Decreasing Stress Through an Emotion Regulation and Non-Judging Based Intervention with Trauma-Exposed College Students

Among college students, trauma and PTSD symptomatology are associated with negative consequences (e.g., poor academic performance, stress sensitivity, and negative coping). College is often a stressful time, and those who have experienced trauma, particularly those experiencing PTSD symptoms, are vulnerable to heightened stress sensitivity and negative outcomes. It is imperative to identify interventions that decrease stress for trauma-exposed college students to reduce the deleterious effects of related outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine whether emotion regulation and non-judgment could be enhanced in trauma-exposed college students through a short, mindfulnessbased intervention, and whether the intervention would lead to decreased perceived and academic stress. It was proposed that the intervention would contribute to increased emotion regulation and non-judging, resulting in decreased perceived and academic stress, and that the intervention would be significant and substantial for participants with subthreshold PTSD symptomatology, but not for those with PTSD symptomatology above the diagnostic cutoff. The final sample included 209 trauma-exposed college students randomly assigned to mindfulness or control groups. The mindfulness group completed three sessions with an assessment after each, and an assessment three-weeks post-intervention. The present study found that a brief, mindfulness-based intervention reduced academic and perceived stress through increasing emotion regulation and nonjudging in trauma-exposed college students. The effects of the intervention on perceived stress were significant only for participants with subthreshold PTSD symptomatology. iv The results of the present study suggest that a brief mindfulness-based intervention may have helpful effects for trauma-exposed college students; implications for research and practice will be discussed

LVAD Therapy Versus Medical Management in Heart Failure: An Integrative Review

Background: Advancements in technology have increased management options for heart failure (HF) patients. Options include guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT), left ventricular assist device (LVAD) therapy, and/or heart transplant. Due to resource allocations, the most accessible options for many HF patients include GDMT and LVAD therapy. Authors of this integrative review (IR) sought to examine quality of life (QOL) and hospitalization rate outcomes among patients receiving GDMT versus LVAD therapy. Methods: 417 articles were screened across multiple databases (CINAHL, Medline, ProQuest, Ovid, PubMed) for inclusion into the integrative review based on inclusion criteria: published within five years, peer-reviewed, written in English, considered adults ages ≥ 18, and considered patients with NYHA HF classification stages III-IV. In total, 13 articles were appraised and thematically analyzed. Results: IR findings were presented according to identified themes. Results showed that LVAD therapy poses unique risks: social limitations, higher risk for adverse events, and higher hospitalization rates. Results demonstrated that both GDMT and LVAD therapy improve the following outcome measures in HF patients: survivability, QOL, and functional capacity. It was noted among articles discussing GDMT that combination GDMT has superior outcomes when compared to solo GDMT. Limited research was available that directly compared GDMT and LVAD outcomes. Limited research was available surrounding GDMT outcomes. Conclusions: While effective, LVAD therapy for HF patients incurs greater complication risk when compared to GDMT. Both GDMT and LVAD therapy improve QOL, functional capacity, and survivability among HF patients. More research is warranted regarding direct comparisons between LVAD and GDMT outcomes

Fruit and Vegetable Bucks: Adams County Grocery Store Snap Incentive Program

Veggie Bucks provides a 50% discount on all fresh fruits and vegetables sold through Kennie’s Market produce department at the point of sale for the 5 highest cost items. The incentive period ran January - April, 2017. Intended outcomes include an increase in the number of fresh fruits and vegetables purchased by SNAP recipients at Kennie’s Market locations in Biglerville and Gettysburg by 10% in January-April 2017 compared to baseline figures obtained in 2016, and to familiarize SNAP recipients with fresh fruits and vegetables and to provide information about the ACFMA markets’ Double Dollars program. SNAP recipients were invited to sign up for the program upon showing their ID and EBT card and were provided a Kennie\u27s Frequent Shopper card if they did not have one already

Factors influencing the choice of shared bicycles and shared electric bikes in Beijing

AbstractChina leads the world in both public bikeshare and private electric bike (e-bike) growth. Current trajectories indicate the viability of deploying large-scale shared e-bike (e-bikeshare) systems in China. We employ a stated preference survey and multinomial logit to model the factors influencing the choice to switch from an existing transportation mode to bikeshare or e-bikeshare in Beijing. Demand is influenced by distinct sets of factors: the bikeshare choice is most sensitive to measures of effort and comfort while the e-bikeshare choice is more sensitive to user heterogeneities. Bikeshare demand is strongly negatively impacted by trip distance, temperature, precipitation, and poor air quality. User demographics however do not factor strongly on the bikeshare choice, indicating the mode will draw users from across the social spectrum. The e-bikeshare choice is much more tolerant of trip distance, high temperatures and poor air quality, though precipitation is also a highly negative factor. User demographics do play a significant role in e-bikeshare demand. Analysis of impact to the existing transportation system finds that both bikeshare and e-bikeshare will tend to draw users away from the “unsheltered modes”, walk, bike, and e-bike. Although it is unclear if shared bikes are an attractive “first-and-last-mile solution”, it is clear that e-bikeshare is attractive as a bus replacement

Freshwater Mussel Shells as Environmental Chronicles: Geochemical and Taphonomic Signatures of Mercury-Related Extirpations in the North Fork Holston River, Virginia

This study utilized freshwater mussel shells to assess mercury (Hg) contamination in the North Fork Holston River that extirpated (caused local extinctions of) a diverse mussel fauna. Shells (n = 366) were collected from five sites situated upstream (two sites), just below (one site), and downstream (two sites) of the town of Saltville, Virginia, where Hg was used to produce chlorine and caustic soda from 1950 to 1972. Shell samples were used to test the (1) utility of geochemical signatures of shells for assessing the spatial variation in Hg levels in the river relative to the contamination source and (2) value of taphonomy (post-mortem shell alteration) for distinguishing sites that differ in extirpation histories. Geochemical signatures of 40 shells, analyzed using atomic absorption spectroscopy, indicated a strong longitudinal pattern. All shells from the two upstream sites had low Hg concentrations (<5−31 μg/kg), shells directly below Saltville had variable, but dramatically higher concentrations (23−4637 μg/kg), and shells from the two downstream sites displayed intermediate Hg levels (<5−115 μg/kg) that declined with distance from Saltville. Two pre-industrial shells, collected at Saltville in 1917, yielded very low Hg estimates (5−6 μg/kg). Hg signatures were consistent among mussel species, suggesting that Hg concentrations were invariant to species type; most likely, highly variable Hg levels, both across sites and through time, overwhelmed any interspecific differences in Hg acquisition. Also, a notable post-mortem incorporation of Hg in mussel shells seemed unlikely, as the Hg content was not correlated with shell taphonomy (r = 0.18; p = 0.28). The taphonomic analysis (n = 366) showed that the degree of shell alteration reliably distinguished sites with different extirpation histories. At Saltville, where live mussels have been absent for at least 30 years, shells were most heavily altered and fragmented. Conversely, fresh-looking shells abounded upstream, where reproducing mussel populations are still present. In summary, relic shells offered valuable spatio-temporal data on Hg concentrations in a polluted ecosystem, and shell taphonomic signatures discriminated sites with different extirpation histories. The shell-based strategies exemplified here do not require sampling live specimens and may augment more standard strategies applied to environmental monitoring. The approach should prove especially useful in areas with unknown extirpation and pollution histories

The Grizzly, April 11, 2013

Drug Search Policy • Advocates Strive to Empower • Diversity Report • 4th Annual Cuts for a Cause April 14 • New Club Fosters School Spirit • Move-Out Program • Pause for Paws Brings Cheer • Opinion: Ritter Needs Renovating; The R Word Hurts • Class of \u2713 Spotlight: Kevin Wilson • Senior Spotlight: Liz Chatburn, Women\u27s Lacrosse • Men\u27s Lacrosse Beats Yorkhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1881/thumbnail.jp

Single-molecule live-cell imaging reveals RecB-dependent function of DNA polymerase IV in double strand break repair

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research. Several functions have been proposed for the Escherichia coli DNA polymerase IV (pol IV). Although much research has focused on a potential role for pol IV in assisting pol III replisomes in the bypass of lesions, pol IV is rarely found at the replication fork in vivo. Pol IV is expressed at increased levels in E. coli cells exposed to exogenous DNA damaging agents, including many commonly used antibiotics. Here we present live-cell single-molecule microscopy measurements indicating that double-strand breaks induced by antibiotics strongly stimulate pol IV activity. Exposure to the antibiotics ciprofloxacin and trimethoprim leads to the formation of double strand breaks in E. coli cells. RecA and pol IV foci increase after treatment and exhibit strong colocalization. The induction of the SOS response, the appearance of RecA foci, the appearance of pol IV foci and RecA-pol IV colocalization are all dependent on RecB function. The positioning of pol IV foci likely reflects a physical interaction with the RecA* nucleoprotein filaments that has been detected previously in vitro. Our observations provide an in vivo substantiation of a direct role for pol IV in double strand break repair in cells treated with double strand break-inducing antibiotics

Multi-Messenger Gravitational Wave Searches with Pulsar Timing Arrays: Application to 3C66B Using the NANOGrav 11-year Data Set

When galaxies merge, the supermassive black holes in their centers may form binaries and, during the process of merger, emit low-frequency gravitational radiation in the process. In this paper we consider the galaxy 3C66B, which was used as the target of the first multi-messenger search for gravitational waves. Due to the observed periodicities present in the photometric and astrometric data of the source of the source, it has been theorized to contain a supermassive black hole binary. Its apparent 1.05-year orbital period would place the gravitational wave emission directly in the pulsar timing band. Since the first pulsar timing array study of 3C66B, revised models of the source have been published, and timing array sensitivities and techniques have improved dramatically. With these advances, we further constrain the chirp mass of the potential supermassive black hole binary in 3C66B to less than $(1.65\pm0.02) \times 10^9~{M_\odot}$ using data from the NANOGrav 11-year data set. This upper limit provides a factor of 1.6 improvement over previous limits, and a factor of 4.3 over the first search done. Nevertheless, the most recent orbital model for the source is still consistent with our limit from pulsar timing array data. In addition, we are able to quantify the improvement made by the inclusion of source properties gleaned from electromagnetic data to `blind' pulsar timing array searches. With these methods, it is apparent that it is not necessary to obtain exact a priori knowledge of the period of a binary to gain meaningful astrophysical inferences.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by Ap

Rough Electrode Creates Excess Capacitance in Thin-Film Capacitors

The parallel-plate capacitor equation is widely used in contemporary material research for nanoscale applications and nanoelectronics. To apply this equation, flat and smooth electrodes are assumed for a capacitor. This essential assumption is often violated for thin-film capacitors because the formation of nanoscale roughness at the electrode interface is very probable for thin films grown via common deposition methods. In this work, we experimentally and theoretically show that the electrical capacitance of thin-film capacitors with realistic interface roughness is significantly larger than the value predicted by the parallel-plate capacitor equation. The degree of the deviation depends on the strength of the roughness, which is described by three roughness parameters for a self-affine fractal surface. By applying an extended parallel-plate capacitor equation that includes the roughness parameters of the electrode, we are able to calculate the excess capacitance of the electrode with weak roughness. Moreover, we introduce the roughness parameter limits for which the simple parallel-plate capacitor equation is sufficiently accurate for capacitors with one rough electrode. Our results imply that the interface roughness beyond the proposed limits cannot be dismissed unless the independence of the capacitance from the interface roughness is experimentally demonstrated. The practical protocols suggested in our work for the reliable use of the parallel-plate capacitor equation can be applied as general guidelines in various fields of interest