Use of GoFundMe® to crowdfund complementary and alternative medicine treatments for cancer.

PurposeComplementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use is common amongst cancer patients. However, there is growing concern about its safety and efficacy. Online crowdfunding campaigns represent a unique avenue to understand the cancer patient's perspective for using CAM or declining conventional cancer therapy (CCT).MethodsFive hundred GoFundMe campaigns from 2012 to 2019 detailing financial need for cancer treatment were randomly selected and reviewed for endorsement of CAM use, reasons for using CAM, and reasons for declining CCT. Descriptive statistics were used to compare patient and campaign characteristics between 250 CAM users and 250 non-CAM users.ResultsCompared to non-CAM users, CAM users were more likely to be female (70% vs. 54%, p < 0.01), to report more stage IV cancer (54% vs. 12%, p < 0.01), and to have a history of delayed, missed, or misdiagnosis (10% vs. 4%, p < 0.01). Reasons for using CAM include endorsing curative/therapeutic effects 212 (85%), pain/stress reduction 137 (55%), and dissatisfaction with current or past medical treatment options 105 (42%). 87 (35%) CAM users that declined CCT reported that they wanted to try to fight off cancer using CAM first 57 (61%), that CCT was too "toxic" to the body 39 (42%), and cancer was already too advanced, so that CCT would be futile or too aggressive 25 (27%).ConclusionCancer patients on GoFundMe using CAM highly value quality of life, comfort, and autonomy. Physicians should educate themselves on CAM to set realistic expectations and provide comprehensive counseling of the risks and benefits of CAM usage to patients who choose to use CAM to either augment or completely replace CCT

A Framework to Manage the Complex Organisation of Collaborating: Its Application to Autonomous Systems

In this paper we present an analysis of the complexities of large group collaboration and its application to develop detailed requirements for collaboration schema for Autonomous Systems (AS). These requirements flow from our development of a framework for collaboration that provides a basis for designing, supporting and managing complex collaborative systems that can be applied and tested in various real world settings. We present the concepts of "collaborative flow" and "working as one" as descriptive expressions of what good collaborative teamwork can be in such scenarios. The paper considers the application of the framework within different scenarios and discuses the utility of the framework in modelling and supporting collaboration in complex organisational structures

Emission-Line Galaxies from the Hubble Space Telescope Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) Grism Survey. II: The Complete Sample

We present a full analysis of the Probing Evolution And Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) slitess grism spectroscopic data obtained with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on HST. PEARS covers fields within both the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) North and South fields, making it ideal as a random survey of galaxies, as well as the availability of a wide variety of ancillary observations to support the spectroscopic results. Using the PEARS data we are able to identify star forming galaxies within the redshift volume 0< z<1.5. Star forming regions in the PEARS survey are pinpointed independently of the host galaxy. This method allows us to detect the presence of multiple emission line regions (ELRs) within a single galaxy. 1162 Ha, [OIII] and/or [OII] emission lines have been identified in the PEARS sample of ~906 galaxies down to a limiting flux of ~1e-18 erg/s/cm^2. The ELRs have also been compared to the properties of the host galaxy, including morphology, luminosity, and mass. From this analysis we find three key results: 1) The computed line luminosities show evidence of a flattening in the luminosity function with increasing redshift; 2) The star forming systems show evidence of disturbed morphologies, with star formation occurring predominantly within one effective (half-light) radius. However, the morphologies show no correlation with host stellar mass; and 3) The number density of star forming galaxies with M_* > 1e9} M_sun decreases by an order of magnitude at z<0.5 relative to the number at 0.5<z<0.9 in support of the argument for galaxy downsizing.Comment: Submitted. 48 pages. 19 figures. Accepted to Ap

The colonial ascidian \u3cem\u3eDidemnum\u3c/em\u3e sp. A: Current distribution, basic biology and potential threat to marine communities of the northeast and west coasts of North America

Didemnum sp. A is a colonial ascidian with rapidly expanding populations on the east and west coasts of North America. The origin of Didemum sp. A is unknown. Populations were first observed on the northeast coast of the U.S. in the late 1980s and on the west coast during the 1990s. It is currently undergoing a massive population explosion and is now a dominant member of many subtidal communities on both coasts. To determine Didemnum sp. A\u27s current distribution, we conducted surveys from Maine to Virginia on the east coast and from British Columbia to southern California on the west coast of the U.S. between 1998 and 2005. In nearshore locations Didemnum sp. A currently ranges from Eastport, Maine to Shinnecock Bay, New York on the east coast. On the west coast it has been recorded from Humboldt Bay to Port San Luis in California, several sites in Puget Sound, Washington, including a heavily fouled mussel culture facility, and several sites in southwestern British Columbia on and adjacent to oyster and mussel farms. The species also occurs at deeper subtidal sites (up to 81 m) off New England, including Georges, Stellwagen and Tillies Banks. On Georges Bank numerous sites within a 230 km2 area are 50–90% covered by Didemnum sp. A; large colonies cement the pebble gravel into nearly solid mats that may smother infaunal organisms. These observations suggest that Didemnum sp. A has the potential to alter marine communities and affect economically important activities such as fishing and aquaculture

The colonial ascidian Didemnum sp. A: Current distribution, basic biology and potential threat to marine communities of the northeast and west coasts of North America

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2006. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 342 (2007): 99-108, doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2006.10.020.Didemnum sp. A is a colonial ascidian with rapidly expanding populations on the east and west coasts of North America. The origin of Didemum sp. A is unknown. Populations were first observed on the northeast coast of the U.S. in the late 1980s and on the west coast during the 1990s. It is currently undergoing a massive population explosion and is now a dominant member of many subtidal communities on both coasts. To determine Didemnum sp. A’s current distribution, we conducted surveys from Maine to Virginia on the east coast and from British Columbia to southern California on the west coast of the U.S. between 1998 and 2005. In nearshore locations Didemnum sp. A currently ranges from Eastport, Maine to Shinnecock Bay, New York on the east coast. On the west coast it has been recorded from Humboldt Bay to Port San Luis in California, several sites in Puget Sound, Washington, including a heavily fouled mussel culture facility, and several sites in southwestern British Columbia on and adjacent to oyster and mussel farms. The species also occurs at deeper subtidal sites (up to 81 m) off New England, including Georges, Stellwagen and Tillies Banks. On Georges Bank numerous sites within a 147 km2 area are 50-90% covered by Didemnum sp. A; large colonies cement the pebble gravel into nearly solid mats that may smother infaunal organisms. These observations suggest that Didemnum sp. A has the potential to alter marine communities and affect economically important activities such as fishing and aquaculture.Funding for this project was provided by EPA (STAR) grant GZ1910464 to R.B. Whitlatch, NSF-DGE 0114432 to J. Byrnes, NSF-OCE 0117839 to R. Etter and R.J. Miller, MIT Sea Grant NA86RG0074 and USEPA Grant GX83055701-0 to J. Pederson. RI Sea Grant NA07R90363 to J.S. Collie. Funding for A.N. Cohen and G. Lambert was provided by Mass. Sea Grant, U.S. EPA, Smithsonian Envl. Research Center Invasions Lab, Natl. Geographic Soc., San Francisco Bay-Delta Science Consortium and CALFED Science Program, Calif. Coastal Conservancy and the Rose Foundation. Additional funding and support was provided by the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary

Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 Early Release Science: Emission-Line Galaxies from Infrared Grism Observations

We present grism spectra of emission-line galaxies (ELGs) from 0.6-1.6 microns from the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope. These new infrared grism data augment previous optical Advanced Camera for Surveys G800L 0.6-0.95 micron grism data in GOODS-South from the PEARS program, extending the wavelength covereage well past the G800L red cutoff. The ERS grism field was observed at a depth of 2 orbits per grism, yielding spectra of hundreds of faint objects, a subset of which are presented here. ELGs are studied via the Ha, [OIII], and [OII] emission lines detected in the redshift ranges 0.2<z<1.4, 1.2<z<2.2 and 2.0<z<3.3 respectively in the G102 (0.8-1.1 microns; R~210) and G141 (1.1-1.6 microns; R~130) grisms. The higher spectral resolution afforded by the WFC3 grisms also reveals emission lines not detectable with the G800L grism (e.g., [SII] and [SIII] lines). From these relatively shallow observations, line luminosities, star-formation rates, and grism spectroscopic redshifts are determined for a total of 48 ELGs to m(AB)~25 mag. Seventeen GOODS-South galaxies that previously only had photometric redshifts now have new grism-spectroscopic redshifts, in some cases with large corrections to the photometric redshifts (Delta(z)~0.3-0.5). Additionally, one galaxy had no previously-measured redshift but now has a secure grism-spectroscopic redshift, for a total of 18 new GOODS-South spectroscopic redshifts. The faintest source in our sample has a magnitude m(AB)=26.9 mag. The ERS grism data also reflect the expected trend of lower specific star formation rates for the highest mass galaxies in the sample as a function of redshift, consistent with downsizing and discovered previously from large surveys. These results demonstrate the remarkable efficiency and capability of the WFC3 NIR grisms for measuring galaxy properties to faint magnitudes and redshifts to z>2.Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ. Updated to include referee comments. Updated sample using improved reduction contains 23 new galaxies (Table 1; Figures 2 & 3

Gothic visions of classical architecture in Hablot Knight Browne’s “dark” illustrations for the novels of Charles Dickens

In the early gothic literature of the eighteenth century danger lurked in the darkness beneath the pointed arches of gothic buildings. During the nineteenth century there was a progressive, although never complete, dislocation of gothic literary readings from gothic architecture. This article explores a phase in that development through discussion of a series of ‘dark’ illustrations produced by Hablot Knight Browne to illustrate novels by Charles Dickens. These show the way in which the rounded arches of neo-classical architecture were depicted in the mid-nineteenth century as locales of oppression and obscurity. Such depictions acted, in an age of political and moral reform, to critique the values of the system of power and authority that such architecture represented

Improving the delivery of care for patients with diabetes through understanding optimised team work and organisation in primary care

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Effects of deletion of the Streptococcus pneumoniae lipoprotein diacylglyceryl transferase gene lgt on ABC transporter function and on growth in vivo

Lipoproteins are an important class of surface associated proteins that have diverse roles and frequently are involved in the virulence of bacterial pathogens. As prolipoproteins are attached to the cell membrane by a single enzyme, prolipoprotein diacylglyceryl transferase (Lgt), deletion of the corresponding gene potentially allows the characterisation of the overall importance of lipoproteins for specific bacterial functions. We have used a Δlgt mutant strain of Streptococcus pneumoniae to investigate the effects of loss of lipoprotein attachment on cation acquisition, growth in media containing specific carbon sources, and virulence in different infection models. Immunoblots of triton X-114 extracts, flow cytometry and immuno-fluorescence microscopy confirmed the Δlgt mutant had markedly reduced lipoprotein expression on the cell surface. The Δlgt mutant had reduced growth in cation depleted medium, increased sensitivity to oxidative stress, reduced zinc uptake, and reduced intracellular levels of several cations. Doubling time of the Δlgt mutant was also increased slightly when grown in medium with glucose, raffinose and maltotriose as sole carbon sources. These multiple defects in cation and sugar ABC transporter function for the Δlgt mutant were associated with only slightly delayed growth in complete medium. However the Δlgt mutant had significantly reduced growth in blood or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and a marked impairment in virulence in mouse models of nasopharyngeal colonisation, sepsis and pneumonia. These data suggest that for S. pneumoniae loss of surface localisation of lipoproteins has widespread effects on ABC transporter functions that collectively prevent the Δlgt mutant from establishing invasive infection

Stellar Coronal and Wind Models: Impact on Exoplanets

Surface magnetism is believed to be the main driver of coronal heating and stellar wind acceleration. Coronae are believed to be formed by plasma confined in closed magnetic coronal loops of the stars, with winds mainly originating in open magnetic field line regions. In this Chapter, we review some basic properties of stellar coronae and winds and present some existing models. In the last part of this Chapter, we discuss the effects of coronal winds on exoplanets.Comment: Chapter published in the "Handbook of Exoplanets", Editors in Chief: Juan Antonio Belmonte and Hans Deeg, Section Editor: Nuccio Lanza. Springer Reference Work