, discussing conditions under which it is advantageous to assume that a partner will behave in a certain way even though it is not in its best interest.

Novel target for high-risk neuroblastoma identified in pre-clinical research | Center for Cancer Research

Cancer.gov

Pre-clinical research by investigators at the Center for Cancer Research and their colleagues have identified a number of novel epigenetic targets for high-risk neuroblastoma and validated a promising new targeted inhibitor in pre-clinical models.  Read more...

78 FR 72851 - Proposed Priority-Promise Zones

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-04

... Federal Register. Free Internet access to the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of... Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1- 800-877-8339. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Background: The Promise..., which is available free at the site. You may also access documents of the Department published in the...

Promising Practices in Instruction of Discovery Tools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buck, Stefanie; Steffy, Christina

2013-01-01

Libraries are continually changing to meet the needs of users; this includes implementing discovery tools, also referred to as web-scale discovery tools, to make searching library resources easier. Because these tools are so new, it is difficult to establish definitive best practices for teaching these tools; however, promising practices are…

Artificial Intelligence in Surgery: Promises and Perils.

PubMed

Hashimoto, Daniel A; Rosman, Guy; Rus, Daniela; Meireles, Ozanan R

2018-07-01

The aim of this review was to summarize major topics in artificial intelligence (AI), including their applications and limitations in surgery. This paper reviews the key capabilities of AI to help surgeons understand and critically evaluate new AI applications and to contribute to new developments. AI is composed of various subfields that each provide potential solutions to clinical problems. Each of the core subfields of AI reviewed in this piece has also been used in other industries such as the autonomous car, social networks, and deep learning computers. A review of AI papers across computer science, statistics, and medical sources was conducted to identify key concepts and techniques within AI that are driving innovation across industries, including surgery. Limitations and challenges of working with AI were also reviewed. Four main subfields of AI were defined: (1) machine learning, (2) artificial neural networks, (3) natural language processing, and (4) computer vision. Their current and future applications to surgical practice were introduced, including big data analytics and clinical decision support systems. The implications of AI for surgeons and the role of surgeons in advancing the technology to optimize clinical effectiveness were discussed. Surgeons are well positioned to help integrate AI into modern practice. Surgeons should partner with data scientists to capture data across phases of care and to provide clinical context, for AI has the potential to revolutionize the way surgery is taught and practiced with the promise of a future optimized for the highest quality patient care.

Predicting sudden cardiac death from T wave alternans of the surface electrocardiogram: promise and pitfalls

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosenbaum, D. S.; Albrecht, P.; Cohen, R. J.

1996-01-01

Sudden cardiac death remains a preeminent public health problem. Despite advances in preventative treatment for patients known to be at risk, to date we have been able to identify, and thus treat, only a small minority of these patients. Therefore, there is a major need to develop noninvasive diagnostic technologies to identify patients at risk. Recent studies have demonstrated that measurement of microvolt-level T wave alternans is a promising technique for the accurate identification of patients at risk for ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. In this article, we review the clinical data establishing the relationship between microvolt T wave alternans and susceptibility to ventricular arrhythmias. We also review the methods and technology that have been developed to measure microvolt levels of T wave alternans noninvasively in broad populations of ambulatory patients. In particular, we examine techniques that permit the accurate measurement of T wave alternans during exercise stress testing.

Identifying DNA methylation in a nanochannel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Xiaoyin; Yasui, Takao; Yanagida, Takeshi; Kaji, Noritada; Rahong, Sakon; Kanai, Masaki; Nagashima, Kazuki; Kawai, Tomoji; Baba, Yoshinobu

2016-01-01

DNA methylation is a stable epigenetic modification, which is well known to be involved in gene expression regulation. In general, however, analyzing DNA methylation requires rather time consuming processes (24-96 h) via DNA replication and protein modification. Here we demonstrate a methodology to analyze DNA methylation at a single DNA molecule level without any protein modifications by measuring the contracted length and relaxation time of DNA within a nanochannel. Our methodology is based on the fact that methylation makes DNA molecules stiffer, resulting in a longer contracted length and a longer relaxation time (a slower contraction rate). The present methodology offers a promising way to identify DNA methylation without any protein modification at a single DNA molecule level within 2 h.

Blending Learning: The Evolution of Online and Face-to-Face Education from 2008-2015. Promising Practices in Blended and Online Learning Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Allison; Watson, John; Staley, Patrick; Patrick, Susan; Horn, Michael; Fetzer, Leslie; Hibbard, Laura; Oglesby, Jonathan; Verma, Sue

2015-01-01

In 2008, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) produced a series of papers documenting promising practices identified throughout the field of K-12 online learning. Since then, we have witnessed a tremendous acceleration of transformative policy and practice driving personalized learning in the K-12 education space. State,…

The Mitochondria in Diabetic Heart Failure: From Pathogenesis to Therapeutic Promise

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Abstract Significance: Diabetes is an important risk factor for the development of heart failure (HF). Given the increasing prevalence of diabetes in the population, strategies are needed to reduce the burden of HF in these patients. Recent Advances: Diabetes is associated with several pathologic findings in the heart including dysregulated metabolism, lipid accumulation, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Emerging evidence suggests that mitochondrial dysfunction may be a central mediator of these pathologic responses. The development of therapeutic approaches targeting mitochondrial biology holds promise for the management of HF in diabetic patients. Critical Issues: Despite significant data implicating mitochondrial pathology in diabetic cardiomyopathy, the optimal pharmacologic approach to improve mitochondrial function remains undefined. Future Directions: Detailed mechanistic studies coupled with more robust clinical phenotyping will be necessary to develop novel approaches to improve cardiac function in diabetes. Moreover, understanding the interplay between diabetes and other cardiac stressors (hypertension, ischemia, and valvular disease) will be of the utmost importance for clinical translation of scientific discoveries made in this field. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 22, 1515–1526. PMID:25761843

The promise of human embryonic stem cells in aging-associated diseases

PubMed Central

Yabut, Odessa; Bernstein, Harold S.

2011-01-01

Aging-associated diseases are often caused by progressive loss or dysfunction of cells that ultimately affect the overall function of tissues and organs. Successful treatment of these diseases could benefit from cell-based therapy that would regenerate lost cells or otherwise restore tissue function. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) promise to be an important therapeutic candidate in treating aging-associated diseases due to their unique capacity for self-renewal and pluripotency. To date, there are numerous hESC lines that have been developed and characterized. We will discuss how hESC lines are derived, their molecular and cellular properties, and how their ability to differentiate into all three embryonic germ layers is determined. We will also outline the methods currently employed to direct their differentiation into populations of tissue-specific, functional cells. Finally, we will highlight the general challenges that must be overcome and the strategies being developed to generate highly-purified hESC-derived cell populations that can safely be used for clinical applications. PMID:21566262

CRISPR-Cas9 systems: versatile cancer modelling platforms and promising therapeutic strategies.

PubMed

Wen, Wan-Shun; Yuan, Zhi-Min; Ma, Shi-Jie; Xu, Jiang; Yuan, Dong-Tang

2016-03-15

The RNA-guided nuclease CRISPR-Cas9 (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR associated nuclease 9) and its variants such as nickase Cas9, dead Cas9, guide RNA scaffolds and RNA-targeting Cas9 are convenient and versatile platforms for site-specific genome editing and epigenome modulation. They are easy-to-use, simple-to-design and capable of targeting multiple loci simultaneously. Given that cancer develops from cumulative genetic and epigenetic alterations, CRISPR-Cas9 and its variants (hereafter referred to as CRISPR-Cas9 systems) hold extensive application potentials in cancer modeling and therapy. To date, they have already been applied to model oncogenic mutations in cell lines (e.g., Choi and Meyerson, Nat Commun 2014;5:3728) and in adult animals (e.g., Xue et al., Nature 2014;514:380-4), as well as to combat cancer by disabling oncogenic viruses (e.g., Hu et al., Biomed Res Int 2014;2014:612823) or by manipulating cancer genome (e.g., Liu et al., Nat Commun 2014;5:5393). Given the importance of epigenome and transcriptome in tumourigenesis, manipulation of cancer epigenome and transcriptome for cancer modeling and therapy is a promising area in the future. Whereas (epi)genetic modifications of cancer microenvironment with CRISPR-Cas9 systems for therapeutic purposes represent another promising area in cancer research. Herein, we introduce the functions and mechanisms of CRISPR-Cas9 systems in genome editing and epigenome modulation, retrospect their applications in cancer modelling and therapy, discuss limitations and possible solutions and propose future directions, in hope of providing concise and enlightening information for readers interested in this area. © 2015 UICC.

Promises Of Political Dialogue: Changes In Myanmar’s Ceasefire Process

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-12-01

groups’ decisions of whether to sign the accord. Due to the built-up mistrust of the military government from broken ceasefire promises of economic ...the accord. Due to the built-up mistrust of the military government from broken ceasefire promises of economic development and political dialogue...1989–1995) .......................................17 A. POLITICAL- ECONOMIC CONTEXT PRIOR TO THE BILATERAL CEASEFIRES

77 FR 20319 - Airworthiness Directives; Eurocopter France Helicopters

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-04

...-0354; Directorate Identifier 2010-SW-104-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Eurocopter France...). SUMMARY: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Eurocopter France (EC) Model SA... France: Docket No. FAA-2012-0354; Directorate Identifier 2010-SW-104-AD. (a) Applicability This AD...

Transactivation Assays that Identify Indirect and Direct Activators of Human Pregnane X Receptor (PXR, NR1I2) and Constitutive Androstane Receptor (CAR, NR1I3).

PubMed

Pinne, Marija; Ponce, Elsa; Raucy, Judy L

2017-01-01

Nuclear Receptors (NRs), including PXR and CAR, are presumed to be ligand-dependent transcription factors, but ligand binding is not an absolute requirement for activation. Indeed, many compounds activate PXR and CAR by indirect mechanisms. Detecting these indirect activators of specific nuclear receptors in vitro has been difficult. As NR activation of either or both PXR and CAR can lead to drug-drug interactions and adverse drug effects, false negatives obtained with screening tools incapable of detecting indirect activators could present liabilities. The aim of this study was to establish assays that identify indirect activators of human PXR and CAR. Commercially available human PXR and CAR transactivation assays were used for analyses. We show that transactivation assays containing full-length nuclear receptors with native promoters can identify indirect activators of human CAR and PXRwhen compared to those of commercially available assays containing only the LBD of PXR and CAR. Of these two assay systems, only human PXR and CAR1 assays with full-length receptors and native promoters are capable of detecting indirect and ligand activators. With this capability, several kinase inhibitors were identified that activate PXR and CAR by indirect mechanisms. Furthermore by using both the LBD and full-length receptors, phenobarbital and midostaurin were found to be direct and indirect activators of PXR while human CAR activation by phenobarbital occurs by indirect mechanisms only. Cell based transactivation assays employing the full-length receptors and native promoters identify both direct and indirect activators of either or both human PXR and CAR. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Finger Vein Recognition Based on Local Directional Code

PubMed Central

Meng, Xianjing; Yang, Gongping; Yin, Yilong; Xiao, Rongyang

2012-01-01

Finger vein patterns are considered as one of the most promising biometric authentication methods for its security and convenience. Most of the current available finger vein recognition methods utilize features from a segmented blood vessel network. As an improperly segmented network may degrade the recognition accuracy, binary pattern based methods are proposed, such as Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Local Derivative Pattern (LDP) and Local Line Binary Pattern (LLBP). However, the rich directional information hidden in the finger vein pattern has not been fully exploited by the existing local patterns. Inspired by the Webber Local Descriptor (WLD), this paper represents a new direction based local descriptor called Local Directional Code (LDC) and applies it to finger vein recognition. In LDC, the local gradient orientation information is coded as an octonary decimal number. Experimental results show that the proposed method using LDC achieves better performance than methods using LLBP. PMID:23202194

Finger vein recognition based on local directional code.

PubMed

Meng, Xianjing; Yang, Gongping; Yin, Yilong; Xiao, Rongyang

2012-11-05

Finger vein patterns are considered as one of the most promising biometric authentication methods for its security and convenience. Most of the current available finger vein recognition methods utilize features from a segmented blood vessel network. As an improperly segmented network may degrade the recognition accuracy, binary pattern based methods are proposed, such as Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Local Derivative Pattern (LDP) and Local Line Binary Pattern (LLBP). However, the rich directional information hidden in the finger vein pattern has not been fully exploited by the existing local patterns. Inspired by the Webber Local Descriptor (WLD), this paper represents a new direction based local descriptor called Local Directional Code (LDC) and applies it to finger vein recognition. In LDC, the local gradient orientation information is coded as an octonary decimal number. Experimental results show that the proposed method using LDC achieves better performance than methods using LLBP.

Fulfilling the promise of holographic optical elements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moss, Gaylord E.

1990-05-01

Consider the whole class of holographic optical elements which either contain pictorial image information or have the ability to modify wavefronts. Even after many years of development, there are pitifully few marketable applications. The visionary promises that holography would create a revolution in the optics and display industries have not been fulfilled. Time has shown that, while it was relatively simple to dream up ideas for myriad applications, these ideas have generally not moved beyond laboratory demonstrations. Exceptions are a few items such as optical elements for supermarket scanners, head-up displays and laser diode lenses. This paper addresses: 1. The many promises of holographic elements 2. The difficulties of practical implementation 3. A reassessment of research and development priorities To give simple examples of these points, they are discussed mainly as they apply to one type of holographic application: automotive displays. These familiar displays give a clear example of both the promises and difficulties that holographic elements present in the world of high volume, low-costproduction. Automotive displays could be considered as a trivial application alongside more interesting fundamental research programs or high cost, sophisticated military applications. One might even consider "trivial" automotive displays to be a disreputable subject for serious researchers. The case is made that exactly the opposite is true. The resources for large scale development exist only in a healthy commercial market. An example is the Japanese funding of high technology through commercial product development. This has been shown to be effective in the development of other technologies, such as ceramics, semiconductors, solar cells and composite materials. In like manner, if holography is to become an economically important technology, more and more competent researchers must start looking outside the universities and military laboratories for support. They must

Ideological Repositioning: Race, Social Justice, and Promise

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hodge, Samuel R.

2014-01-01

In this paper, I engage in discourse centrally located in the ideology of race in the United States of America juxtaposed to social justice with promise for tomorrow in higher education and beyond. I assert that social justice in kinesiology requires that once hired, retaining, securing tenured status, and promoting faculty of color means having…

Application of a symbolic motion structure representation algorithm to identify upper extremity kinematic changes during a repetitive task.

PubMed

Whittaker, Rachel L; Park, Woojin; Dickerson, Clark R

2018-04-27

Efficient and holistic identification of fatigue-induced movement strategies can be limited by large between-subject variability in descriptors of joint angle data. One promising alternative to traditional, or computationally intensive methods is the symbolic motion structure representation algorithm (SMSR), which identifies the basic spatial-temporal structure of joint angle data using string descriptors of temporal joint angle trajectories. This study attempted to use the SMSR to identify changes in upper extremity time series joint angle data during a repetitive goal directed task causing muscle fatigue. Twenty-eight participants (15 M, 13 F) performed a seated repetitive task until fatigued. Upper extremity joint angles were extracted from motion capture for representative task cycles. SMSRs, averages and ranges of several joint angles were compared at the start and end of the repetitive task to identify kinematic changes with fatigue. At the group level, significant increases in the range of all joint angle data existed with large between-subject variability that posed a challenge to the interpretation of these fatigue-related changes. However, changes in the SMSRs across participants effectively summarized the adoption of adaptive movement strategies. This establishes SMSR as a viable, logical, and sensitive method of fatigue identification via kinematic changes, with novel application and pragmatism for visual assessment of fatigue development. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Direct ethanol production from starch using a natural isolate, Scheffersomyces shehatae: Toward consolidated bioprocessing

PubMed Central

Tanimura, Ayumi; Kikukawa, Minako; Yamaguchi, Shino; Kishino, Shigenobu; Ogawa, Jun; Shima, Jun

2015-01-01

Consolidated bioprocessing (CBP), which integrates enzyme production, saccharification and fermentation into a one-step process, is a promising strategy for cost-effective ethanol production from starchy biomass. To gain insights into starch-based ethanol production using CBP, an extensive screening was undertaken to identify naturally occurring yeasts that produce ethanol without the addition of any amylases. Three yeast strains were capable of producing a significant amount of ethanol. Quantitative assays revealed that Scheffersomyces shehatae JCM 18690 was the strain showing the highest ethanol production ability. This strain was able to utilize starch directly, and the ethanol concentration reached 9.21 g/L. We attribute the ethanol-producing ability of this strain to the high levels of glucoamylase activity, fermentation potential and ethanol stress tolerance. This study strongly suggests the possibility of starch-based ethanol production by consolidated bioprocessing using natural yeasts such as S. shehatae JCM 18690. PMID:25901788

Direct ethanol production from starch using a natural isolate, Scheffersomyces shehatae: Toward consolidated bioprocessing.

PubMed

Tanimura, Ayumi; Kikukawa, Minako; Yamaguchi, Shino; Kishino, Shigenobu; Ogawa, Jun; Shima, Jun

2015-04-22

Consolidated bioprocessing (CBP), which integrates enzyme production, saccharification and fermentation into a one-step process, is a promising strategy for cost-effective ethanol production from starchy biomass. To gain insights into starch-based ethanol production using CBP, an extensive screening was undertaken to identify naturally occurring yeasts that produce ethanol without the addition of any amylases. Three yeast strains were capable of producing a significant amount of ethanol. Quantitative assays revealed that Scheffersomyces shehatae JCM 18690 was the strain showing the highest ethanol production ability. This strain was able to utilize starch directly, and the ethanol concentration reached 9.21 g/L. We attribute the ethanol-producing ability of this strain to the high levels of glucoamylase activity, fermentation potential and ethanol stress tolerance. This study strongly suggests the possibility of starch-based ethanol production by consolidated bioprocessing using natural yeasts such as S. shehatae JCM 18690.

Visualizing Chemistry: The Progess and Promise of Advanced Chemical Imaging

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Committee on Revealing Chemistry Through Advanced Chemical Imaging

2006-09-01

The field of chemical imaging can provide detailed structural, functional, and applicable information about chemistry and chemical engineering phenomena that have enormous impacts on medicine, materials, and technology. In recognizing the potential for more research development in the field of chemical imaging, the National Academies was asked by the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, U.S. Army, and National Cancer Institute to complete a study that would review the current state of molecular imaging technology, point to promising future developments and their applications, and suggest a research and educational agenda to enable breakthrough improvements in the ability to image molecularmore » processes simultaneously in multiple physical dimensions as well as time. The study resulted in a consensus report that provides guidance for a focused research and development program in chemical imaging and identifies research needs and possible applications of imaging technologies that can provide the breakthrough knowledge in chemistry, materials science, biology, and engineering for which we should strive. Public release of this report is expected in early October.« less

Credible threats and promises.

PubMed Central

McNamara, John M; Houston, Alasdair I

2002-01-01

We consider various implications of information about the other player in two-player evolutionary games. A simple model of desertion shows that information about the partner's behaviour can be disadvantageous, and highlights the idea of credible threats. We then discuss the general issue of whether the partner can convince the focal player that it will behave in a specific way, i.e. whether the focal player can make credible threats or promises. We show that when desertion decisions depend on reserves, a player can manipulate its reserves so as to create a credible threat of desertion. We then extend previous work on the evolution of trust and commitment, discussing conditions under which it is advantageous to assume that a partner will behave in a certain way even though it is not in its best interest. PMID:12495517

Network Modeling of microRNA-mRNA Interactions in Neuroblastoma Tumorigenesis Identifies miR-204 as a Direct Inhibitor of MYCN.

PubMed

Ooi, Chi Yan; Carter, Daniel R; Liu, Bing; Mayoh, Chelsea; Beckers, Anneleen; Lalwani, Amit; Nagy, Zsuzsanna; De Brouwer, Sara; Decaesteker, Bieke; Hung, Tzong-Tyng; Norris, Murray D; Haber, Michelle; Liu, Tao; De Preter, Katleen; Speleman, Frank; Cheung, Belamy B; Marshall, Glenn M

2018-06-15

Neuroblastoma is a pediatric cancer of the sympathetic nervous system where MYCN amplification is a key indicator of poor prognosis. However, mechanisms by which MYCN promotes neuroblastoma tumorigenesis are not fully understood. In this study, we analyzed global miRNA and mRNA expression profiles of tissues at different stages of tumorigenesis from TH-MYCN transgenic mice, a model of MYCN-driven neuroblastoma. On the basis of a Bayesian learning network model in which we compared pretumor ganglia from TH-MYCN +/+ mice to age-matched wild-type controls, we devised a predicted miRNA-mRNA interaction network. Among the miRNA-mRNA interactions operating during human neuroblastoma tumorigenesis, we identified miR-204 as a tumor suppressor miRNA that inhibited a subnetwork of oncogenes strongly associated with MYCN -amplified neuroblastoma and poor patient outcome. MYCN bound to the miR-204 promoter and repressed miR-204 transcription. Conversely, miR-204 directly bound MYCN mRNA and repressed MYCN expression. miR-204 overexpression significantly inhibited neuroblastoma cell proliferation in vitro and tumorigenesis in vivo Together, these findings identify novel tumorigenic miRNA gene networks and miR-204 as a tumor suppressor that regulates MYCN expression in neuroblastoma tumorigenesis. Significance: Network modeling of miRNA-mRNA regulatory interactions in a mouse model of neuroblastoma identifies miR-204 as a tumor suppressor and negative regulator of MYCN. Cancer Res; 78(12); 3122-34. ©2018 AACR . ©2018 American Association for Cancer Research.

Directed block copolymer self-assembly implemented via surface-embedded electrets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Mei-Ling; Wang, Dong; Wan, Li-Jun

2016-02-01

Block copolymer (BCP) nanolithography is widely recognized as a promising complementary approach to circumvent the feature size limits of conventional photolithography. The directed self-assembly of BCP thin film to form ordered nanostructures with controlled orientation and localized pattern has been the key challenge for practical nanolithography applications. Here we show that BCP nanopatterns can be directed on localized surface electrets defined by electron-beam irradiation to realize diverse features in a simple, effective and non-destructive manner. Charged electrets can generate a built-in electric field in BCP thin film and induce the formation of perpendicularly oriented microdomain of BCP film. The electret-directed orientation control of BCP film can be either integrated with mask-based patterning technique or realized by electron-beam direct-writing method to fabricate microscale arbitrary lateral patterns down to single BCP cylinder nanopattern. The electret-directed BCP self-assembly could provide an alternative means for BCP-based nanolithography, with high resolution.

Development of Novel Pharmacotherapeutics for Tobacco Dependence: Progress and Future Directions

PubMed Central

Kenny, Paul J.

2012-01-01

Introduction: The vast majority of tobacco smokers seeking to quit will relapse within the first month of abstinence. Currently available smoking cessation agents have limited utility in increasing rates of smoking cessation and in some cases there are notable safety concerns related to their use. Hence, there is a pressing need to develop safer and more efficacious smoking cessation medications. Methods: Here, we provide an overview of current efforts to develop new pharmacotherapeutic agents to facilitate smoking cessation, identified from ongoing clinical trials and published reports. Results: Nicotine is considered the major addictive agent in tobacco smoke, and the vast majority of currently available smoking cessation agents act by modulating nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) signaling. Accordingly, there is much effort directed toward developing novel small molecule therapeutics and biological agents such as nicotine vaccines for smoking cessation that act by modulating nAChR activity. Our increasing knowledge of the neurobiology of nicotine addiction has revealed new targets for novel smoking cessation therapeutics. Indeed, we highlight many examples of novel small molecule drug development around non-nAChR targets. Finally, there is a growing appreciation that medications already approved for other disease indications could show promise as smoking cessation agents, and we consider examples of such repurposing efforts. Conclusion: Ongoing clinical assessment of potential smoking cessation agents offers the promise of new effective medications. Nevertheless, much of our current knowledge of molecular mechanisms of nicotine addiction derived from preclinical studies has not yet been leveraged for medications development. PMID:23024249

An Investigation of Mathematically Promising Students' Cognitive Abilities and Their Contributions to Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Budak, Ibrahim; Kaygin, Bulent

2015-01-01

In this study, through the observation of mathematically promising students in regular classrooms, relevant learning environments and the learning needs of promising students, teacher approaches and teaching methods, and the differences between the promising students and their normal ability peers in the same classroom were investigated.…

Wave directional spreading from point field measurements

PubMed Central

Venugopal, V.; Borthwick, A. G. L.

2017-01-01

Ocean waves have multidirectional components. Most wave measurements are taken at a single point, and so fail to capture information about the relative directions of the wave components directly. Conventional means of directional estimation require a minimum of three concurrent time series of measurements at different spatial locations in order to derive information on local directional wave spreading. Here, the relationship between wave nonlinearity and directionality is utilized to estimate local spreading without the need for multiple concurrent measurements, following Adcock & Taylor (Adcock & Taylor 2009 Proc. R. Soc. A 465, 3361–3381. (doi:10.1098/rspa.2009.0031)), with the assumption that directional spreading is frequency independent. The method is applied to measurements recorded at the North Alwyn platform in the northern North Sea, and the results compared against estimates of wave spreading by conventional measurement methods and hindcast data. Records containing freak waves were excluded. It is found that the method provides accurate estimates of wave spreading over a range of conditions experienced at North Alwyn, despite the noisy chaotic signals that characterize such ocean wave data. The results provide further confirmation that Adcock and Taylor's method is applicable to metocean data and has considerable future promise as a technique to recover estimates of wave spreading from single point wave measurement devices. PMID:28484326

Promise and problems associated with the use of recombinant AAV for the delivery of anti-HIV antibodies

PubMed Central

Fuchs, Sebastian P; Desrosiers, Ronald C

2016-01-01

Attempts to elicit antibodies with potent neutralizing activity against a broad range of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) isolates have so far proven unsuccessful. Long-term delivery of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with such activity is a creative alternative that circumvents the need for an immune response and has the potential for creating a long-lasting sterilizing barrier against HIV. This approach is made possible by an incredible array of potent broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) that have been identified over the last several years. Recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors are ideally suited for long-term delivery for a variety of reasons. The only products made from rAAV are derived from the transgenes that are put into it; as long as those products are not viewed as foreign, expression from muscle tissue may continue for decades. Thus, use of rAAV to achieve long-term delivery of anti-HIV mAbs with potent neutralizing activity against a broad range of HIV-1 isolates is emerging as a promising concept for the prevention or treatment of HIV-1 infection in humans. Experiments in mice and monkeys that have demonstrated protective efficacy against AIDS virus infection have raised hopes for the promise of this approach. However, all published experiments in monkeys have encountered unwanted immune responses to the AAV-delivered antibody, and these immune responses appear to limit the levels of delivered antibody that can be achieved. In this review, we highlight the promise of rAAV-mediated antibody delivery for the prevention or treatment of HIV infection in humans, but we also discuss the obstacles that will need to be understood and solved in order for the promise of this approach to be realized. PMID:28197421

The Grape Antioxidant Resveratrol for Skin Disorders: Promise, Prospects, and Challenges

PubMed Central

Ndiaye, Mary; Philippe, Carol; Mukhtar, Hasan; Ahmad, Nihal

2011-01-01

Resveratrol, a phytoalexin antioxidant found in red grapes, has been shown to have both chemopreventive and therapeutic effects against many diseases and disorders, including those of the skin. Studies have shown protective effects of resveratrol against ultraviolet radiation mediated oxidative stress and cutaneous damages including skin cancer. Because many of the skin conditions stem from ultraviolet radiation and oxidative stress, this antioxidant appears to have promise and prospects against a wide range of cutaneous disorders including skin aging and skin cancers. However, there are a few roadblocks in the way of this promising agent regarding its translation from the bench to the bedside. This review discusses the promise and prospects of resveratrol in the management of skin disorders and the associated challenges. PMID:21215251

The Promise and Perils of Thought Experiments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, James Robert

2006-01-01

A number of thought experiments are cited, some well-known, some not. These illustrate the power of thought experiments. Other examples are given that show some of the dangers. As well as examples from the science, some examples of visual reasoning from mathematics are also presented, again with an eye to illustrating their promise and perils.…

Directed evolution: tailoring biocatalysts for industrial applications.

PubMed

Kumar, Ashwani; Singh, Suren

2013-12-01

Current challenges and promises of white biotechnology encourage protein engineers to use a directed evolution approach to generate novel and useful biocatalysts for various sets of applications. Different methods of enzyme engineering have been used in the past in an attempt to produce enzymes with improved functions and properties. Recent advancement in the field of random mutagenesis, screening, selection and computational design increased the versatility and the rapid development of enzymes under strong selection pressure with directed evolution experiments. Techniques of directed evolution improve enzymes fitness without understanding them in great detail and clearly demonstrate its future role in adapting enzymes for use in industry. Despite significant advances to date regarding biocatalyst improvement, there still remains a need to improve mutagenesis strategies and development of easy screening and selection tools without significant human intervention. This review covers fundamental and major development of directed evolution techniques, and highlights the advances in mutagenesis, screening and selection methods with examples of enzymes developed by using these approaches. Several commonly used methods for creating molecular diversity with their advantages and disadvantages including some recently used strategies are also discussed.

Project Engage: Snowball Sampling and Direct Recruitment to Identify and Link Hard-to-Reach HIV-Infected Persons Who Are Out of Care.

PubMed

Wohl, Amy Rock; Ludwig-Barron, Natasha; Dierst-Davies, Rhodri; Kulkarni, Sonali; Bendetson, Jesse; Jordan, Wilbert; Bolan, Robert; Smith, Terry; Cunningham, William; Pérez, Mario J

2017-06-01

Innovative strategies are needed to identify and link hard-to-find persons living with HIV (PLWH) who are out of care (OOC). Project Engage, a health department-based project in Los Angeles County, used a mixed-methods approach to locate and provide linkage for PLWH who have limited contact with HIV medical and nonmedical services. Incentivized social network recruitment (SNR) and direct recruitment (DR) was used to identify eligible OOC alters for a linkage intervention that included HIV clinic selection, appointment and transportation support, reminder calls/texts, and clinic navigation. Between 2012 and 2015, 112 alters were identified using SNR (n = 74) and DR (n = 38). Most alters were male (80%), African American (38%), and gay (60%). Sizable percentages were homeless (78%), had engaged in sex work (32%) in the previous 6 months, had injected drugs (47%), were incarcerated in the previous 12 months (50%), and had only received HIV care during the previous 5 years while incarcerated (24%). SNR alters were more likely than DR alters to be African American, uninsured, unemployed, homeless, sex workers, injection drug users, recently incarcerated, and have unmet service needs. Alters linked to care within 3 (69%), 4-6 (5%), and 7-12 months (8%), and 72% were retained at 6-12 months. The percent virally suppressed increased (27% vs. 41%) and the median viral load decreased (P = 0.003) between linkage and follow-up at 6-12 months. The alternative approaches presented were effective at locating marginalized HIV-positive persons who are OOC for linkage and retention. The SNR approach was most successful at identifying alters with serious social challenges and gaps in needed medical/ancillary services.

Looking Back and Looking Forward: Reprising the Promise and Predicting the Future of Formation Flying and Spaceborne GPS Navigation Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bauer, Frank H.; Dennehy, Neil

2015-01-01

A retrospective consideration of two 15-year old Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) technology 'vision' predictions will be the focus of this paper. A look back analysis and critique of these late 1990s technology roadmaps out-lining the future vision, for two then nascent, but rapidly emerging, GN&C technologies will be performed. Specifically, these two GN&C technologies were: 1) multi-spacecraft formation flying and 2) the spaceborne use and exploitation of global positioning system (GPS) signals to enable formation flying. This paper reprises the promise of formation flying and spaceborne GPS as depicted in the cited 1999 and 1998 papers. It will discuss what happened to cause that promise to be mostly unfulfilled and the reasons why the envisioned formation flying dream has yet to become a reality. The recent technology trends over the past few years will then be identified and a renewed government interest in spacecraft formation flying/cluster flight will be highlighted. The authors will conclude with a reality-tempered perspective, 15 years after the initial technology roadmaps were published, predicting a promising future of spacecraft formation flying technology development over the next decade.

Identifying/Quantifying Environmental Trade-offs Inherent in GHG Reduction Strategies for Coal-Fired Power. Environmental Science and Technology

EPA Science Inventory

Improvements to coal power plant technology and the co-fired combustion of biomass promise direct greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions for existing coal-fired power plants. Questions remain as to what the reduction potentials are from a life cycle perspective and if it will result in ...

'Sometimes the work just needs to be done': socio-cultural influences on direct observation in medical training.

PubMed

Watling, Christopher; LaDonna, Kori A; Lingard, Lorelei; Voyer, Stephane; Hatala, Rose

2016-10-01

Direct observation promises to strengthen both coaching and assessment, and calls for its increased use in medical training abound. Despite its apparent potential, the uptake of direct observation in medical training remains surprisingly limited outside the formal assessment setting. The limited uptake of observation raises questions about cultural barriers to its use. In this study, we explore the influence of professional culture on the use of direct observation within medical training. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, we interviewed 22 residents or fellows (10 male, 12 female) about their experiences of being observed during training. Participants represented a range of specialties and training levels. Data collection and analysis were conducted iteratively. Themes were identified using constant comparative analysis. Observation was used selectively; specialties tended to observe the clinical acts that they valued most. Despite these differences, we found two cultural values that consistently challenged the ready implementation of direct observation across specialties: (i) autonomy in learning and (ii) efficiency in health care provision. Furthermore, we found that direct observation was a primarily learner-driven activity, which left learners caught in the middle, wanting observation but also wanting to appear independent and efficient. The cultural values of autonomy in learning and practice and efficiency in health care provision challenge the integration of direct observation into clinical training. Medical learners are often expected to ask for observation, but such requests are socially and culturally fraught, and likely to constrain the wider uptake of direct observation. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

Photo-Induced Click Chemistry for DNA Surface Structuring by Direct Laser Writing.

PubMed

Kerbs, Antonina; Mueller, Patrick; Kaupp, Michael; Ahmed, Ishtiaq; Quick, Alexander S; Abt, Doris; Wegener, Martin; Niemeyer, Christof M; Barner-Kowollik, Christopher; Fruk, Ljiljana

2017-04-11

Oligonucleotides containing photo-caged dienes were prepared and shown to react quantitatively in a light-induced Diels-Alder cycloaddition with functional maleimides in aqueous solution within minutes. Due to its high yield and fast rate, the reaction was exploited for DNA surface patterning with sub-micrometer resolution employing direct laser writing (DLW). Functional DNA arrays were written by direct laser writing (DLW) in variable patterns, which were further encoded with fluorophores and proteins through DNA directed immobilization. This mild and efficient light-driven platform technology holds promise for the fabrication of complex bioarrays with sub-micron resolution. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

The social process of escalation: a promising focus for crisis management research

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background This study identifies a promising, new focus for the crisis management research in the health care domain. After reviewing the literature on health care crisis management, there seems to be a knowledge-gap regarding organisational change and adaption, especially when health care situations goes from normal, to non-normal, to pathological and further into a state of emergency or crisis. Discussion Based on studies of escalating situations in obstetric care it is suggested that two theoretical perspectives (contingency theory and the idea of failure as a result of incomplete interaction) tend to simplify the issue of escalation rather than attend to its complexities (including the various power relations among the stakeholders involved). However studying the process of escalation as inherently complex and social allows us to see the definition of a situation as normal or non-normal as an exercise of power in itself, rather than representing a putatively correct response to a particular emergency. Implications The concept of escalation, when treated this way, can help us further the analysis of clinical and institutional acts and competence. It can also turn our attention to some important elements in a class of social phenomenon, crises and emergencies, that so far have not received the attention they deserve. Focusing on organisational choreography, that interplay of potential factors such as power, professional identity, organisational accountability, and experience, is not only a promising focus for future naturalistic research but also for developing more pragmatic strategies that can enhance organisational coordination and response in complex events. PMID:22704075

The promise of molecular epidemiology in defining the association between radiation and cancer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Neta, R.

2000-07-01

Molecular epidemiology involves the inclusion in epidemiologic studies of biologic measurements made at a genetic and molecular level and aims to improve the current knowledge of disease etiology and risk. One of the goals of molecular epidemiology studies of cancer is to determine the role of environmental and genetic factors in initiation and progression of malignancies and to use this knowledge to develop preventive strategies. This approach promises extraordinary opportunities for revolutionizing the practice of medicine and reducing risk. However, this will be accompanied by the need to address and resolve many challenges, such as ensuring the appropriate interpretation ofmore » molecular testing and resolving associated ethical, legal, and social issues. Traditional epidemiologic approaches determined that exposure to ionizing radiation poses significantly increased risk of leukemia and several other types of cancer. Such studies provided the basis for setting exposure standards to protect the public and the workforce from potentially adverse effects of ionizing radiation. These standards were set by using modeling approaches to extrapolate from the biological effects observed in high-dose radiation studies to predicted, but mostly immeasurable, effects at low radiation doses. It is anticipated that the addition of the molecular parameters to the population-based studies will help identify the genes and pathways characteristic of cancers due to radiation exposure of individuals, as well as identify susceptible or resistant subpopulations. In turn, the information about the molecular mechanisms should aid to improve risk assessment. While studies on radiogenic concerns are currently limited to only a few candidate genes, the exponential growth of scientific knowledge and technology promises expansion of knowledge about identity of participating genes and pathways in the future. This article is meant to provide an introductory overview of recent advances in

By-product identification and phytotoxicity of biodegraded Direct Yellow 4 dye.

PubMed

Nouren, Shazia; Bhatti, Haq Nawaz; Iqbal, Munawar; Bibi, Ismat; Kamal, Shagufta; Sadaf, Sana; Sultan, Misbah; Kausar, Abida; Safa, Yusra

2017-02-01

Citrus limon peroxidase mediated decolourization of Direct Yellow 4 (DY4) was investigated. The process variables (pH, temperature, incubation time, enzyme dose, H 2 O 2 amount, dye concentration, co-metal ions and surfactants) were optimized for maximum degradation of dye. Maximum dye decolourization of 89.47% was achieved at pH 5.0, temperature 50 °C, enzyme dose 24 U/mL, H 2 O 2 concentration 0.25 mM and DY4 concentration 18.75 mg/L and incubation time 10 min. The co-metal ions and surfactants did not affect the dye decolourization significantly. Response surface analysis revealed that predicted values were in agreement with experimentally determined responses. The degradation products were identified by UPLC/MS analysis and degradation pathway was proposed. Besides, phytotoxicity assay revealed a considerable detoxification in response of biodegradation of DY4 dye. C. limon showed promising efficiency for DY4 degradation and could possibly be used for the remediation of textile effluents. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Consistency between direct and indirect trial evidence: is direct evidence always more reliable?

PubMed

Madan, Jason; Stevenson, Matt D; Cooper, Katy L; Ades, A E; Whyte, Sophie; Akehurst, Ron

2011-01-01

To present a case study involving the reduction in incidence of febrile neutropenia (FN) after chemotherapy with granulocyte colony-stimulating factors (G-CSFs), illustrating difficulties that may arise when following the common preference for direct evidence over indirect evidence. Evidence of the efficacy of treatments was identified from two previous systematic reviews. We used Bayesian evidence synthesis to estimate relative treatment effects based on direct evidence, indirect evidence, and both pooled together. We checked for inconsistency between direct and indirect evidence and explored the role of one specific trial using cross-validation. A subsequent review identified further studies not available at the time of the original analysis. We repeated the analyses on the enlarged evidence base. We found substantial inconsistency in the original evidence base. The median odds ratio of FN for primary pegfilgrastim versus no primary G-CSF was 0.06 (95% credible interval: 0.02-0.19) based on direct evidence, but 0.27 (95% credible interval: 0.13-0.53) based on indirect evidence (P value for consistency hypothesis 0.027). The additional trials were consistent with the earlier indirect, rather than the direct, evidence, and there was no inconsistency between direct and indirect estimates in the updated evidence. The earlier inconsistency was due to one trial comparing primary pegfilgrastim with no primary G-CSF. Predictive cross-validation showed that this study was inconsistent with the evidence as a whole and with other trials making this comparison. Both the Cochrane Handbook and the NICE Methods Guide express a preference for direct evidence. A more robust strategy, which is in line with the accepted principles of evidence synthesis, would be to combine all relevant and appropriate information, whether direct or indirect. Copyright © 2011 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Characterisation of slope directional resonance by analysing ambient noise instantaneous polarisation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Del Gaudio, Vincenzo; Wasowski, Janusz

2014-05-01

Several studies have shown that the dynamic response of landslide prone slopes to seismic shaking can play an important role in failure triggering during earthquakes. It was also demonstrated that slope seismic response is often characterised by directional resonance phenomena. Directivity can be revealed by the analysis of ambient noise recordings according to a technique known as HVNR method based on the analysis of azimuthal variation of spectral ratios between the spectral amplitude of horizontal H and vertical V component of noise recording. Directional resonance is then revealed by the presence of a preferential polarisation of H/V ratio peaks, whose frequencies correspond to resonance frequencies and whose amplitudes depend on the impedance contrast between surface material and bedrock. H/V ratio amplitudes can potentially provide information also on amplification factors. However, the relation is not straightforward depending on the nature of the waves contributing to the ambient noise. Thus, it is desirable to distinguish different kinds of noise wave packets, possibly isolating the contribution of Rayleigh waves, which appear to better reflect site response properties. To identify Rayleigh wave packets in noise recording a new approach was tested, based on a technique of analysis of instantaneous polarisation. The results are promising for the investigation of site response directional properties, particularly in the case of complex site conditions, where resonance can be characterised by multiple anisotropic peaks. In our preliminary tests of noise recordings carried out at a site located on a slope affected by landslides, only a small fraction of data samples (in the order of 1 %) were identified as Rayleigh type waves: this was likely due the fact that the noise recording was dominated by an overlapping of signals with different kinds of polarisation. Thus, it was possible to recognise Rayleigh polarisation only when the energy of this kind of wave was

External vibration multi-directional ultrasound shearwave elastography (EVMUSE): application in liver fibrosis staging.

PubMed

Zhao, Heng; Song, Pengfei; Meixner, Duane D; Kinnick, Randall R; Callstrom, Matthew R; Sanchez, William; Urban, Matthew W; Manduca, Armando; Greenleaf, James F; Chen, Shigao

2014-11-01

Shear wave speed can be used to assess tissue elasticity, which is associated with tissue health. Ultrasound shear wave elastography techniques based on measuring the propagation speed of the shear waves induced by acoustic radiation force are becoming promising alternatives to biopsy in liver fibrosis staging. However, shear waves generated by such methods are typically very weak. Therefore, the penetration may become problematic, especially for overweight or obese patients. In this study, we developed a new method called external vibration multi-directional ultrasound shearwave elastography (EVMUSE), in which external vibration from a loudspeaker was used to generate a multi-directional shear wave field. A directional filter was then applied to separate the complex shear wave field into several shear wave fields propagating in different directions. A 2-D shear wave speed map was reconstructed from each individual shear wave field, and a final 2-D shear wave speed map was constructed by compounding these individual wave speed maps. The method was validated using two homogeneous phantoms and one multi-purpose tissue-mimicking phantom. Ten patients undergoing liver magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) were also studied with EVMUSE to compare results between the two methods. Phantom results showed EVMUSE was able to quantify tissue elasticity accurately with good penetration. In vivo EVMUSE results were well correlated with MRE results, indicating the promise of using EVMUSE for liver fibrosis staging.

External Vibration Multi-directional Ultrasound Shearwave Elastography (EVMUSE): Application in Liver Fibrosis Staging

PubMed Central

Zhao, Heng; Song, Pengfei; Meixner, Duane D.; Kinnick, Randall R.; Callstrom, Matthew R.; Sanchez, William; Urban, Matthew W.; Manduca, Armando; Greenleaf, James F.

2014-01-01

Shear wave speed can be used to assess tissue elasticity, which is associated with tissue health. Ultrasound shear wave elastography techniques based on measuring the propagation speed of the shear waves induced by acoustic radiation force are becoming promising alternatives to biopsy in liver fibrosis staging. However, shear waves generated by such methods are typically very weak. Therefore, the penetration may become problematic, especially for overweight or obese patients. In this study, we developed a new method called External Vibration Multi-directional Ultrasound Shearwave Elastography (EVMUSE), in which external vibration from a loudspeaker was used to generate a multi-directional shear wave field. A directional filter was then applied to separate the complex shear wave field into several shear wave fields propagating in different directions. A two-dimensional (2D) shear wave speed map was reconstructed from each individual shear wave field, and a final 2D shear wave speed map was constructed by compounding these individual wave speed maps. The method was validated using two homogeneous phantoms and one multi-purpose tissue-mimicking phantom. Ten patients undergoing liver Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) were also studied with EVMUSE to compare results between the two methods. Phantom results showed EVMUSE was able to quantify tissue elasticity accurately with good penetration. In vivo EVMUSE results were well correlated with MRE results, indicating the promise of using EVMUSE for liver fibrosis staging. PMID:25020066

Identifying therapeutic targets in gastric cancer: the current status and future direction

PubMed Central

Yu, Beiqin; Xie, Jingwu

2016-01-01

Gastric cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Our basic understanding of gastric cancer biology falls behind that of many other cancer types. Current standard treatment options for gastric cancer have not changed for the last 20 years. Thus, there is an urgent need to establish novel strategies to treat this deadly cancer. Successful clinical trials with Gleevec in CML and gastrointestinal stromal tumors have set up an example for targeted therapy of cancer. In this review, we will summarize major progress in classification, therapeutic options of gastric cancer. We will also discuss molecular mechanisms for drug resistance in gastric cancer. In addition, we will attempt to propose potential future directions in gastric cancer biology and drug targets. PMID:26373844

A Guide to Promising Practices in Educational Partnerships.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bodinger-deUriarte, Cristina; And Others

This guide, which is designed for individuals interested in establishing joint endeavors among schools, social service agencies, cultural institutions, businesses, industries, and/or institutions of higher education, illustrates promising practices supporting and reflecting partnership activities. Part 1 is divided into three sections detailing…

Analytic TOF PET reconstruction algorithm within DIRECT data partitioning framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matej, Samuel; Daube-Witherspoon, Margaret E.; Karp, Joel S.

2016-05-01

Iterative reconstruction algorithms are routinely used for clinical practice; however, analytic algorithms are relevant candidates for quantitative research studies due to their linear behavior. While iterative algorithms also benefit from the inclusion of accurate data and noise models the widespread use of time-of-flight (TOF) scanners with less sensitivity to noise and data imperfections make analytic algorithms even more promising. In our previous work we have developed a novel iterative reconstruction approach (DIRECT: direct image reconstruction for TOF) providing convenient TOF data partitioning framework and leading to very efficient reconstructions. In this work we have expanded DIRECT to include an analytic TOF algorithm with confidence weighting incorporating models of both TOF and spatial resolution kernels. Feasibility studies using simulated and measured data demonstrate that analytic-DIRECT with appropriate resolution and regularization filters is able to provide matched bias versus variance performance to iterative TOF reconstruction with a matched resolution model.

Construction of orthogonal synchronized bi-directional field to enhance heating efficiency of magnetic nanoparticles.

PubMed

Chen, Shih-Wei; Lai, Jr-Jie; Chiang, Chen-Li; Chen, Cheng-Lung

2012-06-01

Magnetic hyperthermia using magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) has attracted considerable attention as one of the promising tumor therapy. The study has been developed under single magnetic field. Recently, we found that the immobile MNP may generate more heat under two synchronous ac magnetic fields than traditional single and circular polarized fields based on model simulation result. According to this finding we constructed an orthogonal synchronized bi-directional field (OSB field). The system contained two LC resonant inverters (L: inductor, C: capacitor) and both vertical and transverse ac magnetic fields were generated by two Helmholtz coils. To reduce the interference, the axis directional of two coils were arranged orthogonally. The experiments showed that the heating ability of aggregated MNPs is greatly enhanced under this newly designed OSB field without increasing the strength of magnetic field. The OSB field system provides a promising way for future clinical hyperthermia.

Construction of orthogonal synchronized bi-directional field to enhance heating efficiency of magnetic nanoparticles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Shih-Wei; Lai-Jie, Jr.; Chiang, Chen-Li; Chen, Cheng-Lung

2012-06-01

Magnetic hyperthermia using magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) has attracted considerable attention as one of the promising tumor therapy. The study has been developed under single magnetic field. Recently, we found that the immobile MNP may generate more heat under two synchronous ac magnetic fields than traditional single and circular polarized fields based on model simulation result. According to this finding we constructed an orthogonal synchronized bi-directional field (OSB field). The system contained two LC resonant inverters (L: inductor, C: capacitor) and both vertical and transverse ac magnetic fields were generated by two Helmholtz coils. To reduce the interference, the axis directional of two coils were arranged orthogonally. The experiments showed that the heating ability of aggregated MNPs is greatly enhanced under this newly designed OSB field without increasing the strength of magnetic field. The OSB field system provides a promising way for future clinical hyperthermia.

Identifying the Genotypes of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) with DNA Origami Label.

PubMed

Liu, Ke; Pan, Dun; Wen, Yanqin; Zhang, Honglu; Chao, Jie; Wang, Lihua; Song, Shiping; Fan, Chunhai; Shi, Yongyong

2018-02-01

The hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotyping may profoundly affect the accurate diagnosis and antiviral treatment of viral hepatitis. Existing genotyping methods such as serological, immunological, or molecular testing are still suffered from substandard specificity and low sensitivity in laboratory or clinical application. In a previous study, a set of high-efficiency hybridizable DNA origami-based shape ID probes to target the templates through which genetic variation could be determined in an ultrahigh resolution of atomic force microscopy (AFM) nanomechanical imaging are established. Here, as a further confirmatory research to explore the sensitivity and applicability of this assay, differentially predesigned DNA origami shape ID probes are also developed for precisely HBV genotyping. Through the specific identification of visualized DNA origami nanostructure with clinical HBV DNA samples, the genetic variation information of genotypes can be directly identified under AFM. As a proof-of-concept, five genotype B and six genotype C are detected in 11 HBV-infected patients' blood DNA samples of Han Chinese population in the single-blinded test. The AFM image-based DNA origami shape ID genotyping approach shows high specificity and sensitivity, which could be promising for virus infection diagnosis and precision medicine in the future. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Systemic therapy in muscle-invasive and metastatic bladder cancer: current trends and future promises.

PubMed

Aragon-Ching, Jeanny B; Trump, Donald L

2016-09-01

Bladder urothelial cancers remain an important urologic cancer with limited treatment options in the locally advanced and metastatic setting. While neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced muscle-invasive cancers has shown overall survival benefit, clinical uptake in practice have lagged behind. Controversies surrounding adjuvant chemotherapy use are also ongoing. Systemic therapies for metastatic bladder cancer have largely used platinum-based therapies without effective standard second-line therapy options for those who fail, although vinflunine is approved in Europe as a second-line therapy based on a Phase III trial, and most recently, atezolizumab, a checkpoint inhibitor, was approved by the US FDA. Given increasing recognition of mutational signatures expressed in urothelial carcinomas, several promising agents with use of VEGF-targeted therapies, HER2-directed agents and immunotherapies with PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies in various settings are discussed herein.

The Radical Promise of Reformist Zeal: What Makes "Inquiry for Equity" Plausible?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lashaw, Amanda

2010-01-01

Education reform movements often promise more than they deliver. Why are such promises plausible in light of seemingly perpetual education reform? Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork based in a nonprofit education reform organization, this article explores the appeal of popular notions about "using data to close the racial achievement…

Treatment of persistent post-concussion syndrome due to mild traumatic brain injury: current status and future directions.

PubMed

Hadanny, Amir; Efrati, Shai

2016-08-01

Persistent post-concussion syndrome caused by mild traumatic brain injury has become a major cause of morbidity and poor quality of life. Unlike the acute care of concussion, there is no consensus for treatment of chronic symptoms. Moreover, most of the pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments have failed to demonstrate significant efficacy on both the clinical symptoms as well as the pathophysiologic cascade responsible for the permanent brain injury. This article reviews the pathophysiology of PCS, the diagnostic tools and criteria, the current available treatments including pharmacotherapy and different cognitive rehabilitation programs, and promising new treatment directions. A most promising new direction is the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which targets the basic pathological processes responsible for post-concussion symptoms; it is discussed here in depth.

Contradictions and Promise for End-of-Life Communication among Family and Friends: Death over Dinner Conversations.

PubMed

Lambert South, Andrea; Elton, Jessica

2017-04-20

The free, open-access website called "Let's Get Together and Talk about Death", or Death over Dinner (DoD), provides resources for initiating end-of-life conversations with family and friends by taking the frightening-talking about death-and transforming it into the familiar-a conversation over dinner. This qualitative, descriptive study uses grounded theory and thematic analysis to answer the following research question: How do friend and family groups communicate about death and dying in DoD conversations? To answer this question, 52 dinner groups were recruited and conversations were conducted, which consisted of a facilitator and volunteers. The facilitators were the researchers or research assistants who allowed dinner participants to control the conversation and identify topics of interest, and participants were free to share as much or as little as they wanted. Our analysis revealed that family and friend groups communicated similarly in that they talked about similar topics and used similar communication strategies to discuss those topics. Three major themes emerged: Desire for a good death , which juxtaposed people's perceptions of a "dreaded" death with those of a "desirable" death; tactics for coping , which consisted of the subthemes of humour to diffuse tension or deflect discomfort, spiritual reassurance, and topic avoidance; and topics that elicit fear or uncertainty , which consisted of the subthemes of organ and whole-body donation, hospice and palliative care, wills and advance directives. Ultimately, however, participants felt their experiences were positive and DoD shows promise as a tool for families to engage in end-of-life conversations.

Design, challenge, and promise of stimuli-responsive nanoantibiotics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edson, Julius A.; Kwon, Young Jik

2016-10-01

Over the past few years, there have been calls for novel antimicrobials to combat the rise of drug-resistant bacteria. While some promising new discoveries have met this call, it is not nearly enough. The major problem is that although these new promising antimicrobials serve as a short-term solution, they lack the potential to provide a long-term solution. The conventional method of creating new antibiotics relies heavily on the discovery of an antimicrobial compound from another microbe. This paradigm of development is flawed due to the fact that microbes can easily transfer a resistant mechanism if faced with an environmental pressure. Furthermore, there has been some evidence to indicate that the environment of the microbe can provide a hint as to their virulence. Because of this, the use of materials with antimicrobial properties has been garnering interest. Nanoantibiotics, (nAbts), provide a new way to circumvent the current paradigm of antimicrobial discovery and presents a novel mechanism of attack not found in microbes yet; which may lead to a longer-term solution against drug-resistance formation. This allows for environment-specific activation and efficacy of the nAbts but may also open up and create new design methods for various applications. These nAbts provide promise, but there is still ample work to be done in their development. This review looks at possible ways of improving and optimizing nAbts by making them stimuli-responsive, then consider the challenges ahead, and industrial applications.[Figure not available: see fulltext.

γ-Tocotrienol as a Promising Countermeasure for Acute Radiation Syndrome: Current Status.

PubMed

Singh, Vijay K; Hauer-Jensen, Martin

2016-05-03

The hazard of ionizing radiation exposure due to nuclear accidents or terrorist attacks is ever increasing. Despite decades of research, still, there is a shortage of non-toxic, safe and effective medical countermeasures for radiological and nuclear emergency. To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) has approved only two growth factors, Neupogen (granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), filgrastim) and Neulasta (PEGylated G-CSF, pegfilgrastim) for the treatment of hematopoietic acute radiation syndrome (H-ARS) following the Animal Efficacy Rule. Promising radioprotective efficacy results of γ-tocotrienol (GT3; a member of the vitamin E family) in the mouse model encouraged its further evaluation in the nonhuman primate (NHP) model. These studies demonstrated that GT3 significantly aided the recovery of radiation-induced neutropenia and thrombocytopenia compared to the vehicle controls; these results particularly significant after exposure to 5.8 or 6.5 Gray (Gy) whole body γ-irradiation. The stimulatory effect of GT3 on neutrophils and thrombocytes (platelets) was directly and positively correlated with dose; a 75 mg/kg dose was more effective compared to 37.5 mg/kg. GT3 was also effective against 6.5 Gy whole body γ-irradiation for improving neutrophils and thrombocytes. Moreover, a single administration of GT3 without any supportive care was equivalent, in terms of improving hematopoietic recovery, to multiple doses of Neupogen and two doses of Neulasta with full supportive care (including blood products) in the NHP model. GT3 may serve as an ultimate radioprotector for use in humans, particularly for military personnel and first responders. In brief, GT3 is a promising radiation countermeasure that ought to be further developed for U.S. FDA approval for the ARS indication.

γ-Tocotrienol as a Promising Countermeasure for Acute Radiation Syndrome: Current Status

PubMed Central

Singh, Vijay K.; Hauer-Jensen, Martin

2016-01-01

The hazard of ionizing radiation exposure due to nuclear accidents or terrorist attacks is ever increasing. Despite decades of research, still, there is a shortage of non-toxic, safe and effective medical countermeasures for radiological and nuclear emergency. To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) has approved only two growth factors, Neupogen (granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), filgrastim) and Neulasta (PEGylated G-CSF, pegfilgrastim) for the treatment of hematopoietic acute radiation syndrome (H-ARS) following the Animal Efficacy Rule. Promising radioprotective efficacy results of γ-tocotrienol (GT3; a member of the vitamin E family) in the mouse model encouraged its further evaluation in the nonhuman primate (NHP) model. These studies demonstrated that GT3 significantly aided the recovery of radiation-induced neutropenia and thrombocytopenia compared to the vehicle controls; these results particularly significant after exposure to 5.8 or 6.5 Gray (Gy) whole body γ-irradiation. The stimulatory effect of GT3 on neutrophils and thrombocytes (platelets) was directly and positively correlated with dose; a 75 mg/kg dose was more effective compared to 37.5 mg/kg. GT3 was also effective against 6.5 Gy whole body γ-irradiation for improving neutrophils and thrombocytes. Moreover, a single administration of GT3 without any supportive care was equivalent, in terms of improving hematopoietic recovery, to multiple doses of Neupogen and two doses of Neulasta with full supportive care (including blood products) in the NHP model. GT3 may serve as an ultimate radioprotector for use in humans, particularly for military personnel and first responders. In brief, GT3 is a promising radiation countermeasure that ought to be further developed for U.S. FDA approval for the ARS indication. PMID:27153057

Identifiability and Performance Analysis of Output Over-sampling Approach to Direct Closed-loop Identification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Lianming; Sano, Akira

Output over-sampling based closed-loop identification algorithm is investigated in this paper. Some instinct properties of the continuous stochastic noise and the plant input, output in the over-sampling approach are analyzed, and they are used to demonstrate the identifiability in the over-sampling approach and to evaluate its identification performance. Furthermore, the selection of plant model order, the asymptotic variance of estimated parameters and the asymptotic variance of frequency response of the estimated model are also explored. It shows that the over-sampling approach can guarantee the identifiability and improve the performance of closed-loop identification greatly.

The Promise of Global Networks. 1999 Annual Review.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Institute for Information Studies, Queenstown, MD.

This collection of commissioned papers provides a variety of perspectives on the impact of global information networks. The following articles are included: "The Promise of Global Networks: An Introduction" (Jorge Reina Schement); "Architecture and Expectations: Networks of the World--Unite!" (Marjory S. Blumenthal); "The…

The Acquisition of Ask, Tell and Promise Structures by Arabic Speaking Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aller, Wayne K.; And Others

In a study extending and refining Carol Chomsky's research, 48 Arabic speaking children aged six, eight, and ten were tested for their comprehension of imperatives using the complement-requiring verbs Ask, Tell, and Promise. Clear support for children's overgeneralization of the minimal distance principle was found only with Promise constructions.…

Direct Mail Marketing for Cooperative Education. Cooperative Education Marketing Digest Series 5.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGookey, Kathy

Seven guidelines for enhancing direct mail marketing are as follows: target the most promising audience; frame the right message for the audience; state the benefits of making a positive response; send the message at an appropriate time; tell the reader what response is desired; plan follow-up mailings or other contact; and measure results.…

Exceptional ion rejection ability of directional solvent for non-membrane desalination

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rish, Daniel; Department of Civil Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556; Luo, Shirui

2014-01-13

The recently demonstrated directional solvent extraction (DSE) is promising for very low temperature, membrane-free water desalination. In this paper, we combine atomistic simulations and experimental validation to demonstrate that the currently used directional solvent, decanoic acid, can reject all major salt ions in seawater, with very high rejection rates. The salinities of the DSE recovered water show that ion rejection rates are ∼98%–99%—similar to those of the best reverse osmosis membranes. Our test also shows that the DSE process can desalt seawater to produce fresh water that meets drinking water standards.

mHealth Interventions to Counter Noncommunicable Diseases in Developing Countries: Still an Uncertain Promise.

PubMed

Beratarrechea, Andrea; Moyano, Daniela; Irazola, Vilma; Rubinstein, Adolfo

2017-02-01

mHealth constitutes a promise for health care delivery in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where health care systems are unprepared to combat the threat of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). This article assesses the impact of mHealth on NCD outcomes in LMICs. A systematic review identified controlled studies evaluating mHealth interventions that addressed NCDs in LMICs. From the 1274 abstracts retrieved, 108 articles were selected for full text review and 20 randomized controlled trials were included from 14 LMICs. One-way SMS was the most commonly used mobile function to deliver reminders, health education, and information. mHealth interventions in LMICs have positive but modest effects on chronic disease outcomes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Psychological Treatments for IBS in Gastroenterology Settings: Promising but in Need of Further Study.

PubMed

Thakur, Elyse R; Shapiro, Jordan; Chan, Johanna; Lumley, Mark A; Cully, Jeffrey A; Bradford, Andrea; El-Serag, Hashem B

2018-05-10

Psychological treatments are efficacious for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in clinical trials; however, their effectiveness when conducted in gastroenterology practice settings is unclear. To perform a systematic review of the types and effects of psychological treatments for IBS conducted in gastroenterology clinics. We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane central register. Studies conducted in gastroenterology clinic settings with IBS patients who were clinically referred from gastroenterology were included. We identified 3078 citations, of which only eight studies were eligible. Seven studies compared psychological treatments (average n = 25.7; range 12-43) to controls (average n = 25.4 patients; range 12-47), whereas one study compared two active "bonafide" interventions. Psychological treatments varied (cognitive-behavioral therapy, guided affective imagery, mindfulness, hypnosis, biofeedback, emotional awareness training). However, across approaches, short-term benefits were seen. IBS symptoms improved significantly among patients in cognitive and behavioral therapies, mindfulness-based stress reduction, guided affective imagery, and emotional awareness training compared with controls; there was a similar trend for gut-directed hypnotherapy. Similarly, IBS symptoms improved in a study of two active biofeedback and hypnosis treatments. Evidence for the effectiveness of psychological treatment in gastroenterology practice is promising but limited. Study designs that involve a blending of efficacy and effectiveness components are needed.

Personalized medicine in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: facts and promises.

PubMed

Spagnolo, Paolo; Tzouvelekis, Argyris; Maher, Toby M

2015-09-01

In this article, we summarize and discuss the most recent literature on personalized medicine in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a chronic progressive and almost invariably lethal disease of unknown cause. This review is timely as major advances in our understanding of disease pathobiology and improvements in molecular techniques have recently led to the identification of potential surrogates of diagnosis, prognosis and response to treatment. The most promising and advanced candidate biomarkers are presented based on their proposed mechanistic pathways (e.g. alveolar epithelial cell dysfunction, immune dysregulation, microbiome, extracellular matrix remodeling and fibroproliferation, epigenetic markers and metabolomics). Recent data suggest that components of the immune system may contribute to the development of IPF. A potential role for infections as a cofactor in disease development and progression or as a trigger in disease exacerbation has also recently been proposed. Clinical management of IPF is unsatisfactory because of limited availability of truly effective therapies, lack of accurate predictors of disease behavior and absence of simple short-term measures of therapeutic response. A number of putative biomarkers have been identified in patients with IPF, although none has been validated to the standard necessary for their use in either therapeutic trials or clinical practice. Currently, ongoing prospective longitudinal studies will hopefully permit such validation.

Thymoquinone-based nanotechnology for cancer therapy: promises and challenges.

PubMed

Ballout, Farah; Habli, Zeina; Rahal, Omar Nasser; Fatfat, Maamoun; Gali-Muhtasib, Hala

2018-05-01

Thymoquinone (TQ), the active ingredient of black seed, is a promising anticancer molecule that inhibits cancer cell growth and progression in vitro and in vivo. Despite the promising anticancer activities of TQ, its translation to the clinic is limited by its poor bioavailability and hydrophobicity. As such, we and others encapsulated TQ in nanoparticles to improve its delivery and limit undesirable cytotoxicity. These TQ-nanoparticle formulations showed improved anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities when compared with free TQ. Here, we provide an overview of the various TQ-nanoparticle formulations, highlight their superior efficacy and discuss up-to-date solutions to further enhance TQ bioavailability and anticancer activity, thus improving potential for clinical translation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Promising New Teacher Support Strategies and Their Costs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dianda, Marcella R.; Quartz, Karen Hunter

1995-01-01

Describes several promising new teacher support strategies implemented by California universities and their district partners as part of the California New Teacher Project, noting resources expended to implement each strategy. The strategies are framed according to their programmatic and economic dimensions. Strategies that make the most sense…

The Challenge and Promise of a Catholic University.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hesburgh, Theodore M., Ed.

This book offers 30 papers on the continuing discussion of the nature of a Catholic university. The papers are: "Introduction: The Challenge and Promise of a Catholic University" (Theodore M. Hesburgh); "Reflections on the Mission of a Catholic University" (Harold W. Attridge); "The Difference of a Catholic…

Ebola vaccines in clinical trial: The promising candidates

PubMed Central

Wang, Yuxiao; Li, Jingxin; Hu, Yuemei; Liang, Qi; Wei, Mingwei; Zhu, Fengcai

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Ebola virus disease (EVD) has become a great threat to humans across the world in recent years. The 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa caused numerous deaths and attracted worldwide attentions. Since no specific drugs and treatments against EVD was available, vaccination was considered as the most promising and effective method of controlling this epidemic. So far, 7 vaccine candidates had been developed and evaluated through clinical trials. Among them, the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus-based vaccine (rVSV-EBOV) is the most promising candidate, which demonstrated a significant protection against EVD in phase III clinical trial. However, several concerns were still associated with the Ebola vaccine candidates, including the safety profile in some particular populations, the immunization schedule for emergency vaccination, and the persistence of the protection. We retrospectively reviewed the current development of Ebola vaccines and discussed issues and challenges remaining to be investigated in the future. PMID:27764560

Direct observation of lithium polysulfides in lithium-sulfur batteries using operando X-ray diffraction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conder, Joanna; Bouchet, Renaud; Trabesinger, Sigita; Marino, Cyril; Gubler, Lorenz; Villevieille, Claire

2017-06-01

In the on going quest towards lithium-battery chemistries beyond the lithium-ion technology, the lithium-sulfur system is emerging as one of the most promising candidates. The major outstanding challenge on the route to commercialization is controlling the so-called polysulfide shuttle, which is responsible for the poor cycling efficiency of the current generation of lithium-sulfur batteries. However, the mechanistic understanding of the reactions underlying the polysulfide shuttle is still incomplete. Here we report the direct observation of lithium polysulfides in a lithium-sulfur cell during operation by means of operando X-ray diffraction. We identify signatures of polysulfides adsorbed on the surface of a glass-fibre separator and monitor their evolution during cycling. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the adsorption of the polysulfides onto SiO2 can be harnessed for buffering the polysulfide redox shuttle. The use of fumed silica as an electrolyte additive therefore significantly improves the specific charge and Coulombic efficiency of lithium-sulfur batteries.

Functional Proteomics Identifies Acinus L as a Direct Insulin- and Amino Acid-Dependent Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 (mTORC1) Substrate*

PubMed Central

Schwarz, Jennifer Jasmin; Wiese, Heike; Tölle, Regine Charlotte; Zarei, Mostafa; Dengjel, Jörn; Warscheid, Bettina; Thedieck, Kathrin

2015-01-01

The serine/threonine kinase mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) governs growth, metabolism, and aging in response to insulin and amino acids (aa), and is often activated in metabolic disorders and cancer. Much is known about the regulatory signaling network that encompasses mTOR, but surprisingly few direct mTOR substrates have been established to date. To tackle this gap in our knowledge, we took advantage of a combined quantitative phosphoproteomic and interactomic strategy. We analyzed the insulin- and aa-responsive phosphoproteome upon inhibition of the mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) component raptor, and investigated in parallel the interactome of endogenous mTOR. By overlaying these two datasets, we identified acinus L as a potential novel mTORC1 target. We confirmed acinus L as a direct mTORC1 substrate by co-immunoprecipitation and MS-enhanced kinase assays. Our study delineates a triple proteomics strategy of combined phosphoproteomics, interactomics, and MS-enhanced kinase assays for the de novo-identification of mTOR network components, and provides a rich source of potential novel mTOR interactors and targets for future investigation. PMID:25907765

The Promise Neighborhoods Movement: Creating Communities of Opportunity from Cradle to Career

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McAfee, Michael; Torre, Mauricio

2015-01-01

In this article, Michael McAfee and Mauricio Torre reflect on the successes and challenges of the Promise Neighborhoods movement as it works toward education equity, and on what it takes to effect large-scale, sustainable change for low-income communities and communities of color. Together they discuss the Chula Vista Promise Neighborhood project…

Directed evolution of bacteriorhodopsin for applications in bioelectronics

PubMed Central

Wagner, Nicole L.; Greco, Jordan A.; Ranaghan, Matthew J.; Birge, Robert R.

2013-01-01

In nature, biological systems gradually evolve through complex, algorithmic processes involving mutation and differential selection. Evolution has optimized biological macromolecules for a variety of functions to provide a comparative advantage. However, nature does not optimize molecules for use in human-made devices, as it would gain no survival advantage in such cooperation. Recent advancements in genetic engineering, most notably directed evolution, have allowed for the stepwise manipulation of the properties of living organisms, promoting the expansion of protein-based devices in nanotechnology. In this review, we highlight the use of directed evolution to optimize photoactive proteins, with an emphasis on bacteriorhodopsin (BR), for device applications. BR, a highly stable light-activated proton pump, has shown great promise in three-dimensional optical memories, real-time holographic processors and artificial retinas. PMID:23676894

Harnessing the Promise of Moral Distress: A Call for Re-Orientation.

PubMed

Carse, Alisa; Rushton, Cynda Hylton

2017-01-01

Despite over three decades of research into the sources and costs of what has become an "epidemic" of moral distress among healthcare professionals, spanning many clinical disciplines and roles, there has been little significant progress in effectively addressing moral distress. We believe the persistent sense of frustration, helplessness, and despair still dominating the clinical moral distress narrative signals a need for re-orientation in the way moral distress is understood and worked with. Most fundamentally, moral distress reveals moral investment and energy. It is the troubled call of conscience, an expression of fidelity to moral commitments seen as imperiled or compromised. It is crucial that we find ways to empower clinicians in heeding this call-to support clinicians' moral agency and voice, foster their moral resilience, and facilitate their ability to contribute to needed reform within the organizations and systems in which they work. These objectives must inform creative expansion in the design of strategies for addressing moral distress in the day-to-day of clinical practice. We include suggestions about promising directions such strategies might take in the hope of spurring further innovation within clinical environments. Copyright 2016 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

A new silicon phase with direct band gap and novel optoelectronic properties

DOE PAGES

Guo, Yaguang; Wang, Qian; Kawazoe, Yoshiyuki; ...

2015-09-23

Due to the compatibility with the well-developed Si-based semiconductor industry, there is considerable interest in developing silicon structures with direct energy band gaps for effective sunlight harvesting. In this paper, using silicon triangles as the building block, we propose a new silicon allotrope with a direct band gap of 0.61 eV, which is dynamically, thermally and mechanically stable. Symmetry group analysis further suggests that dipole transition at the direct band gap is allowed. Additionally, this new allotrope displays large carrier mobility (~10 4 cm/V · s) at room temperature and a low mass density (1.71 g/cm 3), making it amore » promising material for optoelectronic applications.« less

Validity of deterministic record linkage using multiple indirect personal identifiers: linking a large registry to claims data.

PubMed

Setoguchi, Soko; Zhu, Ying; Jalbert, Jessica J; Williams, Lauren A; Chen, Chih-Ying

2014-05-01

Linking patient registries with administrative databases can enhance the utility of the databases for epidemiological and comparative effectiveness research. However, registries often lack direct personal identifiers, and the validity of record linkage using multiple indirect personal identifiers is not well understood. Using a large contemporary national cardiovascular device registry and 100% Medicare inpatient data, we linked hospitalization-level records. The main outcomes were the validity measures of several deterministic linkage rules using multiple indirect personal identifiers compared with rules using both direct and indirect personal identifiers. Linkage rules using 2 or 3 indirect, patient-level identifiers (ie, date of birth, sex, admission date) and hospital ID produced linkages with sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 98% compared with a gold standard linkage rule using a combination of both direct and indirect identifiers. Ours is the first large-scale study to validate the performance of deterministic linkage rules without direct personal identifiers. When linking hospitalization-level records in the absence of direct personal identifiers, provider information is necessary for successful linkage. © 2014 American Heart Association, Inc.

Promising Practices: A Teacher Resource (Grades K-3).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Provenzano, Johanna Z., Ed.

A collection of promising instructional practices for teachers of limited-English-speaking primary grade students is organized as a series of lessons on planning, classroom management, teaching procedures, and evaluation in a variety of content areas. Examples of basic learning activities intended to serve as a framework for teacher…

Report Outlines Promising Opportunities for Addressing Climate Change

Science.gov Websites

Report Outlines Promising Opportunities for Addressing Climate Change For more information contact , have issued a major report that finds the United States can make impressive strides toward addressing climate change through smart policies and technologies. The report, "Scenarios for a Clean Energy

Competency Education Offers Promise and Peril for Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ritterband, Vicki; Heller, Rafael

2015-01-01

Lindsay Unified School District (California) exemplifies the promise of competency education (or performance-based education, as it is called locally). Since beginning its transition to the model in 2009, discipline problems have sharply dropped, the school climate has dramatically improved (as measured by the California Healthy Kids Survey), and…

Cash and counseling: a promising option for consumer direction of home- and community-based services and supports.

PubMed

Mahoney, Kevin J; Simon-Rusinowitz, Lori; Simone, Kristin; Zgoda, Karen

2006-01-01

The Cash and Counseling Demonstration began as a 3-state social experiment to test the claims of members of the disability community that, if they had more control over their services, their lives would improve and costs would be no higher. The 2004 expansion to 12 states brings us closer to the tipping point when this option will be broadly available. The original demonstration was a controlled experiment with randomized assignment, supplemented by an ethnographic study and a process evaluation. Consumers managing flexible, individualized budgets were much more satisfied, had fewer unmet needs, and had comparable health outcomes. Access to service and supports was greatly improved. Consumer direction is increasingly accepted as a desirable option in home and community services.

Integration of Directional Antennas in an RSS Fingerprinting-Based Indoor Localization System

PubMed Central

Guzmán-Quirós, Raúl; Martínez-Sala, Alejandro; Gómez-Tornero, José Luis; García-Haro, Joan

2015-01-01

In this paper, the integration of directional antennas in a room-level received signal strength (RSS) fingerprinting-based indoor localization system (ILS) is studied. The sensor reader (SR), which is in charge of capturing the RSS to infer the tag position, can be attached to an omnidirectional or directional antenna. Unlike commonly-employed omnidirectional antennas, directional antennas can receive a stronger signal from the direction in which they are pointed, resulting in a different RSS distributions in space and, hence, more distinguishable fingerprints. A simulation tool and a system management software have been also developed to control the system and assist the initial antenna deployment, reducing time-consuming costs. A prototype was mounted in a real scenario, with a number of SRs with omnidirectional and directional antennas properly positioned. Different antenna configurations have been studied, evidencing a promising capability of directional antennas to enhance the performance of RSS fingerprinting-based ILS, reducing the number of required SRs and also increasing the localization success. PMID:26703620

'The right direction'. Primary-care docs see promise in CMS' proposed pay for non face-to-face work.

PubMed

Robeznieks, Andis

2013-07-15

The CMS has proposed paying physicians for managing patients apart from face-to-face office visits. Among the details under consideration are requiring practices to use an electronic health-record system that supports access to care, care coordination, care management and communications. "It's a step in the right direction. The devil will be in the details and, if the burden of documentation is so high, people may choose not to spend their time doing it," says Dr. Matt Handley, physician and medical director for quality at the Group Health Cooperative.

The problem and promise of scale dependency in community phylogenetics.

PubMed

Swenson, Nathan G; Enquist, Brian J; Pither, Jason; Thompson, Jill; Zimmerman, Jess K

2006-10-01

The problem of scale dependency is widespread in investigations of ecological communities. Null model investigations of community assembly exemplify the challenges involved because they typically include subjectively defined "regional species pools." The burgeoning field of community phylogenetics appears poised to face similar challenges. Our objective is to quantify the scope of the problem of scale dependency by comparing the phylogenetic structure of assemblages across contrasting geographic and taxonomic scales. We conduct phylogenetic analyses on communities within three tropical forests, and perform a sensitivity analysis with respect to two scaleable inputs: taxonomy and species pool size. We show that (1) estimates of phylogenetic overdispersion within local assemblages depend strongly on the taxonomic makeup of the local assemblage and (2) comparing the phylogenetic structure of a local assemblage to a species pool drawn from increasingly larger geographic scales results in an increased signal of phylogenetic clustering. We argue that, rather than posing a problem, "scale sensitivities" are likely to reveal general patterns of diversity that could help identify critical scales at which local or regional influences gain primacy for the structuring of communities. In this way, community phylogenetics promises to fill an important gap in community ecology and biogeography research.

Diversity's Promise for Higher Education: Making It Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Daryl G.

2009-01-01

Daryl G. Smith's career has been devoted to studying and fostering diversity in higher education. She has witnessed and encouraged the evolution of diversity from an issue addressed sporadically on college campuses to an imperative if institutions want to succeed. In "Diversity's Promise for Higher Education", she analyzes how diversity is…

Persistent Problems and Promising Solutions in Inservice Education. Report of Selected REGI Project Directors.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grigsby, Greg

This report summarizes and presents information from interviews with 22 National Inservice Network project directors. The purpose was to identify problems and solutions encountered in directing regular education inservice (REGI) projects. The projects were sponsored by institutions of higher education, state and local education agencies, and an…

77 FR 60655 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-04

...-1038; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-166-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...-2012-1038; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-166-AD'' at the beginning of your comments. We specifically...: Docket No. FAA-2012-1038; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM- 166-AD. (a) Comments Due Date We must receive...

Photoelectron diffraction and holography: Some new directions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fadley, C.S.

1993-08-01

Photoelectron diffraction has by now become a versatile and powerful technique for studying surface structures, with special capabilities for resolving chemical and magnetic states of atoms and deriving direct structural information from both forward scattering along bond directions and back-scattering path length differences. Further fitting experiment to theory can lead to structural accuracies in the {plus_minus}0.03 ){Angstrom} range. Holographic inversions of such diffraction data also show considerable promise for deriving local three-dimensional structures around a given emitter with accuracies of {plus_minus}0.2--0.3 {Angstrom}. Resolving the photoelectron spin in some way and using circularly polarized radiation for excitation provide added dimensions formore » the study of magnetic systems and chiral experimental geometries. Synchrotron radiation with the highest brightness and energy resolution, as well as variable polarization, is crucial to the full exploitation of these techniques.« less

Helicopter noise prediction - The current status and future direction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brentner, Kenneth S.; Farassat, F.

1992-01-01

The paper takes stock of the progress, assesses the current prediction capabilities, and forecasts the direction of future helicopter noise prediction research. The acoustic analogy approach, specifically, theories based on the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equations, are the most widely used for deterministic noise sources. Thickness and loading noise can be routinely predicted given good plane motion and blade loading inputs. Blade-vortex interaction noise can also be predicted well with measured input data, but prediction of airloads with the high spatial and temporal resolution required for BVI is still difficult. Current semiempirical broadband noise predictions are useful and reasonably accurate. New prediction methods based on a Kirchhoff formula and direct computation appear to be very promising, but are currently very demanding computationally.

Direct diode pumped Ti:sapphire ultrafast regenerative amplifier system

DOE PAGES

Backus, Sterling; Durfee, Charles; Lemons, Randy; ...

2017-02-10

Here, we report on a direct diode-pumped Ti:sapphire ultrafast regenerative amplifier laser system producing multi-uJ energies with repetition rate from 50 to 250 kHz. By combining cryogenic cooling of Ti:sapphire with high brightness fiber-coupled 450nm laser diodes, we for the first time demonstrate a power-scalable CW-pumped architecture that can be directly applied to demanding ultrafast applications such as coherent high-harmonic EUV generation without any complex post-amplification pulse compression. Initial results promise a new era for Ti:sapphire amplifiers not only for ultrafast laser applications, but also for tunable CW sources. We discuss the unique challenges to implementation, as well as themore » solutions to these challenges.« less

Direct diode pumped Ti:sapphire ultrafast regenerative amplifier system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Backus, Sterling; Durfee, Charles; Lemons, Randy

Here, we report on a direct diode-pumped Ti:sapphire ultrafast regenerative amplifier laser system producing multi-uJ energies with repetition rate from 50 to 250 kHz. By combining cryogenic cooling of Ti:sapphire with high brightness fiber-coupled 450nm laser diodes, we for the first time demonstrate a power-scalable CW-pumped architecture that can be directly applied to demanding ultrafast applications such as coherent high-harmonic EUV generation without any complex post-amplification pulse compression. Initial results promise a new era for Ti:sapphire amplifiers not only for ultrafast laser applications, but also for tunable CW sources. We discuss the unique challenges to implementation, as well as themore » solutions to these challenges.« less

Promising Themes for Antismoking Campaigns Targeting Youth and Young Adults.

PubMed

Brennan, Emily; Gibson, Laura A; Kybert-Momjian, Ani; Liu, Jiaying; Hornik, Robert C

2017-01-01

Behavior change campaigns typically try to change beliefs that influence behaviors, with targeted beliefs comprising the campaign theme. We present an empirical approach for choosing among a large number of potential themes, and results from the implementation of this approach for campaigns aimed at 4 behavioral targets: (1) preventing smoking initiation among youth, and (2) preventing initiation, (3) stopping progression to daily smoking and (4) encouraging cessation among young adults. An online survey of 13- to 17-year-olds and 18- to 25-year-olds in the United States (US), in which 20 potential campaign themes were represented by 154 beliefs. For each behavioral target, themes were ranked based on the strength of belief-intention and belief-behavior associations and size of the population not already endorsing the beliefs. The most promising themes varied across behavioral targets but 3 were consistently promising: consequences of smoking for mood, social acceptance and social popularity. Using a robust and systematic approach, this study provides campaign developers with empirical data to inform their selection of promising themes. Findings related to the campaign to prevent initiation among youth informed the development of the US Food and Drug Administration's "The Real Cost" campaign.

Autofluorescence imaging can identify preinvasive or clinically occult lesions in fallopian tube epithelium: a promising step towards screening and early detection.

PubMed

McAlpine, J N; El Hallani, S; Lam, S F; Kalloger, S E; Luk, M; Huntsman, D G; MacAulay, C; Gilks, C B; Miller, D M; Lane, P M

2011-03-01

Optical imaging systems are robust, portable, relatively inexpensive, and have proven utility in detecting precancerous lesions in the lung, esophagus, colon, oral cavity and cervix. We describe the use of light-induced endogenous fluorescence (autofluorescence) in identifying preinvasive and occult carcinomas in ex vivo samples of human fallopian tube (FT) epithelium. Women undergoing surgery for an i) ovarian mass, ii) a history suggestive of hereditary breast-ovarian cancer, or iii) known serous ovarian cancer following neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) were approached for informed consent. Immediately following surgery, FT's were photographed in reflectance and fluorescence at high resolution. Images included: (1) white-light reflectance of luminal/epithelial surface; (2) narrow-band green reflectance (570 nm) (3) green autofluorescence (405/436 nm excitation); and (4) blue autofluorescence (405 nm excitation). Areas revealing a loss of natural tissue fluorescence or marked increase in tissue microvasculature were recorded and compared to final histopathologic diagnosis (SEE-FIM protocol). Fifty-six cases involving one or both fallopian tubes underwent reflectance and fluorescence visualization. Nine cases were excluded, either secondary to non-ovarian primary pathology (7) or excessive trauma (2) rendering tissue interpretation impossible. Of the 47 cases remaining, there were 11 high grade serous (HGS) and 9 non-serous ovarian carcinomas undergoing primary debulking surgery, 5 serous carcinomas having received NAC, 8 benign ovarian tumors, and 14 women undergoing risk-reducing bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (RRBSO). Methodology was feasible, efficient, and reproducible. TIC or carcinoma was identified in 7/11 HGS, 3/5 NAC, and 1/14 RRBSO. Optical images were reviewed to determine test positive or negative based on standardized criteria. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated for the entire

Identifying influential neighbors in animal flocking

PubMed Central

Jiang, Li; Giuggioli, Luca; Escobedo, Ramón; Sire, Clément; Han, Zhangang

2017-01-01

Schools of fish and flocks of birds can move together in synchrony and decide on new directions of movement in a seamless way. This is possible because group members constantly share directional information with their neighbors. Although detecting the directionality of other group members is known to be important to maintain cohesion, it is not clear how many neighbors each individual can simultaneously track and pay attention to, and what the spatial distribution of these influential neighbors is. Here, we address these questions on shoals of Hemigrammus rhodostomus, a species of fish exhibiting strong schooling behavior. We adopt a data-driven analysis technique based on the study of short-term directional correlations to identify which neighbors have the strongest influence over the participation of an individual in a collective U-turn event. We find that fish mainly react to one or two neighbors at a time. Moreover, we find no correlation between the distance rank of a neighbor and its likelihood to be influential. We interpret our results in terms of fish allocating sequential and selective attention to their neighbors. PMID:29161269

Passport to College: Promise Scholarship Program Status Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2008

2008-01-01

The Passport to College Promise Scholarship program was created by the 2007 Washington State Legislature (House Bill 1131) to help former foster youth prepare for and succeed in college. This status report addresses four areas: (1) proposed scholarship and student support approaches; (2) estimates of the number of students who will receive…

Promises of Money Meant to Heighten Student Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ash, Katie

2008-01-01

Does motivating students to study harder with the promise of cash sound like innovation--or bribery? That's a question educators and researchers have been debating, amid concerns that money-for-achievement programs actually decrease students' intrinsic motivation to learn and send mixed messages about studying. But the idea is catching on, with…

Screening of chemical compound libraries identified new anti-Toxoplasma gondii agents.

PubMed

Adeyemi, Oluyomi Stephen; Sugi, Tatsuki; Han, Yongmei; Kato, Kentaro

2018-02-01

Toxoplasma gondii is the etiological agent of toxoplasmosis, a common parasitic disease that affects nearly one-third of the human population. The primary infection can be asymptomatic in healthy individuals but may prove fatal in immunocompromised individuals. Available treatment options for toxoplasmosis patients are limited, underscoring the urgent need to identify and develop new therapies. Non-biased screening of libraries of chemical compounds including the repurposing of well-characterized compounds is emerging as viable approach to achieving this goal. In the present investigation, we screened libraries of natural product and FDA-approved compounds to identify those that inhibited T. gondii growth. We identified 32 new compounds that potently inhibit T. gondii growth. Our findings are new and promising, and further strengthen the prospects of drug repurposing as well as the screening of a wide range of chemical compounds as a viable source of alternative anti-parasitic therapeutic agents.

Identifying effective connectivity parameters in simulated fMRI: a direct comparison of switching linear dynamic system, stochastic dynamic causal, and multivariate autoregressive models

PubMed Central

Smith, Jason F.; Chen, Kewei; Pillai, Ajay S.; Horwitz, Barry

2013-01-01

The number and variety of connectivity estimation methods is likely to continue to grow over the coming decade. Comparisons between methods are necessary to prune this growth to only the most accurate and robust methods. However, the nature of connectivity is elusive with different methods potentially attempting to identify different aspects of connectivity. Commonalities of connectivity definitions across methods upon which base direct comparisons can be difficult to derive. Here, we explicitly define “effective connectivity” using a common set of observation and state equations that are appropriate for three connectivity methods: dynamic causal modeling (DCM), multivariate autoregressive modeling (MAR), and switching linear dynamic systems for fMRI (sLDSf). In addition while deriving this set, we show how many other popular functional and effective connectivity methods are actually simplifications of these equations. We discuss implications of these connections for the practice of using one method to simulate data for another method. After mathematically connecting the three effective connectivity methods, simulated fMRI data with varying numbers of regions and task conditions is generated from the common equation. This simulated data explicitly contains the type of the connectivity that the three models were intended to identify. Each method is applied to the simulated data sets and the accuracy of parameter identification is analyzed. All methods perform above chance levels at identifying correct connectivity parameters. The sLDSf method was superior in parameter estimation accuracy to both DCM and MAR for all types of comparisons. PMID:23717258

78 FR 1723 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-09

... Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. ACTION: Final rule; request for comments. SUMMARY: We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus... Friday, except Federal holidays. For service information identified in this AD, contact Airbus...

Engineering Biosynthesis of Non-ribosomal Peptides and Polyketides by Directed Evolution.

PubMed

Rui, Zhe; Zhang, Wenjun

2016-01-01

Non-ribosomal peptides (NRPs) and polyketides (PKs) play key roles in pharmaceutical industry due to their promising biological activities. The structural complexity of NRPs and PKs, however, creates significant synthetic challenges for producing these natural products and their analogues by purely chemical means. Alternatively, difficult syntheses can be achieved by using biosynthetic enzymes with improved efficiency and altered selectivity that are acquired from directed evolution. Key to the successful directed evolution is the methodology of screening/selection. This review summarizes the screening/selection strategies that have been employed to improve or modify the functions of non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) and polyketide synthases (PKSs), in the hope of triggering the wide adoption of the directed evolution approaches in the engineered biosynthesis of NRPs and PKs for drug discovery.

Use of graph theory measures to identify errors in record linkage.

PubMed

Randall, Sean M; Boyd, James H; Ferrante, Anna M; Bauer, Jacqueline K; Semmens, James B

2014-07-01

Ensuring high linkage quality is important in many record linkage applications. Current methods for ensuring quality are manual and resource intensive. This paper seeks to determine the effectiveness of graph theory techniques in identifying record linkage errors. A range of graph theory techniques was applied to two linked datasets, with known truth sets. The ability of graph theory techniques to identify groups containing errors was compared to a widely used threshold setting technique. This methodology shows promise; however, further investigations into graph theory techniques are required. The development of more efficient and effective methods of improving linkage quality will result in higher quality datasets that can be delivered to researchers in shorter timeframes. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Promised and Delivered Inducements and Contributions: An Integrated View of Psychological Contract Appraisal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lambert, Lisa Schurer

2011-01-01

The reciprocal exchange of employees' work for pay that is central to employment relationships is viewed here through the lens of the psychological contract. A psychological contract involves promised inducements, promised contributions, delivered inducements, and delivered contributions: How an employee cognitively integrates these 4 elements is…

Motivational patterns as an instrument for predicting success in promising young football players.

PubMed

Zuber, Claudia; Zibung, Marc; Conzelmann, Achim

2015-01-01

Psychological characteristics are crucial to identifying talents, which is why these are being incorporated in today's multidimensional talent models. In addition to multidimensionality, talent studies are increasingly drawing on holistic theories of development, leading to the use of person-oriented approaches. The present study adopts such an approach by looking at the influence that motivational characteristics have on the development of performance, in a person-oriented way. For this purpose, it looks at how the constructs achievement motive, achievement goal orientation and self-determination interact with one another, what patterns they form and how these patterns are linked to subsequent sports success. Ninety-seven top young football players were questioned twice. Another year later, it was enquired which of these players had been selected for the U15 national team. At both measuring points, four patterns were identified, which displayed a high degree of structural and individual stability. As expected, the highly intrinsically achievement-oriented players were significantly more likely to move up into the U15 national team. The results point to the importance of favourable patterns of motivational variables in the form of specific types, for medium-term performance development among promising football talents, and thus provide valuable clues for the selection and promotion of those.

Every Child Every Promise Workforce Readiness. Issue Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

America's Promise Alliance (NJ1), 2007

2007-01-01

The third "Every Child, Every Promise" research brief focuses on the large percentage of the children and youth who will enter the workforce over the next two decades are lacking enough of the "soft" or applied skills--such as teamwork, decision-making, and communication--that will help them become effective employees and managers. The report…

The Math Promise: Celebrating at Home and School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Legnard, Danielle; Austin, Susan

2014-01-01

The Math Promise is a contract that family members make with one another. They commit to spending mathematical time together; getting to know each other's mathematical thinking and understanding; and finding time to play math games, solve problems, and notice mathematics in their daily lives. Whether parents and children are cooking in the…

The Promise of Information and Communication Technology in Healthcare: Extracting Value From the Chaos.

PubMed

Mamlin, Burke W; Tierney, William M

2016-01-01

Healthcare is an information business with expanding use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Current ICT tools are immature, but a brighter future looms. We examine 7 areas of ICT in healthcare: electronic health records (EHRs), health information exchange (HIE), patient portals, telemedicine, social media, mobile devices and wearable sensors and monitors, and privacy and security. In each of these areas, we examine the current status and future promise, highlighting how each might reach its promise. Steps to better EHRs include a universal programming interface, universal patient identifiers, improved documentation and improved data analysis. HIEs require federal subsidies for sustainability and support from EHR vendors, targeting seamless sharing of EHR data. Patient portals must bring patients into the EHR with better design and training, greater provider engagement and leveraging HIEs. Telemedicine needs sustainable payment models, clear rules of engagement, quality measures and monitoring. Social media needs consensus on rules of engagement for providers, better data mining tools and approaches to counter disinformation. Mobile and wearable devices benefit from a universal programming interface, improved infrastructure, more rigorous research and integration with EHRs and HIEs. Laws for privacy and security need updating to match current technologies, and data stewards should share information on breaches and standardize best practices. ICT tools are evolving quickly in healthcare and require a rational and well-funded national agenda for development, use and assessment. Copyright © 2016 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

7 T renal MRI: challenges and promises.

PubMed

de Boer, Anneloes; Hoogduin, Johannes M; Blankestijn, Peter J; Li, Xiufeng; Luijten, Peter R; Metzger, Gregory J; Raaijmakers, Alexander J E; Umutlu, Lale; Visser, Fredy; Leiner, Tim

2016-06-01

The progression to 7 Tesla (7 T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) yields promises of substantial increase in signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. This increase can be traded off to increase image spatial resolution or to decrease acquisition time. However, renal 7 T MRI remains challenging due to inhomogeneity of the radiofrequency field and due to specific absorption rate (SAR) constraints. A number of studies has been published in the field of renal 7 T imaging. While the focus initially was on anatomic imaging and renal MR angiography, later studies have explored renal functional imaging. Although anatomic imaging remains somewhat limited by inhomogeneous excitation and SAR constraints, functional imaging results are promising. The increased SNR at 7 T has been particularly advantageous for blood oxygen level-dependent and arterial spin labelling MRI, as well as sodium MR imaging, thanks to changes in field-strength-dependent magnetic properties. Here, we provide an overview of the currently available literature on renal 7 T MRI. In addition, we provide a brief overview of challenges and opportunities in renal 7 T MR imaging.

Are retinoids a promise for Alzheimer's disease management?

PubMed

Carratù, M R; Marasco, C; Signorile, A; Scuderi, C; Steardo, L

2012-01-01

Retinoids regulate several physiological and pathological processes through the interaction with nuclear receptors. Retinoid-associated signaling which plays an essential role in neurodevelopment appears to remain active in the adult central nervous system (CNS), thus assuming a high significance in the context of neurodegeneration, and indeed retinoid analogs are thought to be promising therapeutic agents for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. The ability of retinoids to exert antioxidant effects, inhibit amyloid-β (Aβ) deposits and likely Aβ-induced mitochondrial dysfunction, tau hyperphosphorylation, Aβ-induced IL6 production and neuroinflammation, increase survival in hippocampal neurons, and reverse cognitive deficits in animal models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is discussed. Although retinoids with their multi-target activity are revealing to be promising for management of AD which is a multifaceted biochemical phenomenon, timing as well as appropriate dosage and safety remain, however, a challenge. The end-stage lesions, namely senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, are, at present, considered an adaptive response to oxidative stress underlying AD, thus paradoxically late administration of retinoids could even suppress a protective mechanism by inhibiting Aβ deposits.

Cultural Neuroscience: Progress and Promise

PubMed Central

Chiao, Joan Y.; Cheon, Bobby K.; Pornpattanangkul, Narun; Mrazek, Alissa J.; Blizinsky, Katherine D.

2013-01-01

The nature and origin of human diversity has been a source of intellectual curiosity since the beginning of human history. Contemporary advances in cultural and biological sciences provide unique opportunities for the emerging field of cultural neuroscience. Research in cultural neuroscience examines how cultural and genetic diversity shape the human mind, brain and behavior across multiple time scales: situation, ontogeny and phylogeny. Recent progress in cultural neuroscience provides novel theoretical frameworks for understanding the complex interaction of environmental, cultural and genetic factors in the production of adaptive human behavior. Here, we provide a brief history of cultural neuroscience, theoretical and methodological advances, as well as empirical evidence of the promise of and progress in the field. Implications of this research for population health disparities and public policy are discussed. PMID:23914126

Industrial wastes as a promising renewable source for production of microbial lipid and direct transesterification of the lipid into biodiesel.

PubMed

Cheirsilp, Benjamas; Louhasakul, Yasmi

2013-08-01

Two strategies of converting industrial wastes to microbial lipid and direct transesterification of obtained lipid into biodiesel were attempted. Several oleaginous yeasts were cultivated on industrial wastes. The yeasts grew well on the wastes with low C/N ratio (i.e. serum latex) but accumulated high lipid content only when the wastes had a high C/N ratio (i.e. palm oil mill effluent and crude glycerol). The yeast lipids have similar fatty acid composition to that of plant oil indicating their potential use as biodiesel feedstocks. The combination of these wastes and two-phase cultivation for cell growth and lipid accumulation improved lipid productivity of the selected yeast. The direct transesterification process that eliminates cell drying and lipid extraction steps, gave comparable yield of biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester >70% within 1h) to that of conventional method. These two successful strategies may contribute greatly to industrializing oil production from microbes and industrial wastes. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Identifying Broadband Rotational Spectra with Neural Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaleski, Daniel P.; Prozument, Kirill

2017-06-01

A typical broadband rotational spectrum may contain several thousand observable transitions, spanning many species. Identifying the individual spectra, particularly when the dynamic range reaches 1,000:1 or even 10,000:1, can be challenging. One approach is to apply automated fitting routines. In this approach, combinations of 3 transitions can be created to form a "triple", which allows fitting of the A, B, and C rotational constants in a Watson-type Hamiltonian. On a standard desktop computer, with a target molecule of interest, a typical AUTOFIT routine takes 2-12 hours depending on the spectral density. A new approach is to utilize machine learning to train a computer to recognize the patterns (frequency spacing and relative intensities) inherit in rotational spectra and to identify the individual spectra in a raw broadband rotational spectrum. Here, recurrent neural networks have been trained to identify different types of rotational spectra and classify them accordingly. Furthermore, early results in applying convolutional neural networks for spectral object recognition in broadband rotational spectra appear promising. Perez et al. "Broadband Fourier transform rotational spectroscopy for structure determination: The water heptamer." Chem. Phys. Lett., 2013, 571, 1-15. Seifert et al. "AUTOFIT, an Automated Fitting Tool for Broadband Rotational Spectra, and Applications to 1-Hexanal." J. Mol. Spectrosc., 2015, 312, 13-21. Bishop. "Neural networks for pattern recognition." Oxford university press, 1995.

Applications of Payload Directed Flight

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ippolito, Corey; Fladeland, Matthew M.; Yeh, Yoo Hsiu

2009-01-01

Next generation aviation flight control concepts require autonomous and intelligent control system architectures that close control loops directly around payload sensors in manner more integrated and cohesive that in traditional autopilot designs. Research into payload directed flight control at NASA Ames Research Center is investigating new and novel architectures that can satisfy the requirements for next generation control and automation concepts for aviation. Tighter integration between sensor and machine requires definition of specific sensor-directed control modes to tie the sensor data directly into a vehicle control structures throughout the entire control architecture, from low-level stability- and control loops, to higher level mission planning and scheduling reasoning systems. Payload directed flight systems can thus provide guidance, navigation, and control for vehicle platforms hosting a suite of onboard payload sensors. This paper outlines related research into the field of payload directed flight; and outlines requirements and operating concepts for payload directed flight systems based on identified needs from the scientific literature.'

77 FR 18965 - Airworthiness Directives; Eurocopter France Helicopters

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-29

...-0338; Directorate Identifier 2009-SW-51-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Eurocopter France...). SUMMARY: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for Eurocopter France Model SA341G.... Discussion The Direction Generale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC), which is the aviation authority for France...

78 FR 76572 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-18

... Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT. ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). SUMMARY: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus..., except Federal holidays. For Airbus service information identified in this proposed AD, contact Airbus...

Directed self-assembly of poly(styrene)-block-poly(acrylic acid) copolymers for sub-20nm pitch patterning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Jing; Lawson, Richard A.; Yeh, Wei-Ming; Jarnagin, Nathan D.; Peters, Andrew; Tolbert, Laren M.; Henderson, Clifford L.

2012-03-01

Directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers is a promising technology for extending the patterning capability of current lithographic exposure tools. For example, production of sub-40 nm pitch features using 193nm exposure technologies is conceivably possible using DSA methods without relying on time consuming, challenging, and expensive multiple patterning schemes. Significant recent work has focused on demonstration of the ability to produce large areas of regular grating structures with low numbers of defects using self-assembly of poly(styrene)-b-poly(methyl methacrylate) copolymers (PS-b-PMMA). While these recent results are promising and have shown the ability to print pitches approaching 20 nm using DSA, the ability to advance to even smaller pitches will be dependent upon the ability to develop new block copolymers with higher χ values and the associated alignment and block removal processes required to achieve successful DSA with these new materials. This paper reports on work focused on identifying higher χ block copolymers and their associated DSA processes for sub-20 nm pitch patterning. In this work, DSA using polystyrene-b-polyacid materials has been explored. Specifically, it is shown that poly(styrene)-b-poly(acrylic acid) copolymers (PS-b-PAA) is one promising material for achieving substantially smaller pitch patterns than those possible with PS-b-PMMA while still utilizing simple hydrocarbon polymers. In fact, it is anticipated that much of the learning that has been done with the PS-b-PMMA system, such as development of highly selective plasma etch block removal procedures, can be directly leveraged or transferred to the PS-b-PAA system. Acetone vapor annealing of PS-b-PAA (Mw=16,000 g/mol with 50:50 mole ratio of PS:PAA) and its self-assembly into a lamellar morphology is demonstrated to generate a pattern pitch size (L0) of 21 nm. The χ value for PS-b-PAA was estimated from fingerprint pattern pitch data to be approximately 0.18 which

Promise and Progress of Millihertz Gravitational-Wave Astronomy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baker, John G.

2017-01-01

Extending the new field of gravitational wave (GW) astronomy into the millihertz band with a space-based GW observatory is a high-priority objective of international astronomy community. This paper summarizes the astrophysical promise and the technological groundwork for such an observatory, concretely focusing on the prospects for the proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission concept.

Direct conversion technology: Annual summary report CY 1988

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Massier, P.F.; Bankston, C.P.; Fabris, G.

1988-12-01

The overall objective of the Direct Conversion Technology task is to develop an experimentally verified technology base for promising direct thermal-to-electric energy conversion systems that have potential application for energy conservation in the end-use sectors. This report contains progress of research on the Alkali Metal Thermal-to-Electric Converter (AMTEC), and on the Two-Phase Liquid-Metal MHD Electrical Generator (LMMHD) for the period January 1988 through December 1988. Research on these concepts was initiated during October 1987. In addition, status reviews and assessments are presented for thermomagnetic converter concepts and for thermoelastic converters (Nitinol heat engines). Reports prepared on previous occasions contain discussionsmore » on the following other direct conversion concepts: thermoelectric, pyroelectric, thermionic thermophotovoltaic and thermoacoustic; and also, more complete discussions of AMTEC and LMMHD systems. A tabulated summary of the various systems which have been reviewed thus far has been prepared. Some of the important technical research needs are listed and a schematic of each system is shown. These tabulations are included herein as figures. 43 refs., 26 figs., 1 tab.« less

Discovery and progress of direct cardiac reprogramming.

PubMed

Kojima, Hidenori; Ieda, Masaki

2017-06-01

Cardiac disease remains a major cause of death worldwide. Direct cardiac reprogramming has emerged as a promising approach for cardiac regenerative therapy. After the discovery of MyoD, a master regulator for skeletal muscle, other single cardiac reprogramming factors (master regulators) have been sought. Discovery of cardiac reprogramming factors was inspired by the finding that multiple, but not single, transcription factors were needed to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from fibroblasts. We first reported a combination of cardiac-specific transcription factors, Gata4, Mef2c, and Tbx5 (GMT), that could convert mouse fibroblasts into cardiomyocyte-like cells, which were designated as induced cardiomyocyte-like cells (iCMs). Following our first report of cardiac reprogramming, many researchers, including ourselves, demonstrated an improvement in cardiac reprogramming efficiency, in vivo direct cardiac reprogramming for heart regeneration, and cardiac reprogramming in human cells. However, cardiac reprogramming in human cells and adult fibroblasts remains inefficient, and further efforts are needed. We believe that future research elucidating epigenetic barriers and molecular mechanisms of direct cardiac reprogramming will improve the reprogramming efficiency, and that this new technology has great potential for clinical applications.

Evaluation of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and Sepsityper Kit™ for the direct identification of organisms from sterile body fluids in a Canadian pediatric hospital.

PubMed

Tadros, Manal; Petrich, Astrid

2013-01-01

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) can be used to identify bacteria directly from positive blood and sterile fluid cultures. The authors evaluated a commercially available kit - the Sepsityper Kit (Bruker Daltonik, Germany) - and MALDI-TOF MS for the rapid identification of organisms from 80 flagged positive blood culture broths, of which 73 (91.2%) were blood culture specimens and seven (8.7%) were cerebrospinal fluid specimens, in comparison with conventional identification methods. Correct identification to the genus and species levels was obtained in 75 of 80 (93.8%) and 39 of 50 (78%) blood culture broths, respectively. Applying the blood culture analysis module, a newly developed software tool, improved the species identification of Gram-negative organisms from 94.7% to 100% and of Gram-positive organisms from 66.7% to 70%. MALDI-TOF MS is a promising tool for the direct identification of organisms cultured from sterile sites.

Reducing Aggressive Male Behavior in Elementary School: Promising Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, Barbara; Gibson, Jamel; Morrison-Danner, Dietrich

2014-01-01

Student aggression and violent behavior, especially among males, is pervasive and problematic in the classroom. When incorporated in the lesson design, promising practices (music, movement, and visual stimulation) are evidence-based strategies that may reduce male aggression in the classroom.

Direct comparison of oligochaete erythrocruorins as potential blood substitutes

PubMed Central

Zimmerman, Devon; DiIusto, Matthew; Dienes, Jack; Abdulmalik, Osheiza

2017-01-01

Abstract While many blood substitutes are based on mammalian hemoglobins (e.g., human hemoglobin, HbA), the naturally extracellular hemoglobins of invertebrates (a.k.a. erythrocruorins, Ecs) are intriguing alternative oxygen carriers. Specifically, the erythrocruorin of Lumbricus terrestris has been shown to effectively deliver oxygen in mice and rats without the negative side effects observed with HbA. In this study, the properties of six oligochaete Ecs (Lumbricus terrestris, Eisenia hortensis, Eisenia fetida, Eisenia veneta, Eudrilus eugeniae, and Amynthas gracilis) were compared in vitro to identify the most promising blood substitute candidate(s). Several metrics were used to compare the Ecs, including their oxidation rates, dissociation at physiological pH, thermal stability, and oxygen transport characteristics. Overall, the Ecs of Lumbricus terrestris (LtEc) and Eisenia fetida (EfEc) were identified as promising candidates, since they demonstrated high thermal and oligomeric stability, while also exhibiting relatively low oxidation rates. Interestingly, the O2 affinity of LtEc (P 50 = 26.25 mmHg at 37 °C) was also observed to be uniquely lower than EfEc and all of the other Ecs (P 50 = 9.29–13.62 mmHg). Subsequent alignment of the primary sequences of LtEc and EfEc revealed several significant amino acid substitutions within the D subunit interfaces that may be responsible for this significant change in O2 affinity. Nonetheless, these results show that LtEc and EfEc are promising potential blood substitutes that are resistant to oxidation and denaturation, but additional experiments will need to be conducted to determine their safety, efficacy, and the effects of their disparate oxygen affinities in vivo. PMID:29313031

The first year of practice: an investigation of the professional learning and development of promising novice physical therapists.

PubMed

Black, Lisa L; Jensen, Gail M; Mostrom, Elizabeth; Perkins, Jan; Ritzline, Pamela D; Hayward, Lorna; Blackmer, Betsy

2010-12-01

The goal in studying expertise is not merely to describe ways in which experts excel but also to understand how experts develop in order to better facilitate the development of novices. The study of novice progression helps us to understand what successful versus unsuccessful learning looks like. This understanding is critical, as autonomous practice places increased demands for advanced clinical judgments and the ability to assume professional responsibilities. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences, learning, and development of promising novice therapists throughout their first year of practice in the United States. A longitudinal, multiple-site qualitative case study method was used for within-case and across-case analysis. A purposive sample of 11 promising new graduates from 4 physical therapist education programs participated. Investigators followed the graduates throughout their first year of practice. Data sources included: (1) semistructured interviews conducted at baseline and every 3 months thereafter for 1 year, (2) reflective journals completed at regular intervals, and (3) review of academic and clinical education records and résumés. Four themes emerged: (1) the clinical environment influenced the novice physical therapists' performance, (2) participants learned through experience and social interaction and learning was primarily directed toward self, (3) growing confidence was directly related to developing communication skills, and (4) therapists were engaged in professional identity formation and role transitions. The findings suggest there are common experiences and themes that emerge as novice physical therapists develop. Although research has been conducted on expertise in physical therapy, few longitudinal investigations have explored the development of therapists across transitions from graduate to novice to expert practitioner. This study explored and described the learning and development of graduates during their first

The Reversal of Direct Oral Anticoagulants in Animal Models

PubMed Central

Honickel, Markus; Akman, Necib; Grottke, Oliver

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Several direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), including direct thrombin and factor Xa inhibitors, have been approved as alternatives to vitamin K antagonist anticoagulants. As with any anticoagulant, DOAC use carries a risk of bleeding. In patients with major bleeding or needing urgent surgery, reversal of DOAC anticoagulation may be required, presenting a clinical challenge. The optimal strategy for DOAC reversal is being refined, and may include use of hemostatic agents such as prothrombin complex concentrates (PCCs; a source of concentrated clotting factors), or DOAC-specific antidotes (which bind their target DOAC to abrogate its activity). Though promising, most specific antidotes are still in development. Preclinical animal research is the key to establishing the efficacy and safety of potential reversal agents. Here, we summarize published preclinical animal studies on reversal of DOAC anticoagulation. These studies (n = 26) were identified via a PubMed search, and used rodent, rabbit, pig, and non-human primate models. The larger of these animals have the advantages of similar blood volume/hemodynamics to humans, and can be used to model polytrauma. We find that in addition to varied species being used, there is variability in the models and assays used between studies; we suggest that blood loss (bleeding volume) is the most clinically relevant measure of DOAC anticoagulation-related bleeding and its reversal. The studies covered indicate that both PCCs and specific reversal agents have the potential to be used as part of a clinical strategy for DOAC reversal. For the future, we advocate the development and use of standardized, clinically, and pharmacologically relevant animal models to study novel DOAC reversal strategies. PMID:28471371

Mitochondrion: A Promising Target for Nanoparticle-Based Vaccine Delivery Systems

PubMed Central

Wen, Ru; Umeano, Afoma C.; Francis, Lily; Sharma, Nivita; Tundup, Smanla; Dhar, Shanta

2016-01-01

Vaccination is one of the most popular technologies in disease prevention and eradication. It is promising to improve immunization efficiency by using vectors and/or adjuvant delivery systems. Nanoparticle (NP)-based delivery systems have attracted increasing interest due to enhancement of antigen uptake via prevention of vaccine degradation in the biological environment and the intrinsic immune-stimulatory properties of the materials. Mitochondria play paramount roles in cell life and death and are promising targets for vaccine delivery systems to effectively induce immune responses. In this review, we focus on NPs-based delivery systems with surfaces that can be manipulated by using mitochondria targeting moieties for intervention in health and disease. PMID:27258316

Applications of direct numerical simulation of turbulence in second order closures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shih, Tsan-Hsing; Lumley, John L.

1995-01-01

This paper discusses two methods of developing models for the rapid pressure-strain correlation term in the Reynolds stress transport equation using direct numerical simulation (DNS) data. One is a perturbation about isotropic turbulence, the other is a perturbation about two-component turbulence -- an extremely anisotropic turbulence. A model based on the latter method is proposed and is found to be very promising when compared with DNS data and other models.

Results and Indicators for Children: An Analysis to Inform Discussions about Promise Neighborhoods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Kristin Anderson; Murphey, David; Emig, Carol; Hamilton, Kathleen; Hadley, Alena; Sidorowicz, Katie

2009-01-01

President Obama has proposed creation of up to 20 "Promise Neighborhoods" in communities experiencing poverty, crime, and low student achievement. Promise Neighborhoods would engage children and parents within a defined geographic area in a multifaceted strategy to meet several goals: good physical and mental health for every child, enrollment in…

78 FR 9341 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-08

...-0088; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-233-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to all Airbus Model... this proposed AD, contact Airbus, Airworthiness Office--EAS, 1 Rond Point Maurice Bellonte, 31707...

Application of effect-directed analysis to identify mutagenic nitrogenous disinfection by-products of advanced oxidation drinking water treatment.

PubMed

Vughs, D; Baken, K A; Kolkman, A; Martijn, A J; de Voogt, P

2018-02-01

Advanced oxidation processes are important barriers for organic micropollutants in (drinking) water treatment. It is however known that medium pressure UV/H 2 O 2 treatment may lead to mutagenicity in the Ames test, which is no longer present after granulated activated carbon (GAC) filtration. Many nitrogen-containing disinfection by-products (N-DBPs) result from the reaction of photolysis products of nitrate with (photolysis products of) natural organic material (NOM) during medium pressure UV treatment of water. Identification of the N-DBPs and the application of effect-directed analysis to combine chemical screening results with biological activity would provide more insight into the relation of specific N-DBPs with the observed mutagenicity and was the subject of this study. To this end, fractions of medium pressure UV-treated and untreated water extracts were prepared using preparative HPLC and tested using the Ames fluctuation test. In addition, high-resolution mass spectrometry was performed on all fractions to assess the presence of N-DBPs. Based on toxicity data and read across analysis, we could identify five N-DBPs that are potentially genotoxic and were present in relatively high concentrations in the fractions in which mutagenicity was observed. The results of this study offer opportunities to further evaluate the identity and potential health concern of N-DBPs formed during advanced oxidation UV drinking water treatment.

Promising Themes for Antismoking Campaigns Targeting Youth and Young Adults

PubMed Central

Brennan, Emily; Gibson, Laura A.; Kybert-Momjian, Ani; Liu, Jiaying; Hornik, Robert C.

2017-01-01

Objectives Behavior change campaigns typically try to change beliefs that influence behaviors, with targeted beliefs comprising the campaign theme. We present an empirical approach for choosing among a large number of potential themes, and results from the implementation of this approach for campaigns aimed at 4 behavioral targets: (1) preventing smoking initiation among youth, and (2) preventing initiation, (3) stopping progression to daily smoking and (4) encouraging cessation among young adults. Methods An online survey of 13- to 17-year-olds and 18- to 25-year-olds in the United States (US), in which 20 potential campaign themes were represented by 154 beliefs. For each behavioral target, themes were ranked based on the strength of belief-intention and belief-behavior associations and size of the population not already endorsing the beliefs. Results The most promising themes varied across behavioral targets but 3 were consistently promising: consequences of smoking for mood, social acceptance and social popularity. Conclusions Using a robust and systematic approach, this study provides campaign developers with empirical data to inform their selection of promising themes. Findings related to the campaign to prevent initiation among youth informed the development of the US Food and Drug Administration’s “The Real Cost” campaign. PMID:28989949

Dipole-allowed direct band gap silicon superlattices

PubMed Central

Oh, Young Jun; Lee, In-Ho; Kim, Sunghyun; Lee, Jooyoung; Chang, Kee Joo

2015-01-01

Silicon is the most popular material used in electronic devices. However, its poor optical properties owing to its indirect band gap nature limit its usage in optoelectronic devices. Here we present the discovery of super-stable pure-silicon superlattice structures that can serve as promising materials for solar cell applications and can lead to the realization of pure Si-based optoelectronic devices. The structures are almost identical to that of bulk Si except that defective layers are intercalated in the diamond lattice. The superlattices exhibit dipole-allowed direct band gaps as well as indirect band gaps, providing ideal conditions for the investigation of a direct-to-indirect band gap transition. The fact that almost all structural portions of the superlattices originate from bulk Si warrants their stability and good lattice matching with bulk Si. Through first-principles molecular dynamics simulations, we confirmed their thermal stability and propose a possible method to synthesize the defective layer through wafer bonding. PMID:26656482

Directional Emission from Dielectric Leaky-Wave Nanoantennas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peter, Manuel; Hildebrandt, Andre; Schlickriede, Christian; Gharib, Kimia; Zentgraf, Thomas; Förstner, Jens; Linden, Stefan

2017-07-01

An important source of innovation in nanophotonics is the idea to scale down known radio wave technologies to the optical regime. One thoroughly investigated example of this approach are metallic nanoantennas which employ plasmonic resonances to couple localized emitters to selected far-field modes. While metals can be treated as perfect conductors in the microwave regime, their response becomes Drude-like at optical frequencies. Thus, plasmonic nanoantennas are inherently lossy. Moreover, their resonant nature requires precise control of the antenna geometry. A promising way to circumvent these problems is the use of broadband nanoantennas made from low-loss dielectric materials. Here, we report on highly directional emission from active dielectric leaky-wave nanoantennas made of Hafnium dioxide. Colloidal semiconductor quantum dots deposited in the nanoantenna feed gap serve as a local light source. The emission patterns of active nanoantennas with different sizes are measured by Fourier imaging. We find for all antenna sizes a highly directional emission, underlining the broadband operation of our design.

Direct calorimetry identifies deficiencies in respirometry for the determination of resting metabolic rate in C57Bl/6 and FVB mice

PubMed Central

Burnett, Colin M. L.

2013-01-01

Substantial research efforts have been aimed at identifying novel targets to increase resting metabolic rate (RMR) as an adjunct approach to the treatment of obesity. Respirometry (one form of “indirect calorimetry”) is unquestionably the dominant technique used in the obesity research field to assess RMR in vivo, although this method relies upon a lengthy list of assumptions that are likely to be violated in pharmacologically or genetically manipulated animals. A “total” calorimeter, including a gradient layer direct calorimeter coupled to a conventional respirometer, was used to test the accuracy of respirometric-based estimations of RMR in laboratory mice (Mus musculus Linnaeus) of the C57Bl/6 and FVB background strains. Using this combined calorimeter, we determined that respirometry underestimates RMR of untreated 9- to 12-wk-old male mice by ∼10–12%. Quantitative and qualitative differences resulted between methods for untreated C57Bl/6 and FVB mice, C57Bl/6 mice treated with ketamine-xylazine anesthesia, and FVB mice with genetic deletion of the angiotensin II type 2 receptor. We conclude that respirometric methods underestimate RMR in mice in a magnitude that is similar to or greater than the desired RMR effects of novel therapeutics. Sole reliance upon respirometry to assess RMR in mice may lead to false quantitative and qualitative conclusions regarding the effects of novel interventions. Increased use of direct calorimetry for the assessment of RMR and confirmation of respirometry results and the reexamination of previously discarded potential obesity therapeutics are warranted. PMID:23964071

Overliming detoxification of pyrolytic sugar syrup for direct fermentation of levoglucosan to ethanol.

PubMed

Chi, Zhanyou; Rover, Marjorie; Jun, Erin; Deaton, Mark; Johnston, Patrick; Brown, Robert C; Wen, Zhiyou; Jarboe, Laura R

2013-12-01

The application of pyrolytic sugars for biofuel production through fermentation is challenged by inhibitory contaminant compounds. Inhibition is so severe that only 0.25% sugar syrup can be used. In this study, overliming was tested as a simple detoxification method, using the Escherichia coli KO11+ lgk to directly convert levoglucosan into ethanol. After treatment with at least 14.8 g/L of Ca(OH)2, fermentation with 2% (w/v) pyrolytic sugar syrup was observed with no inhibition of ethanol production. Further investigation of treatment time and temperature showed that 8-16 h of treatment at 20°C, and 1-4 h of treatment at 60°C are necessary to obtain consistent ethanol production. The samples treated with 18.5 g/L Ca(OH)2 at 60°C for 4 h showed no inhibition at 2.5%. Multiple contaminants removed by the overliming treatment were identified. This study demonstrates that overliming is a promising method for detoxification of pyrolytic sugars for fermentation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Site-Specific Pre-Swelling-Directed Morphing Structures of Patterned Hydrogels.

PubMed

Wang, Zhi Jian; Hong, Wei; Wu, Zi Liang; Zheng, Qiang

2017-12-11

Morphing materials have promising applications in various fields, yet how to program the self-shaping process for specific configurations remains a challenge. Herein we show a versatile approach to control the buckling of individual domains and thus the outcome configurations of planar-patterned hydrogels. By photolithography, high-swelling disc gels were positioned in a non-swelling gel sheet; the swelling mismatch resulted in out-of-plain buckling of the disc gels. To locally control the buckling direction, masks with holes were used to guide site-specific swelling of the high-swelling gel under the holes, which built a transient through-thickness gradient and thus directed the buckling during the subsequent unmasked swelling process. Therefore, various configurations of an identical patterned hydrogel can be programmed by the pre-swelling step with different masks to encode the buckling directions of separate domains. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Analytic TOF PET reconstruction algorithm within DIRECT data partitioning framework

PubMed Central

Matej, Samuel; Daube-Witherspoon, Margaret E.; Karp, Joel S.

2016-01-01

Iterative reconstruction algorithms are routinely used for clinical practice; however, analytic algorithms are relevant candidates for quantitative research studies due to their linear behavior. While iterative algorithms also benefit from the inclusion of accurate data and noise models the widespread use of TOF scanners with less sensitivity to noise and data imperfections make analytic algorithms even more promising. In our previous work we have developed a novel iterative reconstruction approach (Direct Image Reconstruction for TOF) providing convenient TOF data partitioning framework and leading to very efficient reconstructions. In this work we have expanded DIRECT to include an analytic TOF algorithm with confidence weighting incorporating models of both TOF and spatial resolution kernels. Feasibility studies using simulated and measured data demonstrate that analytic-DIRECT with appropriate resolution and regularization filters is able to provide matched bias vs. variance performance to iterative TOF reconstruction with a matched resolution model. PMID:27032968

Fundamental biomechanics of the spine--What we have learned in the past 25 years and future directions.

PubMed

Oxland, Thomas R

2016-04-11

Since the publication of the 2nd edition of White and Panjabi׳s textbook, Clinical Biomechanics of the Spine in 1990, there has been considerable research on the biomechanics of the spine. The focus of this manuscript will be to review what we have learned in regards to the fundamentals of spine biomechanics. Topics addressed include the whole spine, the functional spinal unit, and the individual components of the spine (e.g. vertebra, intervertebral disc, spinal ligaments). In these broad categories, our understanding in 1990 is reviewed and the important knowledge or understanding gained through the subsequent 25 years of research is highlighted. Areas where our knowledge is lacking helps to identify promising topics for future research. In this manuscript, as in the White and Panjabi textbook, the emphasis is on experimental research using human material, either in vivo or in vitro. The insights gained from mathematical models and animal experimentation are included where other data are not available. This review is intended to celebrate the substantial gains that have been made in the field over these past 25 years and also to identify future research directions. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Promising approaches for the treatment and prevention of viral respiratory illnesses.

PubMed

Papadopoulos, Nikolaos G; Megremis, Spyridon; Kitsioulis, Nikolaos A; Vangelatou, Olympia; West, Peter; Xepapadaki, Paraskevi

2017-10-01

Viral respiratory tract infections are the most common human ailments, leading to enormous health and economic burden. Hundreds of viral species and subtypes have been associated with these conditions, with influenza viruses, respiratory syncytial virus, and rhinoviruses being the most frequent and with the highest burden. When considering prevention or treatment of viral respiratory tract infections, potential targets include the causative pathogens themselves but also the immune response, disease transmission, or even just the symptoms. Strategies targeting all these aspects are developing concurrently, and several novel and promising approaches are emerging. In this perspective we overview the entire range of options and highlight some of the most promising approaches, including new antiviral agents, symptomatic or immunomodulatory drugs, the re-emergence of natural remedies, and vaccines and public health policies toward prevention. Wide-scale prevention through immunization appears to be within reach for respiratory syncytial virus and promising for influenza virus, whereas additional effort is needed in regard to rhinovirus, as well as other respiratory tract viruses. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Self-Directed Learning with Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choi, Youngeun; Anderson, William

2016-01-01

This article describes a weekly writing assignment named SelFeed (Self-Directed Learning with Feedback), in which students are asked to identify their own questions relevant to the lecture content and provide logical answers.

Experimental Lung Cancer Drug Shows Early Promise | Poster

Cancer.gov

By Frank Blanchard, Staff Writer A first-of-its-kind drug is showing early promise in attacking certain lung cancers that are hard to treat because they build up resistance to conventional chemotherapy. The drug, CO-1686, performed well in a preclinical study involving xenograft and transgenic mice, as reported in the journal Cancer Discovery. It is now being evaluated for

Identifying Recent HIV Infections: From Serological Assays to Genomics.

PubMed

Moyo, Sikhulile; Wilkinson, Eduan; Novitsky, Vladimir; Vandormael, Alain; Gaseitsiwe, Simani; Essex, Max; Engelbrecht, Susan; de Oliveira, Tulio

2015-10-23

In this paper, we review serological and molecular based methods to identify HIV infection recency. The accurate identification of recent HIV infection continues to be an important research area and has implications for HIV prevention and treatment interventions. Longitudinal cohorts that follow HIV negative individuals over time are the current gold standard approach, but they are logistically challenging, time consuming and an expensive enterprise. Methods that utilize cross-sectional testing and biomarker information have become an affordable alternative to the longitudinal approach. These methods use well-characterized biological makers to differentiate between recent and established HIV infections. However, recent results have identified a number of limitations in serological based assays that are sensitive to the variability in immune responses modulated by HIV subtypes, viral load and antiretroviral therapy. Molecular methods that explore the dynamics between the timing of infection and viral evolution are now emerging as a promising approach. The combination of serological and molecular methods may provide a good solution to identify recent HIV infection in cross-sectional data. As part of this review, we present the advantages and limitations of serological and molecular based methods and their potential complementary role for the identification of HIV infection recency.

Bi-directional gene set enrichment and canonical correlation analysis identify key diet-sensitive pathways and biomarkers of metabolic syndrome.

PubMed

Morine, Melissa J; McMonagle, Jolene; Toomey, Sinead; Reynolds, Clare M; Moloney, Aidan P; Gormley, Isobel C; Gaora, Peadar O; Roche, Helen M

2010-10-07

constituent genes, as well as strong correlations between gene expression and plasma markers of metabolic syndrome independent of the dietary effect. Bi-directional gene set enrichment analysis more accurately reflects dynamic regulatory behaviour in biochemical pathways, and as such highlighted biologically relevant changes that were not detected using a traditional approach. In such cases where transcriptomic response to treatment is exceptionally large, canonical correlation analysis in conjunction with Fisher's exact test highlights the subset of pathways showing strongest correlation with the clinical markers of interest. In this case, we have identified selenoamino acid metabolism and steroid biosynthesis as key pathways mediating the observed relationship between metabolic health and high-CLA beef. These results indicate that this type of analysis has the potential to generate novel transcriptome-based biomarkers of disease.

Bi-directional gene set enrichment and canonical correlation analysis identify key diet-sensitive pathways and biomarkers of metabolic syndrome

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

-sensitive changes in constituent genes, as well as strong correlations between gene expression and plasma markers of metabolic syndrome independent of the dietary effect. Conclusion Bi-directional gene set enrichment analysis more accurately reflects dynamic regulatory behaviour in biochemical pathways, and as such highlighted biologically relevant changes that were not detected using a traditional approach. In such cases where transcriptomic response to treatment is exceptionally large, canonical correlation analysis in conjunction with Fisher's exact test highlights the subset of pathways showing strongest correlation with the clinical markers of interest. In this case, we have identified selenoamino acid metabolism and steroid biosynthesis as key pathways mediating the observed relationship between metabolic health and high-CLA beef. These results indicate that this type of analysis has the potential to generate novel transcriptome-based biomarkers of disease. PMID:20929581

Promised and delivered inducements and contributions: an integrated view of psychological contract appraisal.

PubMed

Lambert, Lisa Schurer

2011-07-01

The reciprocal exchange of employees' work for pay that is central to employment relationships is viewed here through the lens of the psychological contract. A psychological contract involves promised inducements, promised contributions, delivered inducements, and delivered contributions: How an employee cognitively integrates these 4 elements is a central question in psychological contract theory. Three alternative approaches for integrating the 4 elements were drawn from discrepancy theory, from equity theory, and from need theories of satisfaction, respectively. Experimental findings disconfirmed the discrepancy and equity approaches. Findings were consistent with the premise of the needs model, which is that appraisal is driven by how psychological contract elements facilitate or hinder an employee's effort to fulfill personal needs. Results showed that promised and delivered pay and work contribute uniquely to appraisal but that they vary in their influence on appraisal. These findings were consistent with the needs model principle that elements proximal to need satisfaction matter more than distal elements. That is, what is delivered (for pay and for work) matters more than what is promised, and pay matters more than work.

Regenerating the human heart: direct reprogramming strategies and their current limitations.

PubMed

Ghiroldi, Andrea; Piccoli, Marco; Ciconte, Giuseppe; Pappone, Carlo; Anastasia, Luigi

2017-10-27

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the Western world. Unfortunately, current therapies are often only palliative, consequently essentially making heart transplantation necessary for many patients. However, several novel therapeutic approaches in the past two decades have yielded quite encouraging results. The generation of induced pluripotent stem cells, through the forced expression of stem cell-specific transcription factors, has inspired the most promising strategies for heart regeneration by direct reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts into functional cardiomyocytes. Initial attempts at this reprogramming were conducted using a similar approach to the one used with transcription factors, but during years, novel strategies have been tested, e.g., miRNAs, recombinant proteins and chemical molecules. Although preliminary results on animal models are promising, the low reprogramming efficiency, as well as the incomplete maturation of the cardiomyocytes, still represents important obstacles. This review covers direct transdifferentiation strategies that have been proposed and developed and illustrates the pros and cons of each approach. Indeed, as described in the manuscript, there are still many unanswered questions and drawbacks that require a better understanding of the basic signaling pathways and transcription factor networks before functional cells, suitable for cardiac regeneration and safe for the patients, can be generated and used for human therapies.

Short AntiMicrobial Peptides (SAMPs) as a class of extraordinary promising therapeutic agents.

PubMed

Ramesh, Suhas; Govender, Thavendran; Kruger, Hendrik G; de la Torre, Beatriz G; Albericio, Fernando

2016-07-01

The emergence of multidrug resistant bacteria has a direct impact on global public health because of the reduced potency of existing antibiotics against pathogens. Hence, there is a pressing need for new drugs with different modes of action that can kill microorganisms. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) can be regarded as an alternative tool for this purpose because they are proven to have therapeutic effects with broad-spectrum activities. There are some hurdles in using AMPs as clinical candidates such as toxicity, lack of stability and high budgets required for manufacturing. This can be overcome by developing shorter and more easily accessible AMPs, the so-called Short AntiMicrobial Peptides (SAMPs) that contain between two and ten amino acid residues. These are emerging as an attractive class of therapeutic agents with high potential for clinical use and possessing multifunctional activities. In this review we attempted to compile those SAMPs that have exhibited biological properties which are believed to hold promise for the future. Copyright © 2016 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Identity Management Systems in Healthcare: The Issue of Patient Identifiers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soenens, Els

According to a recent recommendation of the European Commission, now is the time for Europe to enhance interoperability in eHealth. Although interoperability of patient identifiers seems promising for matters of patient mobility, patient empowerment and effective access to care, we see that today there is indeed a considerable lack of interoperability in the field of patient identification. Looking from a socio-technical rather than a merely technical point of view, one can understand the fact that the development and implementation of an identity management system in a specific healthcare context is influenced by particular social practices, affected by socio-economical history and the political climate and regulated by specific data protection legislations. Consequently, the process of making patient identification in Europe more interoperable is a development beyond semantic and syntactic levels. In this paper, we gives some examples of today’s patient identifier systems in Europe, discuss the issue of interoperability of (unique) patient identifiers from a socio-technical point of view and try not to ignore the ‘privacy side’ of the story.

Penguin Promises: Encouraging Aquarium Visitors to Take Conservation Action

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mann, Judy Brenda; Ballantyne, Roy; Packer, Jan

2018-01-01

This study investigates the impact of an innovative conservation action campaign called "Penguin Promises" implemented at uShaka Sea World in Durban, South Africa. Communication tools included interpretive signage, exhibits with and without animals, presentations, and personal interactions, along with a specially designed postcard, on…

Understanding direct neuronal reprogramming-from pioneer factors to 3D chromatin.

PubMed

Ninkovic, Jovica; Götz, Magdalena

2018-06-14

Cell replacement therapies aim at reestablishment of neuronal circuits after brain injury, stroke or neurodegeneration. Recently, direct reprogramming of resident glial cells into the affected neuronal subtypes has become a feasible and promising option for central nervous system regeneration. Direct reprogramming relies on the implementation of a new transcriptional program defining the desired neuronal identity in fully differentiated glial cells implying the more or less complete down-regulation of the program for the former identity of the glial cell. Despite the enormous progress achieved in this regard with highly efficient in vivo reprogramming after injury, a number of hurdles still need to be resolved. One way to further improve direct neuronal reprogramming is to understand the molecular hurdles which we discuss with the focus on chromatin states of the starting versus the reprogrammed cells. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Why Do Promising Therapies Stall in Development and How Can We Move Them Forward?

PubMed

Wegner, Craig D; Goodwin, Andrew; Cook, Jon C; Allamneni, Krishna; Sohn, Jane; McVean, Maralee

There are many reasons that molecules fail to progress to market and various principles of risk-benefit decisions that can help drive the molecule through development. This symposium included discussions on global strategies involved in pushing promising molecules to market, what to do when a molecule stalls in its progress to market, and options for rescuing the molecule and pushing it forward again. Innovative partnerships that bring stalled drugs back into clinical development were also addressed. A regulatory perspective on common reasons for a molecule to fail in its forward progress was presented. In addition, situations arise when a third-party advisory committee can provide input to help overcome issues identified by a regulatory agency. Using examples from the private and public domain, presentations centered on how to repurpose a molecule and when more science is needed.

Density-based clustering analyses to identify heterogeneous cellular sub-populations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heaster, Tiffany M.; Walsh, Alex J.; Landman, Bennett A.; Skala, Melissa C.

2017-02-01

Autofluorescence microscopy of NAD(P)H and FAD provides functional metabolic measurements at the single-cell level. Here, density-based clustering algorithms were applied to metabolic autofluorescence measurements to identify cell-level heterogeneity in tumor cell cultures. The performance of the density-based clustering algorithm, DENCLUE, was tested in samples with known heterogeneity (co-cultures of breast carcinoma lines). DENCLUE was found to better represent the distribution of cell clusters compared to Gaussian mixture modeling. Overall, DENCLUE is a promising approach to quantify cell-level heterogeneity, and could be used to understand single cell population dynamics in cancer progression and treatment.

Host-Directed Therapeutics as a Novel Approach for Tuberculosis Treatment.

PubMed

Kim, Ye-Ram; Yang, Chul-Su

2017-09-28

Despite significant efforts to improve the treatment of tuberculosis (TB), it remains a prevalent infectious disease worldwide owing to the limitations of current TB therapeutic regimens. Recent work on novel TB treatment strategies has suggested that directly targeting host factors may be beneficial for TB treatment. Such strategies, termed host-directed therapeutics (HDTs), focus on host-pathogen interactions. HDTs may be more effective than the currently approved TB drugs, which are limited by the long durations of treatment needed and the emergence of drug-resistant strains. Targets of HDTs include host factors such as cytokines, immune checkpoints, immune cell functions, and essential enzyme activities. This review article discusses examples of potentially promising HDTs and introduces novel approaches for their development.

The Promise of Technology for College Instruction: From Drill and Practice to Avatars

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuhlenschmidt, Sally; Kacer, Barbara

2010-01-01

Technology and its uses have undergone significant change in the past several decades. Although the technology of 2010 has changed in ways unimaginable in 1960, the promise of technology today is similar to the promise of technology then. The achievement of student learning seems more likely to lie in the minds of the people who use the technology…

78 FR 18920 - Airworthiness Directives; Austro Engine GmbH Engines

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-28

...-0164; Directorate Identifier 2013-NE-10-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Austro Engine GmbH...). SUMMARY: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Austro Engine GmbH model E4.... Fax: 202-493-2251. For service information identified in this proposed AD, contact Austro Engine GmbH...

Cross-platform method for identifying candidate network biomarkers for prostate cancer.

PubMed

Jin, G; Zhou, X; Cui, K; Zhang, X-S; Chen, L; Wong, S T C

2009-11-01

Discovering biomarkers using mass spectrometry (MS) and microarray expression profiles is a promising strategy in molecular diagnosis. Here, the authors proposed a new pipeline for biomarker discovery that integrates disease information for proteins and genes, expression profiles in both genomic and proteomic levels, and protein-protein interactions (PPIs) to discover high confidence network biomarkers. Using this pipeline, a total of 474 molecules (genes and proteins) related to prostate cancer were identified and a prostate-cancer-related network (PCRN) was derived from the integrative information. Thus, a set of candidate network biomarkers were identified from multiple expression profiles composed by eight microarray datasets and one proteomics dataset. The network biomarkers with PPIs can accurately distinguish the prostate patients from the normal ones, which potentially provide more reliable hits of biomarker candidates than conventional biomarker discovery methods.

Cardiac gene therapy: Recent advances and future directions.

PubMed

Mason, Daniel; Chen, Yu-Zhe; Krishnan, Harini Venkata; Sant, Shilpa

2015-10-10

Gene therapy has the potential to serve as an adaptable platform technology for treating various diseases. Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of mortality in the developed world and genetic modification is steadily becoming a more plausible method to repair and regenerate heart tissue. Recently, new gene targets to treat cardiovascular disease have been identified and developed into therapies that have shown promise in animal models. Some of these therapies have advanced to clinical testing. Despite these recent successes, several barriers must be overcome for gene therapy to become a widely used treatment of cardiovascular diseases. In this review, we evaluate specific genetic targets that can be exploited to treat cardiovascular diseases, list the important delivery barriers for the gene carriers, assess the most promising methods of delivering the genetic information, and discuss the current status of clinical trials involving gene therapies targeted to the heart. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Realising the technological promise of smartphones in addiction research and treatment: An ethical review.

PubMed

Capon, Hannah; Hall, Wayne; Fry, Craig; Carter, Adrian

2016-10-01

Smartphone technologies and mHealth applications (or apps) promise unprecedented scope for data collection, treatment intervention, and relapse prevention when used in the field of substance abuse and addiction. This potential also raises new ethical challenges that researchers, clinicians, and software developers must address. This paper aims to identify ethical issues in the current uses of smartphones in addiction research and treatment. A search of three databases (PubMed, Web of Science and PsycInfo) identified 33 studies involving smartphones or mHealth applications for use in the research and treatment of substance abuse and addiction. A content analysis was conducted to identify how smartphones are being used in these fields and to highlight the ethical issues raised by these studies. Smartphones are being used to collect large amounts of sensitive information, including personal information, geo-location, physiological activity, self-reports of mood and cravings, and the consumption of illicit drugs, alcohol and nicotine. Given that detailed information is being collected about potentially illegal behaviour, we identified the following ethical considerations: protecting user privacy, maximising equity in access, ensuring informed consent, providing participants with adequate clinical resources, communicating clinically relevant results to individuals, and the urgent need to demonstrate evidence of safety and efficacy of the technologies. mHealth technology offers the possibility to collect large amounts of valuable personal information that may enhance research and treatment of substance abuse and addiction. To realise this potential researchers, clinicians and app-developers must address these ethical concerns to maximise the benefits and minimise risks of harm to users. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Ideas Identified and Distributed through Project IDEA.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, Washington, DC.

This document contains ideas on a variety of subjects directed at the physical educator. The work was compiled by Project IDEA (Identify, Distribute, Exchange for Action). Topics include the following: (a) scheduling, (b) curriculum, (c) games, (d) specific courses, (e) life sports, (f) fitness, (g) adaptive Physical education, (h) course methods,…

78 FR 14029 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-04

...-0096; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-143-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A318-112, A319-111... Airbus, Airworthiness Office--EAS, 1 Rond Point Maurice Bellonte, 31707 Blagnac Cedex, France; telephone...

78 FR 29261 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-20

...-0424; Directorate Identifier 2013-NM-014-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus Model A330-200 Freighter, A330... this proposed AD, contact Airbus SAS, Airworthiness Office--EAL, 1 Rond Point Maurice Bellonte, 31707...

Cancer Chemoprevention by Dietary Polyphenols: Promising Role for Epigenetics

PubMed Central

Link, Alexander; Balaguer, Francesc; Goel, Ajay

2010-01-01

Epigenetics refers to heritable changes that are not encoded in the DNA sequence itself, but play an important role in the control of gene expression. In mammals, epigenetic mechanisms include changes in DNA methylation, histone modifications and non-coding RNAs. Although epigenetic changes are heritable in somatic cells, these modifications are also potentially reversible, which makes them attractive and promising avenues for tailoring cancer preventive and therapeutic strategies. Burgeoning evidence in the last decade has provided unprecedented clues that diet and environmental factors directly influence epigenetic mechanisms in humans. Dietary polyphenols from green tea, turmeric, soybeans, broccoli and others have shown to possess multiple cell-regulatory activities within cancer cells. More recently, we have begun to understand that some of the dietary polyphenols may exert their chemopreventive effects in part by modulating various components of the epigenetic machinery in humans. In this article, we first discuss the contribution of diet and environmental factors on epigenetic alterations; subsequently, we provide a comprehensive review of literature on the role of various dietary polyphenols. In particular, we summarize the current knowledge on a large number of dietary agents and their effects on DNA methylation, histone modifications and regulation of expression of non-coding miRNAs in various in vitro and in vivo models. We emphasize how increased understanding of the chemopreventive effects of dietary polyphenols on specific epigenetic alterations may provide unique and yet unexplored novel and highly effective chemopreventive strategies for reducing the health burden of cancer and other diseases in humans. PMID:20599773

Promising Teacher Practices: Students' Views about Their Science Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moeed, Azra; Easterbrook, Matthew

2016-01-01

Internationally, conceptual and procedural understanding, understanding the Nature of Science, and scientific literacy are considered worthy goals of school science education in modern times. The empirical study presented here reports on promising teacher practices that in the students' views afford learning opportunities and support their science…

Identifying Stem-like Cells Using Mitochondrial Membrane Potential | Center for Cancer Research

Cancer.gov

Therapies that are based on living cells promise to improve treatments for metastatic cancer and for many degenerative diseases. Lasting treatment of these maladies may require the durable persistence of cells. Long-term engraftment of cells – for months or years – and the generation of large numbers of progeny are characteristics of stem cells. Most approaches to isolate viable hematopoetic stem cells and therapeutically active T cells are based on immunophenotyping using highly multicolored flow cytometry. However, these methods do not directly measure the metabolic features of cells, which are known to be important in predicting cell fate.

Oxygen transfer rate identifies priming compounds in parsley cells.

PubMed

Schilling, Jana Viola; Schillheim, Britta; Mahr, Stefan; Reufer, Yannik; Sanjoyo, Sandi; Conrath, Uwe; Büchs, Jochen

2015-11-25

In modern agriculture, the call for an alternative crop protection strategy increases because of the desired reduction of fungicide and pesticide use and the continuously evolving resistance of pathogens and pests to agrochemicals. The direct activation of the plant immune system does not provide a promising plant protection measure because of high fitness costs. However, upon treatment with certain natural or synthetic compounds, plant cells can promote to a fitness cost-saving, primed state of enhanced defense. In the primed state, plants respond to biotic and abiotic stress with faster and stronger activation of defense, and this is often associated with immunity and abiotic stress tolerance. Until now, the identification of chemical compounds with priming-inducing activity (so-called plant activators) relied on tedious and invasive approaches, or required the late detection of secreted furanocoumarin phytoalexins in parsley cell cultures. Thus, simple, fast, straightforward, and noninvasive techniques for identifying priming-inducing compounds for plant protection are very welcome. This report demonstrates that a respiration activity-monitoring system (RAMOS) can identify compounds with defense priming-inducing activity in parsley cell suspension in culture. RAMOS relies on the quasi-continuous, noninvasive online determination of the oxygen transfer rate (OTR). Treatment of parsley culture cells with the known plant activator salicylic acid (SA), a natural plant defense signal, resulted in an OTR increase. Addition of the defense elicitor Pep13, a cell wall peptide of Phythophthora sojae, induced two distinctive OTR peaks that were higher in SA-primed cells than in unprimed cells upon Pep13 challenge. Both, the OTR increase after priming with SA and the Pep13 challenge were dose-dependent. Furthermore, there was a close correlation of a compound's activity to enhance the oxygen consumption in parsley cells and its capacity to prime Pep13-induced furanocoumarin

Opal shell structures: direct assembly versus inversion approach.

PubMed

Deng, Tian-Song; Sharifi, Parvin; Marlow, Frank

2013-09-16

Opal shell structures can be fabricated in two ways: By direct assembly from hollow spheres (hs-opal) or by infiltration of precursors into opal templates and inversion. The resulting lattice disturbances were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical microscopy, and transmission spectra. The hs-opal system shows much lower disturbances, for example, a lower number of cracks and lattice deformations. The strong suppression of crack formation in one of these inverse opal structures can be considered as promising candidates for the fabrication of more perfect photonic crystals. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

N-cinnamoylated aminoquinolines as promising antileishmanial agents.

PubMed

Vale-Costa, S; Costa-Gouveia, J; Pérez, B; Silva, T; Teixeira, C; Gomes, P; Gomes, M S

2013-10-01

A series of cinnamic acid conjugates of primaquine and chloroquine were evaluated for their in vitro antileishmanial activities. Although primaquine derivatives had modest activity, chloroquine conjugates exhibited potent activity against both promastigotes (50% inhibitory concentration [IC50] = 2.6 to 21.8 μM) and intramacrophagic amastigotes (IC50 = 1.2 to 9.3 μM) of Leishmania infantum. Both the high activity of these chloroquine analogues and their mild-to-low toxicity toward host cells make them promising leads for the discovery of new antileishmanial agents.

Epitope presentation is an important determinant of the utility of antigens identified from protein arrays in the development of autoantibody diagnostic assays.

PubMed

Murphy, Mairead A; O'Connell, David J; O'Kane, Sara L; O'Brien, John K; O'Toole, Sharon; Martin, Cara; Sheils, Orla; O'Leary, John J; Cahill, Dolores J

2012-08-03

Autoantibodies represent an attractive biomarker for diagnostic assays principally due to the stability of immunoglobulin in patient serum facilitating measurement with conventional assays. Immune responses to tumorigenesis may facilitate detection of ovarian cancer in the early stages of the disease with identification of a panel of tumour specific autoantibodies. Despite the reporting of many tumour associated autoantibodies using arrays of tumour antigens, this has not led to the advance in diagnostic capability as rapidly as was initially expected. Here we examine the potential diagnostic utility of candidate autoantibody biomarkers identified via screening of serum samples on a high content human protein array from a unique cohort of early stage and late stage ovarian cancer patients. We analyse the performance of autoantibodies to the tumour suppressor protein p53 and the novel autoantigens alpha adducin and endosulfine alpha identified in our array screen. Each antigen has different performance characteristics using conventional ELISA format and Western blot immunoassay. The high attrition rate of promising autoantigens identified by array screening can in part be explained by the presentation of the epitope of the antigen in the subsequent method of validation and this study provides directions on maximising the potential of candidate biomarkers. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Translational Proteomics. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Employment of Direct Fire Systems during Offensive Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-06-01

problems, this criteria suffers from a lack of offensive direct fire planning as part 115 of the scheme of maneuver. Limited TTP discussion in the...these specific occurrences. Doctrine writers could develop TTP to do so. This problem could involve unit training practices. If units differentiate ...10 0 0 0 5 PURPOSE) 4. - IDENTIFIES DIRECT FIRE I 76 15 20 130 21 15 115 R&S PRIORITY (PIR/IR) 5. - IDENTIFIES ENGAGEMENT 1 5 10 0 25 16 0 0 PRIORITY

Penile Low-Intensity Shock Wave Therapy: A Promising Novel Modality for Erectile Dysfunction

PubMed Central

Kitrey, Noam D.; Gruenwald, Ilan; Appel, Boaz; Vardi, Yoram

2014-01-01

Penile extracorporeal low-intensity shock wave therapy (LIST) to the penis has recently emerged as a novel and promising modality in the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). LIST has angiogenic properties and stimulates neovascularization. If applied to the corpora cavernosa, LIST can improve penile blood flow and endothelial function. In a series of clinical trials, including randomized double-blind sham-controlled studies, LIST has been shown to have a substantial effect on penile hemodynamics and erectile function in patients with vasculogenic ED. LIST is effective in patients who are responsive to phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors (PDE5i) and can also convert PDE5i nonresponders to responders. The response to LIST wanes gradually over time, and after 2 years, about half of the patients maintain their function. Extensive research is needed to understand the effect of LIST on erectile tissue, to modify the treatment protocol to maximize its outcomes, and to identify the patients who will benefit the most from this treatment. PMID:24868332

Penile low-intensity shock wave therapy: a promising novel modality for erectile dysfunction.

PubMed

Abu-Ghanem, Yasmin; Kitrey, Noam D; Gruenwald, Ilan; Appel, Boaz; Vardi, Yoram

2014-05-01

Penile extracorporeal low-intensity shock wave therapy (LIST) to the penis has recently emerged as a novel and promising modality in the treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED). LIST has angiogenic properties and stimulates neovascularization. If applied to the corpora cavernosa, LIST can improve penile blood flow and endothelial function. In a series of clinical trials, including randomized double-blind sham-controlled studies, LIST has been shown to have a substantial effect on penile hemodynamics and erectile function in patients with vasculogenic ED. LIST is effective in patients who are responsive to phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitors (PDE5i) and can also convert PDE5i nonresponders to responders. The response to LIST wanes gradually over time, and after 2 years, about half of the patients maintain their function. Extensive research is needed to understand the effect of LIST on erectile tissue, to modify the treatment protocol to maximize its outcomes, and to identify the patients who will benefit the most from this treatment.

Novel pharmaceutical cocrystal consisting of paracetamol and trimethylglycine, a new promising cocrystal former.

PubMed

Maeno, Yusuke; Fukami, Toshiro; Kawahata, Masatoshi; Yamaguchi, Kentaro; Tagami, Tatsuaki; Ozeki, Tetsuya; Suzuki, Toyofumi; Tomono, Kazuo

2014-10-01

Paracetamol (APAP), a frequently used antipyretic drug, has poor compression moldability. In this study, we identified a novel cocrystal consisting of APAP and trimethylglycine (TMG) that exhibits improved tabletability. TMG was used instead of oxalic acid (OXA), which is a coformer reported previously. The cocrystal (APAP-TMG at a molar ratio of 1:1) was characterized by X-ray analysis, infrared spectroscopy, and thermal analysis. The crystal structure of APAP-TMG revealed that it was a cocrystal, since no proton was transferred between the APAP and TMG molecules. The compression and dissolution properties of APAP-TMG were similar to that of the APAP-OXA cocrystal. In addition, taste sensing measurements suggested that TMG has a sweet and umami taste, indicating that TMG should suppress the bitterness of APAP. From these results, TMG could be a safe and promising cocrystal former that could replace OXA, which can irritate tissues. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

T7 Phage Display Library a Promising Strategy to Detect Tuberculosis Specific Biomarkers.

PubMed

Talwar, Harvinder; Talreja, Jaya; Samavati, Lobelia

2016-06-01

One-third of the world's population is infected with tuberculosis, only 10% will develop active disease and the remaining 90% is considered to have latent TB (LTB). While active TB is contagious and can be lethal, the LTB can evolve to active TB. The diagnosis of TB can be challenging, especially in the early stages, due to the variability in presentation and nonspecific signs and symptoms. Currently, we have limited tools available to diagnose active TB, predict treatment efficacy and cure of active tuberculosis, the reactivation of latent tuberculosis infection, and the induction of protective immune responses through vaccination. Therefore, the identification of robust and accurate tuberculosis-specific biomarkers is crucial for the successful eradication of TB. In this commentary, we summarized the available methods for diagnosis and differentiation of active TB from LTB and their limitations. Additionally, we present a novel peptide microarray platform as promising strategy to identify TB biomarkers.

Occurrence and Importance of Plant Lipids: A Promising Insight into Algae.

PubMed

Halima, Nihed B

2017-01-01

Lipids are biomolecules with interesting structural variability. They are involved in many processes such as the storage of energy, in nutrition and are also of relevance for signal transduction processes, in apoptosis, cell differentiation and phagocytosis, etc. Macroalgae and microalgae are a promising and very diverse group of organisms. These living arganisms inhabit a vaste range of ecosystems from the Antarctic to the Deserts. They account for above half the primary productivity at the base of the food chain because of their multiple nutritional products including, for instance, lipids. Recently, studies on the oleaginous algae encompass their uses for commercial exploitations with applications ranging from human health food, animal feed, aquaculture, nutraceutical, biofuels and others. In this article, updated knowledge of lipids and recent research studies for algae's valorization performed by several authors were reviewed. Special attention was paid to lipids accumulation and their characterization. The selection of the prominent species of algae will be of great importance to satisfy the corresponding valorization process. Patents identified with algal lipids composition, production and application are presented. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

76 FR 77934 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-15

...-1321; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-045-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Airbus Model A319 series airplanes, Model A320-211, -212, -214, -231, -232, and -233 airplanes, and Model A321 series airplanes that would...

[Thalidomide teratogenicity and its direct target identification].

PubMed

Ito, Takumi; Ando, Hideki; Handa, Hiroshi

2015-01-01

Half a century ago, thalidomide was developed as a sedative drug and was wildly used over 40 countries. However the drug has serious birth defects such as amelia and phocomelia. Now thalidomide is regarded as a clinically effective drug and used for the treatment of multiple myeloma under strict controls. The direct target of thalidomide had been a long-standing question. We identified cereblon as a primary direct target protein for thalidomide teratogenicity using new affinity bead technology in 2010. In this review, we introduce an overview of thalidomide teratogenicity, a story about how we identified cereblon, and recent advances in cereblon studies.

Direction-Giving Skills in the Classroom (A Teaching Tip).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross, Charlynn

1992-01-01

Offers a unit on direction giving to help students identify effective and ineffective direction giving; become familiar with the preparation and presentation components of sound direction giving; and determine whether the message intended was the massage received. Discusses barriers to listening, misunderstandings, and provides exercises and steps…

Keeping the Promise: Going the Distance on Transfer Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shorette, Rob; Byrd, Daniel

2016-01-01

Our new report, "Keeping the Promise: Going the Distance on Transfer Reform," has found significant improvements in the creation of a seamless transfer pathway between California Community Colleges and the California State Universities (CSU) since the passage of historic transfer reform legislation, SB1440, six years ago. This report…

The Promise of Motivational Interviewing in School Mental Health

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frey, Andy J.; Cloud, Richard N.; Lee, Jon; Small, Jason W.; Seeley, John R.; Feil, Edward G.; Walker, Hill M.; Golly, Annemieke

2011-01-01

In recent years, the science of developing and implementing interventions addressing school-related risk factors has produced many advances. This article addresses the promise of a cross-disciplinary practice approach known as motivational interviewing in school settings. Specifically, the supporting evidence as well as the process and principles…

Directional Reflective Surface Formed via Gradient-Impeding Acoustic Meta-Surfaces

PubMed Central

Song, Kyungjun; Kim, Jedo; Hur, Shin; Kwak, Jun-Hyuk; Lee, Seong-Hyun; Kim, Taesung

2016-01-01

Artificially designed acoustic meta-surfaces have the ability to manipulate sound energy to an extraordinary extent. Here, we report on a new type of directional reflective surface consisting of an array of sub-wavelength Helmholtz resonators with varying internal coiled path lengths, which induce a reflection phase gradient along a planar acoustic meta-surface. The acoustically reshaped reflective surface created by the gradient-impeding meta-surface yields a distinct focal line similar to a parabolic cylinder antenna, and is used for directive sound beamforming. Focused beam steering can be also obtained by repositioning the source (or receiver) off axis, i.e., displaced from the focal line. Besides flat reflective surfaces, complex surfaces such as convex or conformal shapes may be used for sound beamforming, thus facilitating easy application in sound reinforcement systems. Therefore, directional reflective surfaces have promising applications in fields such as acoustic imaging, sonic weaponry, and underwater communication. PMID:27562634

Direct Measurement of the Density Matrix of a Quantum System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thekkadath, G. S.; Giner, L.; Chalich, Y.; Horton, M. J.; Banker, J.; Lundeen, J. S.

2016-09-01

One drawback of conventional quantum state tomography is that it does not readily provide access to single density matrix elements since it requires a global reconstruction. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a scheme that can be used to directly measure individual density matrix elements of general quantum states. The scheme relies on measuring a sequence of three observables, each complementary to the last. The first two measurements are made weak to minimize the disturbance they cause to the state, while the final measurement is strong. We perform this joint measurement on polarized photons in pure and mixed states to directly measure their density matrix. The weak measurements are achieved using two walk-off crystals, each inducing a polarization-dependent spatial shift that couples the spatial and polarization degrees of freedom of the photons. This direct measurement method provides an operational meaning to the density matrix and promises to be especially useful for large dimensional states.

Direct Measurement of the Density Matrix of a Quantum System.

PubMed

Thekkadath, G S; Giner, L; Chalich, Y; Horton, M J; Banker, J; Lundeen, J S

2016-09-16

One drawback of conventional quantum state tomography is that it does not readily provide access to single density matrix elements since it requires a global reconstruction. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a scheme that can be used to directly measure individual density matrix elements of general quantum states. The scheme relies on measuring a sequence of three observables, each complementary to the last. The first two measurements are made weak to minimize the disturbance they cause to the state, while the final measurement is strong. We perform this joint measurement on polarized photons in pure and mixed states to directly measure their density matrix. The weak measurements are achieved using two walk-off crystals, each inducing a polarization-dependent spatial shift that couples the spatial and polarization degrees of freedom of the photons. This direct measurement method provides an operational meaning to the density matrix and promises to be especially useful for large dimensional states.

Chromatin modifiers and the promise of epigenetic therapy in acute leukemia

PubMed Central

Greenblatt, Sarah M.; Nimer, Stephen D.

2017-01-01

Hematopoiesis is a tightly regulated process involving the control of gene expression that directs the transition from hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells to terminally differentiated blood cells. In leukemia, the processes directing self-renewal, differentiation, and progenitor cell expansion are disrupted, leading to the accumulation of immature, non-functioning malignant cells. Insights into these processes have come in stages, based upon technological advances in genetic analyses, bioinformatics, and biological sciences. The first cytogenetic studies of leukemic cells identified chromosomal translocations that generate oncogenic fusion proteins, and most commonly affect regulators of transcription. This was followed by the discovery of recurrent somatic mutations in genes encoding regulators of the signal transduction pathways that control cell proliferation and survival. Recently, studies of global changes in methylation and gene expression have led to the understanding that the output of transcriptional regulators and the proliferative signaling pathways, are ultimately influenced by chromatin structure. Candidate gene, whole genome, and whole exome sequencing studies have identified recurrent somatic mutations in genes encoding epigenetic modifiers in both acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL). In contrast to the two hit model of leukemogenesis, emerging evidence suggests that these epigenetic modifiers represent a class of mutations that are critical to the development of leukemia and affect the regulation of various other oncogenic pathways. In this review, we discuss the range of recurrent, somatic mutations in epigenetic modifiers found in leukemia and how these modifiers relate to the classical leukemogenic pathways that lead to impaired cell differentiation and aberrant self-renewal and proliferation. PMID:24609046

Microbiome Networks: A Systems Framework for Identifying Candidate Microbial Assemblages for Disease Management.

PubMed

Poudel, R; Jumpponen, A; Schlatter, D C; Paulitz, T C; Gardener, B B McSpadden; Kinkel, L L; Garrett, K A

2016-10-01

Network models of soil and plant microbiomes provide new opportunities for enhancing disease management, but also challenges for interpretation. We present a framework for interpreting microbiome networks, illustrating how observed network structures can be used to generate testable hypotheses about candidate microbes affecting plant health. The framework includes four types of network analyses. "General network analysis" identifies candidate taxa for maintaining an existing microbial community. "Host-focused analysis" includes a node representing a plant response such as yield, identifying taxa with direct or indirect associations with that node. "Pathogen-focused analysis" identifies taxa with direct or indirect associations with taxa known a priori as pathogens. "Disease-focused analysis" identifies taxa associated with disease. Positive direct or indirect associations with desirable outcomes, or negative associations with undesirable outcomes, indicate candidate taxa. Network analysis provides characterization not only of taxa with direct associations with important outcomes such as disease suppression, biofertilization, or expression of plant host resistance, but also taxa with indirect associations via their association with other key taxa. We illustrate the interpretation of network structure with analyses of microbiomes in the oak phyllosphere, and in wheat rhizosphere and bulk soil associated with the presence or absence of infection by Rhizoctonia solani.

Fine mapping of breast cancer genome-wide association studies loci in women of African ancestry identifies novel susceptibility markers

PubMed Central

Huo, Dezheng

2013-01-01

Numerous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with breast cancer susceptibility have been identified by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). However, these SNPs were primarily discovered and validated in women of European and Asian ancestry. Because linkage disequilibrium is ancestry-dependent and heterogeneous among racial/ethnic populations, we evaluated common genetic variants at 22 GWAS-identified breast cancer susceptibility loci in a pooled sample of 1502 breast cancer cases and 1378 controls of African ancestry. None of the 22 GWAS index SNPs could be validated, challenging the direct generalizability of breast cancer risk variants identified in Caucasians or Asians to other populations. Novel breast cancer risk variants for women of African ancestry were identified in regions including 5p12 (odds ratio [OR] = 1.40, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.11–1.76; P = 0.004), 5q11.2 (OR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.09–1.36; P = 0.00053) and 10p15.1 (OR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.08–1.38; P = 0.0015). We also found positive association signals in three regions (6q25.1, 10q26.13 and 16q12.1–q12.2) previously confirmed by fine mapping in women of African ancestry. In addition, polygenic model indicated that eight best markers in this study, compared with 22 GWAS-identified SNPs, could better predict breast cancer risk in women of African ancestry (per-allele OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.16–1.27; P = 9.7 × 10–16). Our results demonstrate that fine mapping is a powerful approach to better characterize the breast cancer risk alleles in diverse populations. Future studies and new GWAS in women of African ancestry hold promise to discover additional variants for breast cancer susceptibility with clinical implications throughout the African diaspora. PMID:23475944

N-Cinnamoylated Aminoquinolines as Promising Antileishmanial Agents

PubMed Central

Vale-Costa, S.; Costa-Gouveia, J.; Pérez, B.; Silva, T.; Teixeira, C.; Gomes, P.

2013-01-01

A series of cinnamic acid conjugates of primaquine and chloroquine were evaluated for their in vitro antileishmanial activities. Although primaquine derivatives had modest activity, chloroquine conjugates exhibited potent activity against both promastigotes (50% inhibitory concentration [IC50] = 2.6 to 21.8 μM) and intramacrophagic amastigotes (IC50 = 1.2 to 9.3 μM) of Leishmania infantum. Both the high activity of these chloroquine analogues and their mild-to-low toxicity toward host cells make them promising leads for the discovery of new antileishmanial agents. PMID:23917315

77 FR 26998 - Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-08

...-0428; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-078-AD] RIN 2120-AA64 Airworthiness Directives; Airbus Airplanes...: We propose to adopt a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all Airbus Model A330-243, -243F, -342..., between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays. For Airbus service information...

HGF/MET-directed therapeutics in gastroesophageal cancer: a review of clinical and biomarker development.

PubMed

Hack, Stephen P; Bruey, Jean-Marie; Koeppen, Hartmut

2014-05-30

Aberrant activation of the HGF/MET signaling axis has been strongly implicated in the malignant transformation and progression of gastroesophageal cancer (GEC). MET receptor overexpression in tumor samples from GEC patients has been consistently correlated with an aggressive metastatic phenotype and poor prognosis. In preclinical GEC models, abrogation of HGF/MET signaling has been shown to induce tumor regression as well as inhibition of metastatic dissemination. Promising clinical results in patient subsets in which MET is overexpressed have spurned several randomized studies of HGF/MET-directed agents, including two pivotal global Phase III trials. Available data highlight the need for predictive biomarkers in order to select patients most likely to benefit from HGF/MET inhibition. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge of mechanisms of MET activation in GEC, the current status of the clinical evaluation of MET-targeted therapies in GEC, characteristics of ongoing randomized GEC trials and the associated efforts to identify and validate biomarkers. We also discuss the considerations and challenges for HGF/MET inhibitor drug development in the GEC setting.

HGF/MET-directed therapeutics in gastroesophageal cancer: a review of clinical and biomarker development

PubMed Central

Hack, Stephen P.; Bruey, Jean-Marie; Koeppen, Hartmut

2014-01-01

Aberrant activation of the HGF/MET signaling axis has been strongly implicated in the malignant transformation and progression of gastroesophageal cancer (GEC). MET receptor overexpression in tumor samples from GEC patients has been consistently correlated with an aggressive metastatic phenotype and poor prognosis. In preclinical GEC models, abrogation of HGF/MET signaling has been shown to induce tumor regression as well as inhibition of metastatic dissemination. Promising clinical results in patient subsets in which MET is overexpressed have spurned several randomized studies of HGF/MET-directed agents, including two pivotal global Phase III trials. Available data highlight the need for predictive biomarkers in order to select patients most likely to benefit from HGF/MET inhibition. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge of mechanisms of MET activation in GEC, the current status of the clinical evaluation of MET-targeted therapies in GEC, characteristics of ongoing randomized GEC trials and the associated efforts to identify and validate biomarkers. We also discuss the considerations and challenges for HGF/MET inhibitor drug development in the GEC setting. PMID:24930887