Impact of mentoring on socio�emotional and mental health outcomes of youth with learning disabilities and attention�deficit hyperactivity disorder

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151880/1/camh12331_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151880/2/camh12331.pd

Impact of mentoring on socio‐emotional and mental health outcomes of youth with learning disabilities and attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151880/1/camh12331_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151880/2/camh12331.pd

Managing suicidal ideation in a breast cancer cohort seeking reconstructive surgery

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135255/1/pon4017_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135255/2/pon4017.pd

Activation of Myocardial Phosphoinositide-3-Kinase p110α Ameliorates Cardiac Dysfunction and Improves Survival in Polymicrobial Sepsis

Phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt dependent signaling has been shown to improve outcome in sepsis/septic shock. There is also ample evidence that PI3K/Akt dependent signaling plays a crucial role in maintaining normal cardiac function. We hypothesized that PI3K/Akt signaling may ameliorate septic shock by attenuating sepsis-induced cardiac dysfunction. Cardiac function and survival were evaluated in transgenic mice with cardiac myocyte specific expression of constitutively active PI3K isoform, p110α (caPI3K Tg). caPI3K Tg and wild type (WT) mice were subjected to cecal ligation/puncture (CLP) induced sepsis. Wild type CLP mice showed dramatic cardiac dysfunction at 6 hrs. Septic cardiomyopathy was significantly attenuated in caPI3K CLP mice. The time to 100% mortality was 46 hrs in WT CLP mice. In contrast, 80% of the caPI3K mice survived at 46 hrs after CLP (p30 days (

A commensal strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis protects against skin neoplasia.

We report the discovery that strains of Staphylococcus epidermidis produce 6-N-hydroxyaminopurine (6-HAP), a molecule that inhibits DNA polymerase activity. In culture, 6-HAP selectively inhibited proliferation of tumor lines but did not inhibit primary keratinocytes. Resistance to 6-HAP was associated with the expression of mitochondrial amidoxime reducing components, enzymes that were not observed in cells sensitive to this compound. Intravenous injection of 6-HAP in mice suppressed the growth of B16F10 melanoma without evidence of systemic toxicity. Colonization of mice with an S. epidermidis strain producing 6-HAP reduced the incidence of ultraviolet-induced tumors compared to mice colonized by a control strain that did not produce 6-HAP. S. epidermidis strains producing 6-HAP were found in the metagenome from multiple healthy human subjects, suggesting that the microbiome of some individuals may confer protection against skin cancer. These findings show a new role for skin commensal bacteria in host defense. Sci Adv 2018 Feb 28; 4(2):eaao450

Influence of demographic and clinical characteristics on circulating GFAP levels in Mexican American and non-Hispanic white older adults

Background: Circulating levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an intermediate filament protein of the astrocytic cytoskeleton and putative marker of reactive astrocytosis, increase with cerebral amyloid beta burden and associate with risk of incident all-cause and Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) dementia. However, further validation in diverse cohorts and evaluation of potential health disparities are necessary for broader generalization. The goal of the present study was to examine the associations between demographics, cardiovascular risk factors, and APOE ε4 status with serum GFAP levels among Mexican American and non-Hispanic white older adults across the continuum from cognitively unimpaired to AD dementia. Method: Participants included 1,156 Mexican American and 587 non-Hispanic white adults, aged 55 years and older, who completed a blood draw, clinical and cognitive evaluations, and dementia consensus reviews as part of the Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium. Serum levels of GFAP were assayed using a Simoa HD-1 Analyzer (Quanterix). Associations between demographic and clinical characteristics with serum GFAP levels were evaluated using linear regression. The diagnostic accuracy of serum GFAP was further examined using area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROC) in univariate and adjusted models and optimal cut-points were derived using the maximum Kolmogorov-Smirnov metric. All models were also stratified by ethnicity and disease stage. Result: In the whole sample (Table 1), older age (b=0.588, p Conclusion: The study results highlight the importance of understanding the role of broader demographic and clinical factors on circulating GFAP levels within diverse cohorts in order to enhance precision across clinical, research, and community settings

Blood biomarkers for cognitive decline and clinical progression in a Mexican American cohort

Introduction: The clinical translation of biofluid markers for dementia requires validation in diverse cohorts. The study goal was to evaluate if blood biomarkers reflecting diverse pathophysiological processes predict disease progression in Mexican American adults. Methods: Mexican American adults (n = 745), 50 years of age and older, completed annual assessments over a mean of 4 years. Serum collected at baseline was assayed for total tau, neurofilament light (NFL), ubiquitin carboxyl‐terminal hydrolase LI, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), soluble cluster of differentiation 14 (sCD14), and chitinase‐3‐like protein 1 (YKL‐40). Results: Higher GFAP and NFL were associated with global cognitive decline. Only GFAP was associated with increased incident dementia risk (hazard ratio: 1.611 (95% confidence interval: 1.204‐2.155)) and inclusion of additional biomarkers did not improve model fit. Discussion: Among a panel of six blood biomarkers previously associated with neurodegenerative disease, only GFAP predicted incident dementia in our cohort. The findings suggest that blood GFAP levels may aid dementia‐risk prediction among Mexican American adults

Hand It Over or Set It Down: A User Study of Object Delivery with an Assistive Mobile Manipulator

©2009 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.Presented at The 18th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, Sept. 27 2009-Oct. 2 2009, Toyama.Delivering an object to a user would be a generally useful capability for service robots. Within this paper, we look at this capability in the context of assistive object retrieval for motor-impaired users. We first describe a behavior-based system that enables our mobile robot EL-E to autonomously deliver an object to a motor-impaired user. We then present our evaluation of this system with 8 motor-impaired patients from the Emory ALS Center. As part of this study, we compared handing the object to the user (direct delivery) with placing the object on a nearby table (indirect delivery). We tested the robot delivering a cordless phone, a medicine bottle, and a TV remote, which were ranked as three of the top four most important objects for robotic delivery by ALS patients in a previous study. Overall, the robot successfully delivered these objects in 126 out of 144 trials (88%) with a success rate of 97% for indirect delivery and 78% for direct delivery. In an accompanying survey, participants showed high satisfaction with the robot with 4 people preferring direct delivery and 4 people preferring indirect delivery. Our results indicate that indirect delivery to a surface can be a robust and reliable delivery method with high user satisfaction, and that robust direct delivery will require methods that handle diverse postures and body types

Discovery and Follow-up Observations of the Young Type Ia Supernova 2016coj

The Type~Ia supernova (SN~Ia) 2016coj in NGC 4125 (redshift $z=0.004523$) was discovered by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search 4.9 days after the fitted first-light time (FFLT; 11.1 days before $B$-band maximum). Our first detection (pre-discovery) is merely $0.6\pm0.5$ day after the FFLT, making SN 2016coj one of the earliest known detections of a SN Ia. A spectrum was taken only 3.7 hr after discovery (5.0 days after the FFLT) and classified as a normal SN Ia. We performed high-quality photometry, low- and high-resolution spectroscopy, and spectropolarimetry, finding that SN 2016coj is a spectroscopically normal SN Ia, but with a high velocity of \ion{Si}{2} $\lambda$6355 ($\sim 12,600$\,\kms\ around peak brightness). The \ion{Si}{2} $\lambda$6355 velocity evolution can be well fit by a broken-power-law function for up to a month after the FFLT. SN 2016coj has a normal peak luminosity ($M_B \approx -18.9 \pm 0.2$ mag), and it reaches a $B$-band maximum \about16.0~d after the FFLT. We estimate there to be low host-galaxy extinction based on the absence of Na~I~D absorption lines in our low- and high-resolution spectra. The spectropolarimetric data exhibit weak polarization in the continuum, but the \ion{Si}{2} line polarization is quite strong ($\sim 0.9\% \pm 0.1\%$) at peak brightness.Comment: Submitte