Close Encounters

Abstract: The expressiveness of the human figure is the syntax and vocabulary that I use to explore the things that make us human. In coming to really know an individual, we not only gain insights into our own psychological make-up, but we may extrapolate our findings to the broader human condition. Although intimately concerned with highlighting the characteristics that make my subjects distinctive, I am equally determined to examine those traits underscoring our commonality, that bind us all into a human family. I look for fresh ways to pull back the curtain of privacy and allow viewers to intrude on my subjects\u27 thoughts and ponder their perspective. I want viewers to confront the same questions that I pondered as I stood before my model, brush in hand, Who is this person? , What is going through this person\u27s mind? and How does he/she perceive me? In an effort to arrive at closure, observers formulate responses by consulting the reservoir of their own unique life experiences. Thus, the answers to these questions are highly personalized to each viewer. The people that I paint embody the idea of a neighbor that lives across the street or perhaps passes us each morning in the hallway. They are of any age, ethnicity and of either gender. They appear self-assured and in control of their space. For me, the crucial role of the pose extends beyond snagging a viewer\u27s attention. It alludes to the silent, invisible soul that resides beneath the surface of what is physically apparent. I stage subjects alone, alert and attired indifferently; all non-essentials are discarded. Because there is little else to ponder, viewers\u27 attention is left to linger on the stark humanity of the person before them. Defensiveness is circumvented by posing models in a suspended moment and lost in thought. Eye contact becomes the conduit that intimately links viewer to subject, allowing one soul to non-verbally, intuitively communicate itself to the other. In returning the subject\u27s gaze, we are inextricably drawn into a slow, downward-spiraling vortex, to the very core of their personality. For my work to be successful it must compel viewers to peer beyond the superficial, to ferret out the meaningful. Ultimately, through my figural paintings, I want to make people feel what it is like to be in my subjects\u27 shoes. I want to afford people the opportunity trade places with my subject and then to observe themselves being observed

Combined carbonate carbon isotopic and cellular ultrastructural studies of individual benthic foraminifera : method description

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Paleoceanography 25 (2010): PA2211, doi:10.1029/2009PA001846.Carbon isotopes of foraminiferal tests provide a widely used proxy for past oceanographic environmental conditions. This proxy can be calibrated using live specimens, which are reliably identified with observations of cell ultrastructure. Observations of ultrastructures can also be used for studies of biological characteristics such as diet and presence of symbionts. Combining biological and isotopic studies on individual foraminifera could provide novel information, but standard isotopic methods destroy ultrastructures by desiccating specimens and observations of ultrastructure require removal of carbonate tests, preventing isotope measurements. The approach described here preserves cellular ultrastructure during isotopic analyses by keeping the foraminifera in an aqueous buffer (Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS)). The technique was developed and standardized with 36 aliquots of NBS-19 standard of similar weight to foraminiferal tests (5 to 123 μg). Standard errors ranged from ± 0.06 to ± 0.85‰ and were caused by CO2 contaminants dissolved in the PBS. The technique was used to measure δ13C values of 96 foraminifera, 10 of which do not precipitate carbonate tests. Calcareous foraminiferal tests had corrected carbon isotope ratios of −8.5 to +3.2‰. This new technique allows comparisons of isotopic compositions of tests made by foraminifera known to be alive at the time of collection with their biological characteristics such as prey composition and presence or absence of putative symbionts. The approach may be applied to additional biomineralizing organisms such as planktonic foraminifera, pteropods, corals, and coccolithophores to elucidate certain biological controls on their paleoceanographic proxy signatures.Support was provided by NSF grants OCE‐0550396 (to J.B.M.), OCE‐0551001 (to J.M.B.), and OCE‐ 0550401 (to A.E.R.)

Web-based patient-reported outcome measures for personalized treatment and care (PROMPT-Care) : multicenter pragmatic nonrandomized trial

Background: Despite the acceptability and efficacy of e–patient-reported outcome (ePRO) systems, implementation in routine clinical care remains challenging. Objective: This pragmatic trial implemented the PROMPT-Care (Patient Reported Outcome Measures for Personalized Treatment and Care) web-based system into existing clinical workflows and evaluated its effectiveness among a diverse population of patients with cancer. Methods: Adult patients with solid tumors receiving active treatment or follow-up care in four cancer centers were enrolled. The PROMPT-Care intervention supported patient management through (1) monthly off-site electronic PRO physical symptom and psychosocial well-being assessments, (2) automated electronic clinical alerts notifying the care team of unresolved clinical issues following two consecutive assessments, and (3) tailored online patient self-management resources. Propensity score matching was used to match controls with intervention patients in a 4:1 ratio for patient age, sex, and treatment status. The primary outcome was a reduction in emergency department presentations. Secondary outcomes were time spent on chemotherapy and the number of allied health service referrals. Results: From April 2016 to October 2018, 328 patients from four public hospitals received the intervention. Matched controls (n=1312) comprised the general population of patients with cancer, seen at the participating hospitals during the study period. Emergency department visits were significantly reduced by 33% (P=.02) among patients receiving the intervention compared with patients in the matched controls. No significant associations were found in allied health referrals or time to end of chemotherapy. At baseline, the most common patient reported outcomes (above-threshold) were fatigue (39%), tiredness (38.4%), worry (32.9%), general wellbeing (32.9%), and sleep (24.1%), aligning with the most frequently accessed self-management domain pages of physical well-being (36%) and emotional well-being (23%). The majority of clinical feedback reports were reviewed by nursing staff (729/893, 82%), largely in response to the automated clinical alerts (n=877). Conclusions: Algorithm-supported web-based systems utilizing patient reported outcomes in clinical practice reduced emergency department presentations among a diverse population of patients with cancer. This study also highlighted the importance of (1) automated triggers for reviewing above-threshold results in patient reports, rather than passive manual review of patient records; (2) the instrumental role nurses play in managing alerts; and (3) providing patients with resources to support guided self-management, where appropriate. Together, these factors will inform the integration of web-based PRO systems into future models of routine cancer care

QCD corrections to the longitudinally polarized Drell-Yan process

In this paper we calculate the O($\alpha_s$) corrections to the $x_F$- and $y$-distributions of lepton pairs produced in collisions of longitudinally polarized hadrons. The numerical importance of these corrections is studied and consequences for the extraction of the polarized sea quark distributions from a measurement of the longitudinally polarized Drell-Yan cross section are discussed.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, 8 figures include

Structural study of bismuth ferrite BiFeO3BiFeO_3 by neutron total scattering and the reverse Monte Carlo method

We report a study of the atomic structure of the multiferroic material bismuth ferrite $BiFeO_3$ using neutron total scattering measurements coupled with analysis using the Reverse Monte Carlo method. We have examined average neighboring interatomic distances and local coordination environments, together with their fluctuations, for temperatures between 16 and 800 K (the sample decomposed at higher temperatures). There is little change in the average structure as a function of temperature, but the results show unusually large thermal motion at higher temperatures. No anomalous behavior is seen within this range, suggesting that the anomalies reported to occur below room temperature most likely arise due to effects associated with surfaces and interfaces

Are mental toughness and mental health contradictory concepts in elite sport? A narrative review of theory and evidence

Objective: Athlete development and management encompass a complex interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors. Within elite sport, multidisciplinary sport science and medicine teams play an important role in achieving an optimal balance between preventing athlete ill-health and optimizing health and performance. The psychological aspects of athlete health and performance have gained increased attention over the past two decades, with much of this research concerned with the mental health of athletes and the concept of mental toughness. Recently, it was proposed that mental health and mental toughness are contradictory concepts in the world of elite sport. Although an interesting proposition, this claim was not substantiated. Thus, the purpose of this narrative review was to evaluate theory and evidence regarding the thesis that mental health and mental toughness are contradictory concepts in the world of elite sport, with the view to advance scholarly knowledge and inform professional practice. Design: Narrative review. Results: A critical evaluation of this literature suggests that mental toughness may represent a positive indicator of mental health, or facilitate its attainment, rather than be at odds with it. Conclusion: When implemented alongside multilayered approaches to organizational change (e.g., group structures, policies), mental toughness could be used as a 'hook' to attract athletes into settings that can open dialogue on the importance of mental health and improve knowledge of key issues (e.g., stigma, symptoms)

Profiling IgG N-glycans as potential biomarker of chronological and biological ages:A community-based study in a Han Chinese population

As an important post-translation modifying process, glycosylation significantly affects the structure and function of immunoglobulin G (IgG) molecules and is essential in many steps of the inflammatory cascade. Studies have demonstrated the potential of using glycosylation features of IgG as a component of predictive biomarkers for chronological age in several European populations, whereas no study has been reported in Chinese. Herein, we report various patterns of changes in IgG glycosylation associated with age by analyzing IgG glycosylation in 701 community-based Han Chinese (244 males, 457 females; 23-68 years old). Eleven IgG glycans, including FA2B, A2G1, FA2[6]G1, FA2[3]G1, FA2[6]BG1, FA2[3]BG1, A2G2, A2BG2, FA2G2, FA2G2S1, and FA2G2S2, change considerably with age and specific combinations of these glycan features can explain 23.3% to 45.4% of the variance in chronological age in this population. This indicates that these combinations of glycan features provide more predictive information than other single markers of biological age such as telomere length. In addition, the clinical traits such as fasting plasma glucose and aspartate aminotransferase associated with biological age are strongly correlated with the combined glycan features. We conclude that IgG glycosylation appears to correlate with both chronological and biological ages, and thus its possible role in the aging process merits further stud

Modeling Water Quality in Watersheds: From Here to the Next Generation

In this synthesis, we assess present research and anticipate future development needs in modeling water quality in watersheds. We first discuss areas of potential improvement in the representation of freshwater systems pertaining to water quality, including representation of environmental interfaces, in-stream water quality and process interactions, soil health and land management, and (peri-)urban areas. In addition, we provide insights into the contemporary challenges in the practices of watershed water quality modeling, including quality control of monitoring data, model parameterization and calibration, uncertainty management, scale mismatches, and provisioning of modeling tools. Finally, we make three recommendations to provide a path forward for improving watershed water quality modeling science, infrastructure, and practices. These include building stronger collaborations between experimentalists and modelers, bridging gaps between modelers and stakeholders, and cultivating and applying procedural knowledge to better govern and support water quality modeling processes within organizations

Neutron powder-diffraction study of phase transitions in strontium-doped bismuth ferrite: 1. Variation with chemical composition

We report results from a study of the crystal structure of strontium-doped BiFeO3 using neutron powder diffraction and the Rietveld method. Measurements were obtained over a wide range of temperatures from 300–800 K for compositions between 10–16% replacement of bismuth by strontium. The results show a clear variation of the two main structural deformations – symmetry-breaking rotations of the FeO6 octahedra and polar ionic displacements that give ferroelectricity – with chemical composition, but relatively little variation with temperature. On the other hand, the antiferromagnetic order shows a variation with temperature and a second order phase transition consistent with the classical Heisenberg model. There is, however, very little variation in the behaviour of the antiferromagnetism with chemical composition, and hence with the degree of the structural symmetry-breaking distortions. We therefore conclude that there is no significant coupling between antiferromagnetism and ferroelectricity in Sr-doped BiFeO3 and, by extension, in pure BiFeO3