Patient experiences switching from in‐clinic to self‐administration of injectable contraception in two Western US states

ObjectiveWe describe the experiences and preferences of women who switched from clinic-administered intramuscular depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-IM) to self-administered subcutaneous DMPA (DMPA-SC) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsWe conducted interviews with women in California and Washington about their experiences with self-administered DMPA-SC. We interviewed women after their first or second self-administered DMPA-SC injection and conducted follow-up interviews after their third or fourth injection. We performed both thematic and descriptive content analyses.ResultsWe completed 29 interviews with 15 women. Most participants (n = 10) were between the ages of 20 and 39 and the majority (n = 12) used DMPA primarily for contraception. Most (n = 13) described self-administered DMPA-SC as "very easy" or "somewhat easy" to use and reported greater convenience, decreased pain, fewer logistical and financial challenges, increased privacy, and improved comfort with injection compared to DMPA-IM. Participants identified difficulties obtaining DMPA-SC from pharmacies and safe needle disposal as barriers. Most (n = 13) would recommend DMPA-SC to a friend and desired to continue self-administration beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants recommended counseling all patients about this option alongside other contraceptive methods, and offering clinician supervision, if desired.ConclusionWomen who switched from in-clinic DMPA-IM to self-administered DMPA-SC during the COVID-19 pandemic preferred the latter and intended to continue self-administration. Self-administration of DMPA-SC should be routinely offered and easily accessible to patients

Design of a thin-plate based tunable high-quality narrow passband filter for elastic transverse waves propagate in metals

For the elastic SV (transverse) waves in metals, a high-quality narrow passband filter that consists of aligned parallel thin plates with small gaps is designed. In order to obtain a good performance, the thin plates should be constituted by materials with a smaller mass density and Young’s modulus, such as polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), compared to the embedded materials in which the elastic SV waves propagate. Both the theoretical model and the full numerical simulation show that the transmission spectrum of the designed filter demonstrates several peaks with flawless transmission within 0 KHz ∼20 KHz frequency range. The peaks can be readily tuned by manipulating the geometrical parameters of the plates. Therefore, the current design works well for both low and high frequencies with a controllable size. Even for low frequencies on the order of kilohertz, the size of this filter can be still limited to the order of centimeters, which significantly benefits the real applications. The investigation also finds that the same filter is valid when using different metals and the reason behind this is explained theoretically. Additionally, the effect of bonding conditions of interfaces between thin plates and the base material is investigated using a spring model

Review of Operational Water Consumption and Withdrawal Factors for Electricity Generating Technologies

Various studies have attempted to consolidate published estimates of water use impacts of electricity generating technologies, resulting in a wide range of technologies and values based on different primary sources of literature. The goal of this work is to consolidate the various primary literature estimates of water use during the generation of electricity by conventional and renewable electricity generating technologies in the United States to more completely convey the variability and uncertainty associated with water use in electricity generating technologies

A Finite Element Computation of the Gravitational Radiation emitted by a Point-like object orbiting a Non-rotating Black Hole

The description of extreme-mass-ratio binary systems in the inspiral phase is a challenging problem in gravitational wave physics with significant relevance for the space interferometer LISA. The main difficulty lies in the evaluation of the effects of the small body's gravitational field on itself. To that end, an accurate computation of the perturbations produced by the small body with respect the background geometry of the large object, a massive black hole, is required. In this paper we present a new computational approach based on Finite Element Methods to solve the master equations describing perturbations of non-rotating black holes due to an orbiting point-like object. The numerical computations are carried out in the time domain by using evolution algorithms for wave-type equations. We show the accuracy of the method by comparing our calculations with previous results in the literature. Finally, we discuss the relevance of this method for achieving accurate descriptions of extreme-mass-ratio binaries.Comment: RevTeX 4. 18 pages, 8 figure

Neutral-current neutrino cross section and expected supernova signals for 40^{40}Ar from a three-fold increase in the magnetic dipole strength

In view of the great interest in liquid argon neutrino detectors, the $^{40}$Ar($\gamma,\gamma'$)$^{40}$Ar$^{*}$ reaction was revisited to guide a calculation of the neutral current neutrino cross section at supernova energies. Using the nuclear resonance fluorescence technique with a monoenergetic, 99% linearly polarized photon beam, we report a three-fold increase in magnetic dipole strength at around 10 MeV in $^{40}$Ar. Based on shell-model calculations, and using the experimentally identified transitions, the neutral current neutrino cross sections for low-energy reactions on $^{40}$Ar are calculated

Magnetic Resonance

Contains research objectives and reports on three research projects

Application of reliability-based robustness assessment of steel moment resisting frame structures under post-mainshock cascading events

This paper proposes a reliability-based framework for quantifying structural robustness considering the occurrence of a major earthquake (mainshock) and subsequent cascading hazard events, such as aftershocks that are triggered by the mainshock. These events can significantly increase the probability of failure of buildings, especially for structures that are damaged during the mainshock. The application of the proposed framework is exemplified through three numerical case studies. The case studies correspond to three SAC steel moment frame buildings of three, nine, and 20 stories, which were designed to pre-Northridge codes and standards. Two-dimensional nonlinear finite-element models of the buildings are developed with the Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation framework (OpenSees), using a finite length plastic hinge beam model and a bilinear constitutive law with deterioration, and are subjected to multiple mainshock-aftershock seismic sequences. For the three buildings analyzed herein, it is shown that the structural reliability under a single seismic event can be significantly different from that under a sequence of seismic events. The reliability based robustness indicator shows that the structural robustness is influenced by the extent to which a structure can distribute damage

Iga-Biome Profiles Correlate With Clinical Parkinson\u27s Disease Subtypes

BACKGROUND: Parkinson\u27s disease is a heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder with distinctive gut microbiome patterns suggesting that interventions targeting the gut microbiota may prevent, slow, or reverse disease progression and severity. OBJECTIVE: Because secretory IgA (SIgA) plays a key role in shaping the gut microbiota, characterization of the IgA-Biome of individuals classified into either the akinetic rigid (AR) or tremor dominant (TD) Parkinson\u27s disease clinical subtypes was used to further define taxa unique to these distinct clinical phenotypes. METHODS: Flow cytometry was used to separate IgA-coated and -uncoated bacteria from stool samples obtained from AR and TD patients followed by amplification and sequencing of the V4 region of the 16 S rDNA gene on the MiSeq platform (Illumina). RESULTS: IgA-Biome analyses identified significant alpha and beta diversity differences between the Parkinson\u27s disease phenotypes and the Firmicutes/Bacteroides ratio was significantly higher in those with TD compared to those with AR. In addition, discriminant taxa analyses identified a more pro-inflammatory bacterial profile in the IgA+ fraction of those with the AR clinical subclass compared to IgA-Biome analyses of those with the TD subclass and with the taxa identified in the unsorted control samples. CONCLUSION: IgA-Biome analyses underscores the importance of the host immune response in shaping the gut microbiome potentially affecting disease progression and presentation. In the present study, IgA-Biome analyses identified a unique proinflammatory microbial signature in the IgA+ fraction of those with AR that would have otherwise been undetected using conventional microbiome analysis approaches

Iga-Biome Profiles Correlate With Clinical Parkinson\u27s Disease Subtypes

BACKGROUND: Parkinson\u27s disease is a heterogeneous neurodegenerative disorder with distinctive gut microbiome patterns suggesting that interventions targeting the gut microbiota may prevent, slow, or reverse disease progression and severity. OBJECTIVE: Because secretory IgA (SIgA) plays a key role in shaping the gut microbiota, characterization of the IgA-Biome of individuals classified into either the akinetic rigid (AR) or tremor dominant (TD) Parkinson\u27s disease clinical subtypes was used to further define taxa unique to these distinct clinical phenotypes. METHODS: Flow cytometry was used to separate IgA-coated and -uncoated bacteria from stool samples obtained from AR and TD patients followed by amplification and sequencing of the V4 region of the 16 S rDNA gene on the MiSeq platform (Illumina). RESULTS: IgA-Biome analyses identified significant alpha and beta diversity differences between the Parkinson\u27s disease phenotypes and the Firmicutes/Bacteroides ratio was significantly higher in those with TD compared to those with AR. In addition, discriminant taxa analyses identified a more pro-inflammatory bacterial profile in the IgA+ fraction of those with the AR clinical subclass compared to IgA-Biome analyses of those with the TD subclass and with the taxa identified in the unsorted control samples. CONCLUSION: IgA-Biome analyses underscores the importance of the host immune response in shaping the gut microbiome potentially affecting disease progression and presentation. In the present study, IgA-Biome analyses identified a unique proinflammatory microbial signature in the IgA+ fraction of those with AR that would have otherwise been undetected using conventional microbiome analysis approaches