X-Ray Synchrotron White Beam Excitation of Auger Electrons

Auger electron spectra have been measured at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), using the full white beam x-ray spectrum as the excitation source. Ordinary Auger spectra obtained in the laboratory with an electron beam source must employ derivative techniques to distinguish the Auger structures from the large background due to the excitation beam. The synchrotron white beam eliminates this source of background and produces signal rates as high as 107 cps. Superior signal-to-background ratios are found for Auger peaks above a few hundred eV, and count rates are large enough to suggest microprobe applications. X-ray induced Auger satellite peaks were observed with intensities much greater than the electron-induced counterpart; this anomaly is not completely understood

Effect of voluntary Health Star Rating labels on healthier food purchasing in New Zealand: Longitudinal evidence using representative household purchase data

Front-of-pack labelling (FoPL) aims to promote healthier diets by altering consumer food purchasing behaviour. We quantify the impact of the voluntary Health Star Rating (HSR) FoPL adopted by New Zealand (NZ) in 2014, on (i) the quantity of foods purchased by HSR scores and food groups and (ii) the quantities of different nutrients purchased. We used Nielsen HomeScan household purchasing panel data over 2013-2019, linked to Nutritrack packaged food composition data. Fixed effects analyses were used to estimate the association of HSR with product and nutrient purchasing. We controlled for NZ-wide purchasing trends and potential confounding at the household and product level. In 2019, HSR-labelled products accounted for 24% (2890) of 12 040 products in the dataset and 32% of purchasing volume. Of HSR-labelled products, 1339 (46%) displayed a rating of 4.0-5.0 stars and 556 (19%) displayed a rating of 0.5-2.0 stars. We found little or no association between HSR labelling and the quantities of different foods purchased. Introduction of HSR was, however, associated with lower sodium (-9%, 95% CI -13% to -5%), lower protein (-3%, 95% CI -5% to 0%) and higher fibre (5%, 95% CI 2% to 7%) purchases when purchased products carrying an HSR were compared with the same products prior to introduction of the programme. Robust evidence of HSR labelling changing consumer purchasing behaviour was not observed. The positive effect on nutrient purchasing of HSR-labelled foods likely arises from reformulation of products to achieve a better HSR label

Relationship Talk With Partners and Friends During Emerging Adulthood: The Role of Relationship Satisfaction

Research indicates that discussing one’s romantic relationship with one’s partner benefits individual well-being and reduces uncertainty about the future of the relationship. Implications of relationship talk with friends remain less clear, though talking with friends may actually increase uncertainty about the relationship (e.g., by making one’s partner jealous of these friends), particularly for emerging adults. Relationship talk with friends may be especially likely to promote relational uncertainty for couples who are already unsatisfied in their relationships. In this study, we explored whether relationship talk with one’s partner and one’s friends would each be uniquely associated with depressive symptoms and uncertainty about the relationship, specifically in the form of perceived partner jealousy of one’s friends and whether these associations would be moderated by relationship satisfaction. Results from a series of path models using data from 202 romantically involved emerging adults in the United States revealed that associations between relationship talk and outcomes were indeed moderated by relationship satisfaction. For example, only in unsatisfied relationships was relationship talk with friends positively associated with a partner\u27s jealousy and negatively associated with depressive symptoms. This research expands our understanding of relationship talk by differentiating between talk with partners versus friends, while considering the contextual role of relationship satisfaction

HUB City Steps: Methods and Early Findings From a Community-Based Participatory Research Trial to Reduce Blood Pressure Among African Americans

Background: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has been recognized as an important approach to develop and execute health interventions among marginalized populations, and a key strategy to translate research into practice to help reduce health disparities. Despite growing interest in the CBPR approach, CBPR initiatives rarely use experimental or other rigorous research designs to evaluate health outcomes. This behavioral study describes the conceptual frameworks, methods, and early findings related to the reach, adoption, implementation, and effectiveness on primary blood pressure outcomes. Methods: The CBPR, social support, and motivational interviewing frameworks are applied to test treatment effects of a two-phased CBPR walking intervention, including a 6-month active intervention quasi experimental phase and 12-month maintenance randomized controlled trial phase to test dose effects of motivational interviewing. A community advisory board helped develop and execute the culturally-appropriate intervention components which included social support walking groups led by peer coaches, pedometer diary selfmonitoring, monthly diet and physical activity education sessions, and individualized motivational interviewing sessions. Although the study is on-going, three month data is available and reported. Analyses include descriptive statistics and paired t tests. Results: Of 269 enrolled participants, most were African American (94%) females (85%) with a mean age of 43.8 (SD = 12.1) years. Across the 3 months, 90% of all possible pedometer diaries were submitted. Attendance at the monthly education sessions was approximately 33%. At the 3-month follow-up 227 (84%) participants were retained. From baseline to 3-months, systolic BP [126.0 (SD = 19.1) to 120.3 (SD = 17.9) mmHg; p \u3c 0.001] and diastolic BP [83. 2 (SD = 12.3) to 80.2 (SD = 11.6) mmHg; p \u3c 0.001] were significantly reduced. Conclusions: This CBPR study highlights implementation factors and signifies the community’s active participation in the development and execution of this study. Reach and representativeness of enrolled participants are discussed. Adherence to pedometer diary self-monitoring was better than education session participation. Significant decreases in the primary blood pressure outcomes demonstrate early effectiveness. Importantly, future analyses will evaluate long-term effectiveness of this CBPR behavioral intervention on health outcomes, and help inform the translational capabilities of CBPR efforts

The impact of life tables adjusted for smoking on the socio-economic difference in net survival for laryngeal and lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: Net survival is a key measure in cancer control, but estimates for cancers that are strongly associated with smoking may be biased. General population life tables represent background mortality in net survival, but may not adequately reflect the higher mortality experienced by smokers. METHODS: Life tables adjusted for smoking were developed, and their impact on net survival and inequalities in net survival for laryngeal and lung cancers was examined. RESULTS: The 5-year net survival estimated with smoking-adjusted life tables was consistently higher than the survival estimated with unadjusted life tables: 7% higher for laryngeal cancer and 1.5% higher for lung cancer. The impact of using smoking-adjusted life tables was more pronounced in affluent patients; the deprivation gap in 5-year net survival for laryngeal cancer widened by 3%, from 11% to 14%. CONCLUSIONS: Using smoking-adjusted life tables to estimate net survival has only a small impact on the deprivation gap in survival, even when inequalities are substantial. Adjusting for the higher, smoking-related background mortality did increase the estimates of net survival for all deprivation groups, and may be more important when measuring the public health impact of differences or changes in survival, such as avoidable deaths or crude probabilities of death

HUB City Steps: A 6-Month Lifestyle Intervention Improves Blood Pressure among a Primarily African-American Community

The effectiveness of community-based participatory research (CBPR) efforts to address the disproportionate burden of hypertension among African Americans remains largely untested. The objective of this 6-month, noncontrolled, pre-/post-experimental intervention was to examine the effectiveness of a CBPR intervention in achieving improvements in blood pressure, anthropometric measures, biological measures, and diet. Conducted in 2010, this multicomponent lifestyle intervention included motivational enhancement, social support provided by peer coaches, pedometer diary self-monitoring, and monthly nutrition and physical activity education sessions. Of 269 enrolled participants, 94% were African American and 85% were female. Statistical analysis included generalized linear mixed models using maximum likelihood estimation. From baseline to 6 months, blood pressure decreased significantly: mean (±standard deviation) systolic blood pressure decreased from 126.0±19.1 to 119.6±15.8 mm Hg, P=0.0002; mean diastolic blood pressure decreased from 83.2±12.3 to 78.6±11.1 mm Hg, P

HUB City Steps: A 6-Month Lifestyle Intervention Improves Blood Pressure among a Primarily African-American Community

The effectiveness of community-based participatory research (CBPR) efforts to address the disproportionate burden of hypertension among African Americans remains largely untested. The objective of this 6-month, noncontrolled, pre-/post-experimental intervention was to examine the effectiveness of a CBPR intervention in achieving improvements in blood pressure, anthropometric measures, biological measures, and diet. Conducted in 2010, this multicomponent lifestyle intervention included motivational enhancement, social support provided by peer coaches, pedometer diary self-monitoring, and monthly nutrition and physical activity education sessions. Of 269 enrolled participants, 94% were African American and 85% were female. Statistical analysis included generalized linear mixed models using maximum likelihood estimation. From baseline to 6 months, blood pressure decreased significantly: mean (±standard deviation) systolic blood pressure decreased from 126.0±19.1 to 119.6±15.8 mm Hg, P=0.0002; mean diastolic blood pressure decreased from 83.2±12.3 to 78.6±11.1 mm Hg, P

Characterizing kernels of operators related to thin-plate magnetizations via generalizations of Hodge decompositions

Recently developed scanning magnetic microscopes measure the magnetic field in a plane above a thin-plate magnetization distribution. These instruments have broad applications in geoscience and materials science, but are limited by the requirement that the sample magnetization must be retrieved from measured field data, which is a generically nonunique inverse problem. This problem leads to an analysis of the kernel of the related magnetization operators, which also has relevance to the 'equivalent source problem' in the case of measurements taken from just one side of the magnetization. We characterize the kernel of the operator relating planar magnetization distributions to planar magnetic field maps in various function and distribution spaces (e.g., sums of derivatives of Lp (Lebesgue spaces) or bounded mean oscillation (BMO) functions). For this purpose, we present a generalization of the Hodge decomposition in terms of Riesz transforms and utilize it to characterize sources that do not produce a magnetic field either above or below the sample, or that are magnetically silent (i.e. no magnetic field anywhere outside the sample). For example, we show that a thin-plate magnetization is silent (i.e. in the kernel) when its normal component is zero and its tangential component is divergence free. In addition, we show that compactly supported magnetizations (i.e. magnetizations that are zero outside of a bounded set in the source plane) that do not produce magnetic fields either above or below the sample are necessarily silent. In particular, neither a nontrivial planar magnetization with fixed direction (unidimensional) compact support nor a bidimensional planar magnetization (i.e. a sum of two unidimensional magnetizations) that is nontangential can be silent. We prove that any planar magnetization distribution is equivalent to a unidimensional one. We also discuss the advantages of mapping the field on both sides of a magnetization, whenever experimentally feasible. Examples of source recovery are given along with a brief discussion of the Fourier-based inversion techniques that are utilized

Aurora kinase A drives the evolution of resistance to third-generation EGFR inhibitors in lung cancer.

Although targeted therapies often elicit profound initial patient responses, these effects are transient due to residual disease leading to acquired resistance. How tumors transition between drug responsiveness, tolerance and resistance, especially in the absence of preexisting subclones, remains unclear. In epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant lung adenocarcinoma cells, we demonstrate that residual disease and acquired resistance in response to EGFR inhibitors requires Aurora kinase A (AURKA) activity. Nongenetic resistance through the activation of AURKA by its coactivator TPX2 emerges in response to chronic EGFR inhibition where it mitigates drug-induced apoptosis. Aurora kinase inhibitors suppress this adaptive survival program, increasing the magnitude and duration of EGFR inhibitor response in preclinical models. Treatment-induced activation of AURKA is associated with resistance to EGFR inhibitors in vitro, in vivo and in most individuals with EGFR-mutant lung adenocarcinoma. These findings delineate a molecular path whereby drug resistance emerges from drug-tolerant cells and unveils a synthetic lethal strategy for enhancing responses to EGFR inhibitors by suppressing AURKA-driven residual disease and acquired resistance