Impact of Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy (OMT) on Morbidity in Pregnant Persons aged 18-39

Background: Rates of maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States continue to rise.1 Pregnant persons are more vulnerable to stress and morbidities associated with the physiological changes of pregnancy. Low back pain and posterior pelvic pain are of high incidence experienced in pregnant persons.2 Prevention strategies are necessary to improve maternal health outcomes in the United States. Some studies have shown that Osteopathic Manipulative Therapy (OMT) can be an effective treatment modality for pregnant patients experiencing somatic pain. These studies, however, are limited and of small sample size. Purpose: To examine the current literature on the impact of OMT on morbidity in pregnant persons. Methods: This literature review research process used JAMA and PubMed as primary databases. A wide variety of search terms were used: morbidity, mortality, epidemiology, persons, pregnancy, pregnancies, Osteopathy, Osteopathic manipulative medicine, therapy, osteopathic physicians, manual. Studies were limited to back pain and pelvic pain experienced by pregnant persons. Results: Current studies show there is medium quality evidence that OMT is effective at treating low back pain and pelvic pain experienced by pregnant persons. These studies, however, are limited and of small sample size. There were no studies that examined the impact of OMT on the mortality of pregnant persons. Conclusion: There is medium quality evidence that OMT may reduce low back pain and pelvic pain in pregnant persons. There is low quality evidence that OMT can reduce low back pain and pelvic pain in post-partum persons.3 More high-quality studies are needed to determine the impact of OMT on morbidities experienced by pregnant persons

Dynamics of the Formin For3p in Actin Cable Assembly

SummaryBackgroundFormins are a conserved family of actin nucleators responsible for the assembly of diverse actin structures such as cytokinetic rings and filopodia. In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the formin for3p is necessary for the formation of actin cables, which are bundles of short parallel actin filaments that regulate cell polarity. These filaments are largely organized with their barbed ends facing the cell tip, where for3p is thought to function in their assembly.ResultsHere, using a functional for3p-3GFP fusion expressed at endogenous levels, we find that for3p localizes to small dots that appear transiently at cell tips and then move away on actin cables at a rate of 0.3 μm/s. These movements were dependent on the continuous assembly of actin in cables, on the ability of for3p to bind actin within its FH2 domain, and on profilin and bud6p, two formin binding proteins that promote formin activity. Bud6p transiently colocalizes with for3p at the cell tip and stays behind at the cell tip when for3p detaches.ConclusionsThese findings suggest a new model for actin cable assembly: a for3p particle is activated and promotes the assembly of a short actin filament at the cell tip for only seconds. For3p and the actin filament may then be released from the cell tip and carried passively into the cell interior by retrograde flow of actin filaments in the cable. These studies reveal a complex and dynamic cycle of formin regulation and actin cable assembly in vivo

Design analysis of OAM fibers using particle swarm optimization algorithm

We study the design of ring core fibers (RCFs) supporting orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes for mode division multiplexing (MDM) transmission systems. We develop target criteria to optimize fiber designs using a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm under fabrication constraints. Effective index separation, Δneff, and polarization purity of each OAM mode are known to determine modal crosstalk levels. To reduce the complexity of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processing required to compensate for modal crosstalk, we define an objective function based on these quantities. Our design analysis focuses on four different concepts of step-index RCF leading to different modal and structural characteristics. The optimum design for each concept is derived using the PSO algorithm. We investigate the impact of hollow-core and/or higher-order radial modes on Δneff and polarization purity. Design strategies for increasing Δneff and polarization purity are discussed in light of robustness to fabrication errors. We finally discuss the scalability and potential limitations of this design

Design of highly-elliptical-core ten-mode fiber for space division multiplexing with 2x2 MIM

We propose a weakly-coupled few-mode fiber requiring only 2×2 MIMO equalizer blocks, which makes it compatible with standard coherent receivers with polarization diversity. The fiber has a highly-elliptical core, surrounded by a depressed index trench in the cladding, and supports five spatial modes with twofold polarization degeneracy (ten channels). The fiber is designed to mitigate inter-modal crosstalk since the effective index difference between spatial modes is larger than ∼1×10−3 over the C-band. Through numerical simulations, we report on bending loss and other modal characteristics such as effective area and chromatic dispersion. Finally, we briefly discuss the scalability of the design

The Impact of Collaborative Consumption on the Environmental Efficiency of Well-Being (EWEB) of Residents in Columbus, Ohio

Consumer society has resulted in a wide range of environmental impacts, which has led to questions about whether consumer society and individual consumption actually enhance well- being. There is evidence that pursuing consumerism and consumption negatively impacts well- being (Briceno and Stagl, 2006). The key research question for this study is whether humans can both reduce environmental impacts and improve well-being by altering their consumption patterns. This study examines whether engaging in collaborative consumption can lead to higher levels of well-being and lower ecological footprints. Collaborative consumption is "a form of social exchange that takes place among people known to each other, without any profit" (Eckhardt and Bardhi, 2015). It is unclear from empirical research whether or not collaborative consumption actually improves well-being and decreases environmental impact. One way of measuring these factors is the environmental efficiency of well-being (EWEB), which was originally developed to assess a nation-state's efficiency in enhancing human well-being through the use of economic, natural, and human resources (Dietz et al., 2009). For this study, I predicted that higher reported engagement in collaborative consumption would correspond to higher EWEB scores. Studies on whether engagement in collaborative consumption actually leads to lower environmental impacts or increased sustainability are sparse. It is unknown whether higher engagement in collaborative consumption practices actually leads to higher levels of EWEB. This research explores the relationship between engagement in collaborative consumption and the EWEB scores of Columbus residents. This study was designed to examine Columbus residents' perceptions of their well-being and measure their consumption habits. Data was collected using a 20-page survey distributed to Columbus residents in Clintonville and Olde Towne East, two neighborhoods that vary in socioeconomic conditions. The key dependent variable is EWEB, which is calculated using measures of an individual's self-reported well-being and ecological footprint. The key independent variable is engagement in collaborative consumption, which is measured by responses to questions about 17 collaborative consumption behaviors. There were 271 completed survey responses. We fit linear regression models to examine the relationship between collaborative consumption and EWEB. Results indicate that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between engagement in collaborative consumption and EWEB, after controlling for age and income, and accounting for heteroscedasticity. Results also suggest that impact of collaborative consumption on EWEB is largely driven by increases in well-being rather than reductions in ecological footprint. Moreover, results suggest that the relationship between collaborative consumption and EWEB varies by neighborhood: it is statistically significant in Clintonville, but not Olde Towne East. These results have implications for individuals' ability to reduce environmental impacts through collaborative consumption. Future studies exploring collaborative consumption and its relationship to the EWEB should select a wider range of territories to control for social and economic factors, and a smaller set of collaborative consumption behaviors to focus results. Developing a better understanding of what factors contribute to increasing well-being and reducing ecological footprint can influence policy decisions to positively impact communities. Future research within the area of collaborative consumption and EWEB is necessary to make informed and socially beneficial policy decisions on the local level, and beyond.No embargoAcademic Major: Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainabilit

Py-Feat: Python Facial Expression Analysis Toolbox

Studying facial expressions is a notoriously difficult endeavor. Recent advances in the field of affective computing have yielded impressive progress in automatically detecting facial expressions from pictures and videos. However, much of this work has yet to be widely disseminated in social science domains such as psychology. Current state of the art models require considerable domain expertise that is not traditionally incorporated into social science training programs. Furthermore, there is a notable absence of user-friendly and open-source software that provides a comprehensive set of tools and functions that support facial expression research. In this paper, we introduce Py-Feat, an open-source Python toolbox that provides support for detecting, preprocessing, analyzing, and visualizing facial expression data. Py-Feat makes it easy for domain experts to disseminate and benchmark computer vision models and also for end users to quickly process, analyze, and visualize face expression data. We hope this platform will facilitate increased use of facial expression data in human behavior research.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures, 5 table

Highly-elliptical-core fiber with stress-induced birefringence for mode multiplexing

We report the polarization–maintaining properties of a highly–elliptical–core fiber surrounded by a trench that was designed to optimize the modal effective indices and bending loss for a total of five spatial modes with twofold polarization degeneracy (ten channels). In addition to the asymmetric core structure, the birefringence of the fiber is increased by the thermal stress introduced during the fabrication. We examine this effect and compare the calculated modal effective index differences to experimentally measured values. The results show a modal birefringence larger than 10-4 for all guided spatial modes. The fiber has a propagation loss, averaged over all mode groups, of 0.45 dB/km. The mode stability to bending is evaluated by selectively exciting/detecting each spatial mode while perturbing the fiber. This few–mode polarization–maintaining fiber is of interest for MIMO–free mode division multiplexing transmission systems