A Literature Resource for Those Supporting Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Cancer

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impacts both social interaction and patterns of behavior. ASD is rooted in genetic, biological, and environmental causes. Cancer begins when cells grow out of control and there is also a genetic and biological cause of cancer. There is an overlap between the genetic and biological causes of ASD and cancer. As a result, evidence supports an increased risk of developing some types of cancer as well as protective factors for some times of cancer for individuals with ASD. Therefore, individuals with ASD may be at a heightened risk to develop cancer, but ASD specialists are not often well versed in the procedures that occur when treating cancer. Further, professionals treating cancer may not be familiar with the symptoms and challenges that may be present when treating someone on the autism spectrum. The possibility for a patient to develop trauma symptoms related to experiences with cancer and cancer treatment and the unique characteristics of treating someone with ASD, trauma, and cancer is explored. In addition, caregivers are not often prepared for a comorbid cancer diagnosis that may accompany ASD. Obtaining this kind of specialized knowledge could be significantly beneficial when supporting an individual with ASD through a cancer diagnosis and treatment. As a result, the present product aims to provide evidence based supportive knowledge to caregivers, psychologists, medical health professionals, and other personnel who may be actively working with an individual who has autism and cancer or who is interested in gaining more knowledge about the relationship between autism and cancer

Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction associated with brain activity differences during unilateral lower extremity motor imagery: A Pilot Study.

Recent research has indicated that anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACL-R) is associated with neuroplastic adaptations. It is speculated that these adaptions could affect motor processes. However, it is unclear how these adaptions may influence the feedforward and feedback mechanisms of motor control. The purpose of this study was to determine if ACL-R is associated with an alteration in feedforward motor control. A group of healthy active participants (n=3, age=24.5±0.71 years, height=1.74±0.05m, weight=74.16±18.28kg) and a left ACL-R group (n=3, age=22.5±4.95 years, height=1.79±0.09m, weight=87.32±24.06kg, 52±31 months post-surgery) were locally recruited. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed for analysis of brain activation during a kinesthetic motor imagery (MI) task that served as a model indicator of feedforward motor control. The subjects MI task consisted of remaining completely motionless while mentally performing unilateral left (involved) 45° knee extension/flexion at a rate of 1.2 Hz for 4 blocks of 30 seconds interspersed with 30 second rest. The two groups were contrasted using a mixed-effects general linear model with a cluster-forming threshold of z>3.1. Results revealed that, in comparison to the control group, the ACL-R group had increased activity within the ipsilateral inferior temporal sulcus (voxels:88; p<0.001, z-max:4.32, MNI coordinate voxel: -52,-4,-18) and contralateral insula (voxels:77; p<0.001, z-max:5.86, MNI coordinate voxel:34,2,18), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (voxels:43; p<0.03, z-max:5.02, MNI coordinate voxel:38,36,14), and visual cortex (voxels:42; p<0.03, z-max:4.45, MNI coordinate voxel:10,-94,16), relative to the side of injury, and decreased activation in the basal ganglia (voxels: 230; p<0.001, z-max:5.44, MNI coordinate voxel:12,-24,-8). These results indicate that ACL-R is associated with potential alterations in motor planning, specifically increasing executive function and visual-motor activity to engage in motor imagery. Future research should focus on understanding the neural networks associated with the observed neuroplastic adaptations within this population and develop therapeutic interventions to restore sensorimotor planning neural activity

Normative Grip Strength Values in Males and Females, ages 50 to 89 years old

Purpose. To develop normative reference values for grip strength of males and females between the ages of 50 and 89 years old that can be used by health care professionals in clinical settings. Methods. This study assessed data from a sample of males and females between the ages of 50 and 89 years old who participated in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. The Health and Retirement Study collected data from 6,266 participants in a physical measures sub-study. Grip strength was assessed in a standing position with the shoulder adducted and elbow flexed to 90 degrees. One practice trial was allowed and then the participant performed 2 maximal effort trials using each hand. Right and left hand mean scores were calculated. The HRS data were reported in kilograms. Results. Subjects were stratified by sex and age. Each stratum was defined using 5-year intervals, male or female, and by right or left hand. Mean grip strength, standard deviation, sample size, and percentile ranks from 5 to 95 at intervals of 5 are reported for each stratum in both kilograms and pounds. Conclusion. The normative values provided in this report should advance the clinical utility of grip strength as a physical measure. Percentile ranks are easy to determine and interpret for both the patient and clinician. Clinicians will benefit from the results of this study by better assessing the physical status of their patients, developing better goals for their patients, and providing better education to their patients on this aspect of physical health

Expanding the Capability of Satellite Operations using a Global Federated Ground Station Network

Small-scale spaceflight programs such as those found at universities and start-up companies may operate satellites from a single ground station. This station’s location may not be optimal for radio communications, and a single station limits the contact time available to conduct operations. The idea of a global federated ground station network (FGN) has been theorized in the past, and with today’s wide-spread internet connectivity it is now possible for such a network to exist. One example of an FGN that is functioning today is an open-source project called SatNOGS. The Michigan eXploration Laboratory (MXL) at the University of Michigan has applied the benefits of this network to enhance operations of their Tandem Beacon Experiment (TBEx) CubeSat mission by gathering 2.2x the beacons gathered by their home station alone. 93% of those additional beacons were collected by six SatNOGS stations. Augmenting MXL’s home station with these six stations increases access time to the TBEx satellites by a factor of 5 to15. This increased temporal coverage also enabled MXL operators to identify their spacecraft after deployment and correct an error causing the TBEx radios to function intermittently, saving the mission in its earliest days

How Does the University of Saskatchewan Community Interact With Food Labels?

DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/582J6Non-Peer Reviewe

Patients’ Attitudes Toward Deprescribing and Their Experiences Communicating with Clinicians and Pharmacists

Purpose: Developing effective deprescribing interventions relies on understanding attitudes, beliefs, and communication challenges of those involved in the deprescribing decision-making process, including the patient, the primary care clinician, and the pharmacist. The objective of this study was to assess patients’ beliefs and attitudes and identify facilitators of and barriers to deprescribing. Methods: As part of a larger study, we recruited patients ⩾18years of age taking ⩾3 chronic medications. Participants were recruited from retail pharmacies associated with the University of Kentucky HealthCare system. They completed an electronic survey that included demographic information, questions about communication with their primary care clinician and pharmacists, and the revised Patients’ Attitudes Toward Deprescribing (rPATD) questionnaire. Results: Our analyses included 103 participants (n=65 identified as female and n=74 as White/Caucasian) with a mean age of 50.4years [standard deviation (SD)=15.5]. Participants reported taking an average of 8.4 daily medications (SD=6.1). Most participants reported effective communication with clinicians and pharmacists (66.9%) and expressed willingness to stop one of their medications if their clinician said it was possible (83.5%). Predictors of willingness to accept deprescribing were older age [odds ratio (OR)=2.99, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.45–6.2], college/graduate degree (OR=55.25, 95% CI=5.74–531.4), perceiving medications as less appropriate (OR=8.99, 95% CI=1.1–73.62), and perceived effectiveness of communication with the clinician or pharmacist (OR=4.56, 95% CI=0.85–24.35). Conclusion: Adults taking ⩾3 chronic medications expressed high willingness to accept deprescribing of medications when their doctor said it was possible. Targeted strategies to facilitate communication within the patient–primary care clinician–pharmacist triad that consider patient characteristics such as age and education level may be necessary ingredients for developing successful deprescribing interventions

Zebrafish Blunt-Force TBI Induces Heterogenous Injury Pathologies That Mimic Human TBI and Responds with Sonic Hedgehog-Dependent Cell Proliferation across the Neuroaxis

Blunt-force traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects an increasing number of people worldwide as the range of injury severity and heterogeneity of injury pathologies have been recognized. Most current damage models utilize non-regenerative organisms, less common TBI mechanisms (penetrating, chemical, blast), and are limited in scalability of injury severity. We describe a scalable blunt-force TBI model that exhibits a wide range of human clinical pathologies and allows for the study of both injury pathology/progression and mechanisms of regenerative recovery. We modified the Marmarou weight drop model for adult zebrafish, which delivers a scalable injury spanning mild, moderate, and severe phenotypes. Following injury, zebrafish display a wide range of severity-dependent, injury-induced pathologies, including seizures, blood–brain barrier disruption, neuroinflammation, edema, vascular injury, decreased recovery rate, neuronal cell death, sensorimotor difficulties, and cognitive deficits. Injury-induced pathologies rapidly dissipate 4–7 days post-injury as robust cell proliferation is observed across the neuroaxis. In the cerebellum, proliferating nestin:GFP-positive cells originated from the cerebellar crest by 60 h post-injury, which then infiltrated into the granule cell layer and differentiated into neurons. Shh pathway genes increased in expression shortly following injury. Injection of the Shh agonist purmorphamine in undamaged fish induced a significant proliferative response, while the proliferative response was inhibited in injured fish treated with cyclopamine, a Shh antagonist. Collectively, these data demonstrate that a scalable blunt-force TBI to adult zebrafish results in many pathologies similar to human TBI, followed by recovery, and neuronal regeneration in a Shh-dependent manner

Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxide reduction by the thermophilic iron-reducing bacterium Desulfovulcanus ferrireducens

Some thermophilic bacteria from deep-sea hydrothermal vents grow by dissimilatory iron reduction, but our understanding of their biogenic mineral transformations is nascent. Mineral transformations catalyzed by the thermophilic iron-reducing bacterium Desulfovulcanus ferrireducens during growth at 55°C were examined using synthetic nanophase ferrihydrite, akaganeite, and lepidocrocite separately as terminal electron acceptors. Spectral analyses using visible-near infrared (VNIR), Fourier-transform infrared attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR), and Mössbauer spectroscopies were complemented with x-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) using selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses. The most extensive biogenic mineral transformation occurred with ferrihydrite, which produced a magnetic, visibly dark mineral with spectral features matching cation-deficient magnetite. Desulfovulcanus ferrireducens also grew on akaganeite and lepidocrocite and produced non-magnetic, visibly dark minerals that were poorly soluble in the oxalate solution. Bioreduced mineral products from akaganeite and lepidocrocite reduction were almost entirely absorbed in the VNIR spectroscopy in contrast to both parent minerals and the abiotic controls. However, FTIR-ATR and Mössbauer spectra and XRD analyses of both biogenic minerals were almost identical to the parent and control minerals. The TEM of these biogenic minerals showed the presence of poorly crystalline iron nanospheres (50–200 nm in diameter) of unknown mineralogy that were likely coating the larger parent minerals and were absent from the controls. The study demonstrated that thermophilic bacteria transform different types of Fe(III) (oxyhydr)oxide minerals for growth with varying mineral products. These mineral products are likely formed through dissolution-reprecipitation reactions but are not easily predictable through chemical equilibrium reactions alone

Mechanistic modeling to predict titers and infected cells in the two-stage continuous production of a viral vaccine

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