Effects of an Osteoporosis Educational Intervention: Knowledge and Self-Efficacy of Prevention in Young Adult Collegiate Females

Osteoporosis is a silent and potentially debilitating chronic illness. In 2012, the CDC reported that 4.5 million women over the age of 50 were diagnosed with osteoporosis in the United States. Within the next 20 years, 41 million women worldwide are projected to have osteoporosis. The annual financial burden of osteoporosis is estimated to be 19 billion dollars. The objective of this evidence-based practice project was to answer the clinical question: In young adult collegiate females, how does an osteoporosis educational intervention compared to current education effect osteoporosis knowledge and self-efficacy of osteoporosis prevention over a one-month time period? The ACE Star Model and the health belief model were used as frameworks for the project, which was implemented at a university in northwest Indiana. Freshman female kinesiology students (N = 60) were followed to assess the impact of an in-service osteoporosis educational intervention. The intervention consisted of a slide show presentation guided by the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF), group discussion, and NOF take-home materials. Demographic data was collected at baseline. Osteoporosis Knowledge Test (OKT) and Osteoporosis Self-Efficacy Scale (OSES) were collected pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 3-weeks post-intervention. Results were assessed with repeated measures analysis of variance with significance determined as p \u3c 0.05. The OKT total results were significant (F (2, 56) = 89.234, p = 0.000) as well as all subclasses of risk factors (F (2, 56) = 46.063, p = 0.000), nutrition (F (2, 56) = 64.745, p = 0.000), and exercise (F (2, 56) = 70.068, p = 0.000). The OSES total results were significant (F (2, 44) = 3.986, p = 0.026); however, the subclasses of calcium (F (2, 44) = 2.370, p = 0.105) and exercise (F (2, 44) = 2.584, p = 0.087) were not significant. Future projects with similar objectives could provide promising results with young adults to improve knowledge and self-efficacy of prevention of chronic illnesses like osteoporosis

NuSTAR Reveals the Comptonizing Corona of the Broad-Line Radio Galaxy 3C 382

Broad-line radio galaxies (BLRGs) are active galactic nuclei that produce powerful, large-scale radio jets, but appear as Seyfert 1 galaxies in their optical spectra. In the X-ray band, BLRGs also appear like Seyfert galaxies, but with flatter spectra and weaker reflection features. One explanation for these properties is that the X-ray continuum is diluted by emission from the jet. Here, we present two NuSTAR observations of the BLRG 3C 382 that show clear evidence that the continuum of this source is dominated by thermal Comptonization, as in Seyfert 1 galaxies. The two observations were separated by over a year and found 3C 382 in different states separated by a factor of 1.7 in flux. The lower flux spectrum has a photon-index of $\Gamma=1.68^{+0.03}_{-0.02}$, while the photon-index of the higher flux spectrum is $\Gamma=1.78^{+0.02}_{-0.03}$. Thermal and anisotropic Comptonization models provide an excellent fit to both spectra and show that the coronal plasma cooled from $kT_e=330\pm 30$ keV in the low flux data to $231^{+50}_{-88}$ keV in the high flux observation. This cooling behavior is typical of Comptonizing corona in Seyfert galaxies and is distinct from the variations observed in jet-dominated sources. In the high flux observation, simultaneous Swift data are leveraged to obtain a broadband spectral energy distribution and indicates that the corona intercepts $\sim 10$% of the optical and ultraviolet emitting accretion disk. 3C 382 exhibits very weak reflection features, with no detectable relativistic Fe K$\alpha$ line, that may be best explained by an outflowing corona combined with an ionized inner accretion disk.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, accepted by Ap

Stat5 Synergizes with T Cell Receptor/Antigen Stimulation in the Development of Lymphoblastic Lymphoma

Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins are latent transcription factors that mediate a wide range of actions induced by cytokines, interferons, and growth factors. We now report the development of thymic T cell lymphoblastic lymphomas in transgenic mice in which Stat5a or Stat5b is overexpressed within the lymphoid compartment. The rate of lymphoma induction was markedly enhanced by immunization or by the introduction of TCR transgenes. Remarkably, the Stat5 transgene potently induced development of CD8+ T cells, even in mice expressing a class II–restricted TCR transgene, with resulting CD8+ T cell lymphomas. These data demonstrate the oncogenic potential of dysregulated expression of a STAT protein that is not constitutively activated, and that TCR stimulation can contribute to this process

A monoclonal antibody to the insect prothoracicotropic hormone

The prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) is an insect cerebral peptide that stimulates the prothoracic glands to produce the steroid hormone ecdysone thus initiating molting and metamorphosis. "Big" PTTH, one of several molecular forms of the neurohormone, was isolated from brains of the tobacco hornworm Manduca sexta, and fractionated by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) for use in antibody production. A murine polyclonal antiserum and a monoclonal antibody (MAb) have been generated using this highly purified preparation of big PTTH. Antisera and hybridoma supernatants were screened with an indirect, brain whole-mount immunocytological assay, and antibody specificity was confirmed by immunocytological, ELISA, and functional criteria. In brain whole-mount preparations, the MAb (A2H5) and antiserum specifically immunostained the lateral protocerebral neurosecretory cells (L-NSC III), the prothoracicotropes, which produce PTTH. This immunostaining was blocked by preadsorbing the antibodies with big PTTH. Analysis of the elution of HPLC-fractionated big PTTH with an in vitro bioassay for the neurohormone and an ELISA employing the A2H5 MAb resulted in peaks of activity that were superimposable. Finally, the antiserum and A2H5 MAb inhibited big PTTH activation of the prothoracic glands to synthesize ecdysone in the in vitro bioassay for the neurohormone. With these specific antibodies, the organization of the PTTH neuroendocrine axis has been defined. It is now evident that both of the peptidergic neurons that comprise the L-NSC III are prothoracicotropes, and that the corpora allata are the neurohemal organs for the release of big PTTH into the hemolymph. This study indicates that these specific antibodies will be useful in investigations of numerous aspects of the biology of this cerebral neuroendocrine axis

A Switch in the Control of Growth of the Wing Imaginal Disks of Manduca sexta

Background: Insulin and ecdysone are the key extrinsic regulators of growth for the wing imaginal disks of insects. In vitro tissue culture studies have shown that these two growth regulators act synergistically: either factor alone stimulates only limited growth, but together they stimulate disks to grow at a rate identical to that observed in situ. It is generally thought that insulin signaling links growth to nutrition, and that starvation stops growth because it inhibits insulin secretion. At the end of larval life feeding stops but the disks continue to grow, so at that time disk growth has become uncoupled from nutrition. We sought to determine at exactly what point in development this uncoupling occurs. Methodology: Growth and cell proliferation in the wing imaginal disks and hemolymph carbohydrate concentrations were measured at various stages in the last larval instar under experimental conditions of starvation, ligation, rescue, and hormone treatment. Principal Findings: Here we show that in the last larval instar of M. sexta, the uncoupling of nutrition and growth occurs as the larva passes the critical weight. Before this time, starvation causes a decline in hemolymph glucose and trehalose and a cessation of wing imaginal disks growth, which can be rescued by injections of trehalose. After the critical weight the trehalose response to starvation disappears, and the expression of insulin becomes decoupled from nutrition. After the critical weight the wing disks loose their sensitivity to repression by juvenile hormone, and factors from the abdomen, bu