130 research outputs found

    Jumping over the hurdle : examining and overcoming the barriers for women in intercollegiate athletics through mentorship.

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    Given the evident underrepresentation of females working intercollegiate athletics at all levels, there is a growing need to understand the types of barriers that limit women and cause these disproportionate representation(Acosta & Carpenter, 2014; Staurowsky & Smith, 2016). There is also a need to explore the impact of meaningful mentorship to combat these apparent obstacles. The purpose of this study was to investigate the barriers women currently face as they enter the intercollegiate athletics workplace in entry-level positions and explore the role of mentors in their career success. Entry-level sport administrators are a demographic of the industry that has not previously gotten the attention of researchers. Mentoring characteristics were based off Kram’s (1985) two categories of mentoring functions- developmental and psychosocial. Interviews were conducted and data was collected from 10 entry-level female administrators in NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics departments in a given conference. The biggest barriers women currently face in entry-level positions were (a)having to prove self/capabilities/ knowledge, (b) combating the “good old boys” club, (c) the department in which one works matters, and (d) work-family conflict. The most beneficial developmental mentoring functions were (a) coaching, (b) exposure and visibility, and (c) challenging assignments. Participants shared the most important psychosocial functions were (a) counseling and (b) role modeling. The most frequently emerging theme for mentoring functions overall was counseling. Participants shared that their aspirations of advancement have moved from wanting to be an Athletic Director toward leading either an internal or external department. Women’s goals of wanting to advance in their careers had not changed, and they believed that their goals were achievable given their abilities. These findings suggest that many of the experiences, obstacles, and mentoring functions found in studies of senior level or executive level administrators are very similar to those of entry-level positions. This means that the experience of an entry-level female sport administrator does not vary much in this regard from the time she starts her career in an entry level position to when she is in a high leadership position of power in a senior-level position. This is valuable information for women entering the intercollegiate sport industry, men and women currently in high leadership positions in intercollegiate athletics administration, and scholars studying gender and equity in sport

    Performance of Three-Biomarker Immunohistochemistry for Intrinsic Breast Cancer Subtyping in the AMBER Consortium

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    Classification of breast cancer into intrinsic subtypes has clinical and epidemiologic importance. To examine accuracy of immunohistochemistry (IHC)-based methods for identifying intrinsic subtypes, a three-biomarker IHC panel was compared to the clinical record and RNA-based intrinsic (PAM50) subtypes

    CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children

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    © 2016 Bishop et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Delayed or impaired language development is a common developmental concern, yet there is little agreement about the criteria used to identify and classify language impairments in children. Children\u27s language difficulties are at the interface between education, medicine and the allied professions, who may all adopt different approaches to conceptualising them. Our goal in this study was to use an online Delphi technique to see whether it was possible to achieve consensus among professionals on appropriate criteria for identifying children who might benefit from specialist services. We recruited a panel of 59 experts representing ten disciplines (including education, psychology, speech-language therapy/pathology, paediatrics and child psychiatry) from English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA). The starting point for round 1 was a set of 46 statements based on articles and commentaries in a special issue of a journal focusing on this topic. Panel members rated each statement for both relevance and validity on a sevenpoint scale, and added free text comments. These responses were synthesised by the first two authors, who then removed, combined or modified items with a view to improving consensus. The resulting set of statements was returned to the panel for a second evaluation (round 2). Consensus (percentage reporting \u27agree\u27 or \u27strongly agree\u27) was at least 80 percent for 24 of 27 round 2 statements, though many respondents qualified their response with written comments. These were again synthesised by the first two authors. The resulting consensus statement is reported here, with additional summary of relevant evidence, and a concluding commentary on residual disagreements and gaps in the evidence base

    Identification and Analysis of the Active Phytochemicals from the Anti-Cancer Botanical Extract Bezielle

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    Bezielle is a botanical extract that has selective anti-tumor activity, and has shown a promising efficacy in the early phases of clinical testing. Bezielle inhibits mitochondrial respiration and induces reactive oxygen species (ROS) in mitochondria of tumor cells but not in non-transformed cells. The generation of high ROS in tumor cells leads to heavy DNA damage and hyper-activation of PARP, followed by the inhibition of glycolysis. Bezielle therefore belongs to a group of drugs that target tumor cell mitochondria, but its cytotoxicity involves inhibition of both cellular energy producing pathways. We found that the cytotoxic activity of the Bezielle extract in vitro co-purified with a defined fraction containing multiple flavonoids. We have isolated several of these Bezielle flavonoids, and examined their possible roles in the selective anti-tumor cytotoxicity of Bezielle. Our results support the hypothesis that a major Scutellaria flavonoid, scutellarein, possesses many if not all of the biologically relevant properties of the total extract. Like Bezielle, scutellarein induced increasing levels of ROS of mitochondrial origin, progressive DNA damage, protein oxidation, depletion of reduced glutathione and ATP, and suppression of both OXPHOS and glycolysis. Like Bezielle, scutellarein was selectively cytotoxic towards cancer cells. Carthamidin, a flavonone found in Bezielle, also induced DNA damage and oxidative cell death. Two well known plant flavonoids, apigenin and luteolin, had limited and not selective cytotoxicity that did not depend on their pro-oxidant activities. We also provide evidence that the cytotoxicity of scutellarein was increased when other Bezielle flavonoids, not necessarily highly cytotoxic or selective on their own, were present. This indicates that the activity of total Bezielle extract might depend on a combination of several different compounds present within it

    Bezielle Selectively Targets Mitochondria of Cancer Cells to Inhibit Glycolysis and OXPHOS

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    Bezielle (BZL101) is a candidate oral drug that has shown promising efficacy and excellent safety in the early phase clinical trials for advanced breast cancer. Bezielle is an aqueous extract from the herb Scutellaria barbata. We have reported previously that Bezielle was selectively cytotoxic to cancer cells while sparing non-transformed cells. In tumor, but not in non-transformed cells, Bezielle induced generation of ROS and severe DNA damage followed by hyperactivation of PARP, depletion of the cellular ATP and NAD, and inhibition of glycolysis. We show here that tumor cells' mitochondria are the primary source of reactive oxygen species induced by Bezielle. Treatment with Bezielle induces progressively higher levels of mitochondrial superoxide as well as peroxide-type ROS. Inhibition of mitochondrial respiration prevents generation of both types of ROS and protects cells from Bezielle-induced death. In addition to glycolysis, Bezielle inhibits oxidative phosphorylation in tumor cells and depletes mitochondrial reserve capacity depriving cells of the ability to produce ATP. Tumor cells lacking functional mitochondria maintain glycolytic activity in presence of Bezielle thus supporting the hypothesis that mitochondria are the primary target of Bezielle. The metabolic effects of Bezielle towards normal cells are not significant, in agreement with the low levels of oxidative damage that Bezielle inflicts on them. Bezielle is therefore a drug that selectively targets cancer cell mitochondria, and is distinguished from other such drugs by its ability to induce not only inhibition of OXPHOS but also of glycolysis. This study provides a better understanding of the mechanism of Bezielle's cytotoxicity, and the basis of its selectivity towards cancer cells

    Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

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    Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

    Miscellaneous Rheumatic Diseases [73-83]: 73. Is There a Delay in Specialist Referral of Hot Swollen Joint?

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    Background: Patients with acute, hot, swollen joints commonly present to general practitioners, emergency departments and/or acute admitting teams rather than directly to rheumatology. It is imperative to consider septic arthritis in the differential diagnosis of these patients. The British Society of Rheumatology (BSR) has produced guidelines for the management of this condition, which include recommendations for early specialist referral and joint aspiration of all patients with suspected septic arthritis. We examined whether the initial management of patients with acute hot swollen joint(s) at University College London Hospital (UCLH) follows BSR guidelines. Methods: For the period Feb to Nov 2009, appropriate patients were identified by searching the UCLH database using the diagnostic terms, "pyogenic arthritis”, "septic arthritis” and "gout”; and from all joint aspirate requests sent to microbiology. Medical notes were obtained and any patients who had elective arthroscopies or chronic (> 6 weeks) symptoms were excluded. Data were collected on the time taken from the onset of symptoms to specialist (orthopaedic/rheumatology) referral and joint aspiration, collection of blood cultures and antibiotic treatment with or without microbiology advice. Results: Twenty patients were identified with hot swollen (18 monoarticular, 3 prosthetic) joint(s) of < 2 weeks duration. Of whom, 3/20 (15%) were admitted directly to rheumatology, 7/20 (35%) to the acute admissions unit, 3/20 (15%) to orthopaedic, 4/20 (20%) to a medical team and 1/20 (5%) to general surgery. In 19 (95%) cases, specialist (rheumatology/orthopaedic) advice was sought. Of 14 cases not seen directly by specialists 9 (64%) were referred at 24-48 h and 5 (36%) at 48-192 h. All 20 patients had joint aspiration. In 9/20 (45%) of cases, joint aspiration was performed in less than 6 h, 3/20 (15%) cases at 6-24h and 6/20 (30%) cases at 24-192 h and was not recorded in two patients. Of these, crystals were identified in two and one was culture positive. Blood cultures were received for only 6/20 (30%) of cases and only clearly documented to have been taken prior to antibiotic therapy and none were positive. Of 14/20 (70%) started on antibiotic treatment empirically, only 6 (42%) were preceded by joint aspiration. In the 6 patients not treated with antibiotics due to low index of suspicion of septic arthritis, synovial fluid and blood cultures were negative. Microbiology advice was sought in 10/20 (50%) of cases by the admitting teams but the timing of this advice is unclear. Conclusions: Despite the provision of 24 h rheumatology and orthopaedic cover at UCLH, we found a significant delay in acute medical firms seeking specialist advice on the management of patients with acute, hot swollen joints with subsequent deviation from BSR guidelines. Consequently, we plan to increase awareness of these guidelines amongst medical firms at UCLH. Disclosure statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interes

    CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children

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    Delayed or impaired language development is a common developmental concern, yet thereis little agreement about the criteria used to identify and classify language impairments inchildren. Children's language difficulties are at the interface between education, medicineand the allied professions, who may all adopt different approaches to conceptualising them.Our goal in this study was to use an online Delphi technique to see whether it was possibleto achieve consensus among professionals on appropriate criteria for identifying childrenwho might benefit from specialist services. We recruited a panel of 59 experts representingten disciplines (including education, psychology, speech-language therapy/pathology, paediatricsand child psychiatry) from English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland,New Zealand, United Kingdom and USA). The starting point for round 1 was a set of 46statements based on articles and commentaries in a special issue of a journal focusing onthis topic. Panel members rated each statement for both relevance and validity on a sevenpointscale, and added free text comments. These responses were synthesised by the firsttwo authors, who then removed, combined or modified items with a view to improving consensus.The resulting set of statements was returned to the panel for a second evaluation(round 2). Consensus (percentage reporting 'agree' or 'strongly agree') was at least 80 percentfor 24 of 27 round 2 statements, though many respondents qualified their responsewith written comments. These were again synthesised by the first two authors. The resultingconsensus statement is reported here, with additional summary of relevant evidence, and aconcluding commentary on residual disagreements and gaps in the evidence base.</p

    Immunopathological signatures in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children and pediatric COVID-19

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    : Pediatric Coronavirus Disease 2019 (pCOVID-19) is rarely severe; however, a minority of children infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) might develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), with substantial morbidity. In this longitudinal multi-institutional study, we applied multi-omics (analysis of soluble biomarkers, proteomics, single-cell gene expression and immune repertoire analysis) to profile children with COVID-19 (n = 110) and MIS-C (n = 76), along with pediatric healthy controls (pHCs; n = 76). pCOVID-19 was characterized by robust type I interferon (IFN) responses, whereas prominent type II IFN-dependent and NF-κB-dependent signatures, matrisome activation and increased levels of circulating spike protein were detected in MIS-C, with no correlation with SARS-CoV-2 PCR status around the time of admission. Transient expansion of TRBV11-2 T cell clonotypes in MIS-C was associated with signatures of inflammation and T cell activation. The association of MIS-C with the combination of HLA A*02, B*35 and C*04 alleles suggests genetic susceptibility. MIS-C B cells showed higher mutation load than pCOVID-19 and pHC. These results identify distinct immunopathological signatures in pCOVID-19 and MIS-C that might help better define the pathophysiology of these disorders and guide therapy
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