Flow Cytometric Detection of the Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma: Clinical and Research Applications

Classical Hodgkin lymphoma (CHL) is a relatively uncommon B cell-derived neoplasm that presents with rare malignant cells in an abundant reactive background. The diagnosis of CHL currently relies on a combination of morphologic findings and immunohistochemical stains. With the exception of rare cases with dramatically increased malignant populations, isolation of pure viable tumor cells has not been historically possible. Recently, a reliable flow cytometric assay for direct detection and isolation of the malignant cells in this disease has been developed. This assay has proven useful diagnostically and has been clinically validated to have a very high sensitivity and nearly absolute specificity for the diagnosis of CHL in routine clinical samples. This paper describes the methodology for the flow cytometric detection of CHL in clinical samples as well as current state of evaluation of background lymphocytes as an adjunct diagnostic test. Also discussed are exciting research applications of the direct isolation of viable tumor cells in CHL. The current state of flow cytometric evaluation of nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma and T cell-rich large B cell lymphoma is also briefly discussed

Making It Easier To Be Green: A Single Case Demonstration of the Effects of Computer Defaults To Conserve Energy in a University Computer Lab

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/SUS.2013.9827Educational buildings and university campuses represent some of the most computer-dense settings in the United States. Unfortunately, the administrators and users in these settings often lack proper energy saving strategies, resulting in excessive energy waste. Research in behavioral economics has reliably shown that effort is an inhibitory factor in changing a variety of behaviors. That is, humans have a tendency to choose the option that requires the least amount of effort, regardless of whether that option is the best one. Thus, it might be inferred that interventions requiring greater effort for computer users to conserve energy are unlikely to be effective. This study highlights a successful cost-cutting application of default energy savings settings in a campus computer-testing laboratory. Default settings applied by the research team did not require effort on the part of users and resulted in computers powering-down after a relatively short period of inactivity. A cost analysis revealed modest fiscal and electricity savings among the small number of computers included in the study. However, extrapolating these modest savings across the many hundreds of work stations typically found on university campuses suggests a substantial savings would result from the adoption of the intervention described herein. Implications for practice and future research are discussed

Andromeda Optical and Infrared Disk Survey I. New Insights in Wide-Field Near-IR Surface Photometry

We present wide-field near-infrared J and Ks images of the Andromeda Galaxy taken with WIRCam on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) as part of the Andromeda Optical and Infrared Disk Survey (ANDROIDS). This data set allows simultaneous observations of resolved stars and NIR surface brightness across M31's entire bulge and disk (within R=22 kpc). The primary concern of this work is the development of NIR observation and reduction methods to recover a uniform surface brightness map across the 3x1 degree disk of M31. This necessitates sky-target nodding across 27 WIRCam fields. Two sky-target nodding strategies were tested, and we find that strictly minimizing sky sampling latency does not maximize sky subtraction accuracy, which is at best 2% of the sky level. The mean surface brightness difference between blocks in our mosaic can be reduced from 1% to 0.1% of the sky brightness by introducing scalar sky offsets to each image. The true surface brightness of M31 can be known to within a statistical zeropoint of 0.15% of the sky level (0.2 mag arcsec sq. uncertainty at R=15 kpc). Surface brightness stability across individual WIRCam frames is limited by both WIRCam flat field evolution and residual sky background shapes. To overcome flat field variability of order 1% over 30 minutes, we find that WIRCam data should be calibrated with real-time sky flats. Due either to atmospheric or instrumental variations, the individual WIRCam frames have typical residual shapes with amplitudes of 0.2% of the sky after real-time flat fielding and median sky subtraction. We present our WIRCam reduction pipeline and performance analysis here as a template for future near-infrared observers needing wide-area surface brightness maps with sky-target nodding, and give specific recommendations for improving photometry of all CFHT/WIRCam programs. (Abridged)Comment: 21 pages, 28 figures. Submitted to A

The “New” Student-Athlete: An Exploratory Examination of Scholarship eSports Players

The growth and popularity of eSports cannot be understated. The domain has become so mainstream that colleges and universities are rapidly beginning to launch eSports programs within their athletics departments. In this study, the authors interviewed 33 student-athletes receiving scholarships for participating in eSports at one institution. In all, the identity and social capital of athletes in this “new” athletic arena were explored and compared with previous studies examining “traditional” athletes. The implications of the similarities and differences are discussed and ideas for future research into this emerging field are presented

Understanding Changes in Modeled Land Surface Characteristics Prior to Lightning-Initiated Holdover Fire Breakout

Lightning initiated wildfires are only 16% of the total number of wildfires within the United States, but account for 56% of the acreage burned. One of the challenges with lightning-initiated wildfires is their ability to "holdover" which means smolder for up to 2+ weeks before breaking out into a full fledged fire. This work helps characterize the percentage of holdover events due to lightning, and helps quantify changes in the land surface characteristics to help understand trends in soil moisture and vegetation stress that potentially contribute to the fire breaking out into a full wildfire

Electrophysiological Signatures of Spatial Boundaries in the Human Subiculum.

Environmental boundaries play a crucial role in spatial navigation and memory across a wide range of distantly related species. In rodents, boundary representations have been identified at the single-cell level in the subiculum and entorhinal cortex of the hippocampal formation. Although studies of hippocampal function and spatial behavior suggest that similar representations might exist in humans, boundary-related neural activity has not been identified electrophysiologically in humans until now. To address this gap in the literature, we analyzed intracranial recordings from the hippocampal formation of surgical epilepsy patients (of both sexes) while they performed a virtual spatial navigation task and compared the power in three frequency bands (1-4, 4-10, and 30-90 Hz) for target locations near and far from the environmental boundaries. Our results suggest that encoding locations near boundaries elicited stronger theta oscillations than for target locations near the center of the environment and that this difference cannot be explained by variables such as trial length, speed, movement, or performance. These findings provide direct evidence of boundary-dependent neural activity localized in humans to the subiculum, the homolog of the hippocampal subregion in which most boundary cells are found in rodents, and indicate that this system can represent attended locations that rather than the position of one\u27s own body

Heart Rate Responses during Simulated Fire Ground Scenarios among Full-Time Firefighters

International Journal of Exercise Science 13(2): 374-382, 2020. Simulated fire ground scenarios (SFGS) provide firefighters with an opportunity to maintain skills, receive feedback, and optimize performance. Although there is extensive research on heart rate (HR) changes in the firefighter population, few examine the differences between positions. Firefighters are primarily responsible for fire suppression and control (23), officers for emergency operations and organizational management, paramedics for providing on-scene emergency medical care, and drivers are responsible for driving the fire apparatus. Utilizing HR analysis to quantify the physical demands of SFGS among firefighting crews by position. Sixty-seven male (age: 38.97 ± 9.17; ht: 177.99 ± 6.45 cm. wt: 88.83 ± 13.55 kg) firefighters (FF) participated in this investigation. FF crews performed two SFGS involving the suppression and control of a structural fire. Participants were outfitted with heart rate (HR) monitors and average heart rate (HRavg) and maximum heart rate (HRmax) data were collected for each of the two SFGS. Significant differences were observed for Age (P = 0.01), APMHR (P = 0.01), HRmax1(P = 0.04), and HRmax2(P = 0.04) in which firefighters had higher values for Age-predicted maximal heart rate (APMHR), HRmax1, HRmax2compared to the officers. SFGS can be very physically demanding events that may elicit maximal or near maximal HR responses regardless of position. Based on the metabolic demands of these events and the individual firefighter’s capabilities, this information can be used to develop resistance training and conditioning programs that optimize performance at maximal or near maximal heart rates

Are coastal habitats important nurseries? A meta-analysis

Nearshore‐structured habitats—including underwater grasses, mangroves, coral, and other biogenic reefs, marshes, and complex abiotic substrates—have long been postulated to function as important nurseries for juvenile fishes and invertebrates. Here, we review the evolution of the “nursery habitat hypothesis” and use \u3e11,000 comparisons from 160 peer‐reviewed studies to test whether and which structured habitats increase juvenile density, growth, and survival. In general, almost all structured habitats significantly enhanced juvenile density—and in some cases growth and survival—relative to unstructured habitats. Underwater grasses and mangroves also promoted juvenile density and growth beyond what was observed in other structured habitats. These conclusions were robust to variation among studies, although there were significant differences with latitude and among some phyla. Our results confirm the basic nursery function of certain structured habitats, which lends further support to their conservation, restoration, and management at a time when our coastal environments are becoming increasingly impacted. They also reveal a dearth of evidence from many other systems (e.g., kelp forests) and for responses other than density. Although recent studies have advocated for increasingly complex approaches to evaluating nurseries, we recommend a renewed emphasis on more straightforward assessments of juvenile growth, survival, reproduction, and recruitment