The Creation Of An Algorithm To Assist Survivorship Clinics Identify The Rehabilitation Needs Of Cancer Survivors: An Administrative Case Report

Background and Purpose: Approximately 40% of cancer survivors have unmet rehabilitation needs. Cancer survivors not receiving rehabilitation care may be due to survivorship clinics struggling to identify which of their survivors are appropriate for rehabilitation. The purpose of this case report was to review the literature and create an algorithm that could assist survivorship clinics with rehabilitation referrals. Case Description: A survivorship clinic in Maine was attempting to address the lack of a rehabilitation screening process. A survey done by the clinic showed that approximately 40% of their survivors used rehabilitation services. To address this lack of a screening process, a literature review was conducted in the summer of 2020 to identify common cancer impairments that may necessitate rehabilitation services. From there, an algorithm would be created that contained screening measures to identify those impairments. The initial algorithm consisted of the Pain Visual Analogue Scale, Fatigue Numerical Scale, and Short-Form 36 health questionnaire. Outcomes: The final algorithm consisted of two parts. First the oncologic clinician asks themselves whether the survivor can exercise without medical supervision. The second is based off the grading of the Short-Form 36. The answers to these two parts determine eligibility for referral to rehabilitation services. An expert in oncology rehabilitation vetted the algorithm in the fall of 2020. Expert feedback resulted in the final algorithm creation. Discussion: The stakeholders were unavailable to discuss an evaluation of the proposed algorithm or implementation into the survivorship clinic due to the 2020 pandemic. With the help of expert feedback, the final algorithm contributes to the growing body of literature regarding screening for oncology rehabilitation. Future research should be aimed at the implementation of existing algorithms into clinics

Blind Bernoulli Trials: A Noninteractive Protocol for Hidden-Weight Coin Flips

We introduce the concept of a Blind Bernoulli Trial, a noninteractive protocol that allows a set of remote, disconnected users to individually compute one random bit each with probability p defined by the sender, such that no receiver learns any more information about p than strictly necessary. We motivate the problem by discussing several possible applications in secure distributed systems. We then formally define the problem in terms of correctness and security definitions and explore possible solutions using existing cryptographic primitives. We prove the security of an efficient solution in the standard model. Finally, we implement the solution and give performance results that show it is practical with current hardware

Examining The Effect Of Fda Approval Of Risperdal For Pediatric Use On Prescribing Trends From 2005-2008

Prior to the 1990s, antipsychotic prescribing to children and adolescents was uncommon, given the scarcity of safety data and the high risk of developing extrapyramidal side effects. The emergence of second generation antipsychotics, changes in the epidemiology of pediatric mental health disorders, and expansion of antipsychotic drug use have facilitated the uptake of pediatric prescribing. The speed at which these drugs are being taken up by this vulnerable population is a concern. From 2002 to 2008, antipsychotic use in pediatric patients increased by 65% from 2.9 million to 4.8 million prescriptions. Until 2006, all atypical antipsychotic prescribing was off-label, as these drugs were not approved by the FDA for use among children and adolescents. Using national retail prescription data of children and adolescents ages 0-17 obtained from IMS Health covering the years 2005-2008, the effect of the 2006 and 2007 FDA approvals of Risperdal for specific pediatric use was examined using segmented interrupted time-series regressions. The analysis reveals that the FDA approvals had a statistically significant level effect but no trend effect on Risperdal prescribing. In addition, there was a stronger level effect observed among non-mental health specialists compared to psychiatrists and other mental health specialists. The results of this study suggest that FDA pediatric approvals have an important role in legitimizing and facilitating prescribing, as there are some physicians who are reluctant to weigh the risks and benefits independently through off-label prescribing

Evaluation of cultivar susceptibility and in-furrow fungicide efficacy for management of southern blight of soybean

Southern Blight (SB), caused by the fungus Athelia rolfsii, has increasingly impacted Mississippi soybean production with estimated economic losses in recent years rising from $181,616 in 2016 to$9,508,412 in 2021. Currently, there are no recommended fungicides and no known commercially available cultivar resistance. Eleven cultivars were evaluated for their response to the presence of Athelia rolfsii in the 2021 field trial. An in vitro fungicide assay was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of five fungicides to determine the respective EC50. These fungicides were then evaluated in combination with three cultivars, one mild, one moderate, and one severe in the 2022 field trial and in the growth chamber trial. A rapid and quantitative method was developed to evaluate the response of these commercially available soybean cultivars in combination with fungicides to SB. Determining effective management options has the potential to decrease disease losses for Mississippi Soybean growers

Rotary pump speed modulation to produce pulsatile flow and ventricular volume unloading.

Background: Continuous-flow (CF) left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have gained widespread clinical acceptance as a treatment option for advanced heart failure (HF); however, they have also been associated with an increased risk of adverse events, including gastrointestinal bleeding, aortic insufficiency, and hemorrhagic stroke. It has been hypothesized that the increase in adverse event incidence may be due in part to diminished vascular pulsatility and high shear stress when CF-LVADs are operated at fixed speeds. Previous studies have shown that pump speed modulation generates greater levels of pulsatility in rotary pumps than when operated at fixed speeds. The objective of this study was to characterize the hemodynamic and pump performance of LVADs operated with a low-frequency asynchronous pump speed modulation algorithm in a chronic healthy bovine model with partial VAD support. Materials and Methods: Clinical-grade LVAD with aortic (HeartWare HVAD, n=3) or transaortic (proprietary VADx, n=4) outflow were implanted into chronic (30-day) healthy male Jersey calves (60-110 kg). An asynchronous pump speed modulation algorithm (frequency = 20 bpm, amplitude = 2500-4000 RPM for HVAD or 11000-19000 RPM for VADx) was implemented by controlling pump current. Hemodynamic measurements (pressures, flows) were recorded throughout the study duration (30s epochs collected hourly at 400Hz), echocardiographic data was recorded during the implant, weekly, and at terminal, and blood laboratory measurements were regularly collected throughout the study. All data were analyzed to characterize aortic pulsatility, LV unloading, blood damage, and device power usage. Statistical analysis was performed to determine significance between fixed and pump speed modulation operating conditions. Results and Discussion: Two HVAD and four VADx animals achieved the 30-day study endpoint. Due to surgical complications, one animal died intraoperatively. Both HVAD devices maintained asynchronous modulation for the full study duration with mean high and low speeds of 4000 RPM and 2500 RPM, respectively. Two of the four VADx devices maintained asynchronous modulation at average high and low speeds of 17238 RPM and 11333 RPM over the 30-day study; however, the other two VADx devices operated at fixed pump speed for 1 and 2 days, respectively, due to unforeseen controller malfunctions, which were corrected to restore asynchronous modulation. Near-physiologic aortic pulse pressure for HVAD (45±4 mmHg) and VADx (46±9 mmHg) was demonstrated. HVAD and VADx with asynchronous modulation reduced stroke volume by 27% and 23%, respectively. HVAD (n=2) and VADx (n=3) maintained plasma free hemoglobin (pfHb) less than 40 mg/dL for the entire study duration while one VADx had pfHb \u3e 40 mg/dL for a period of 3 days, which resolved. Asynchronous modulation increased power consumption with HVAD (25%) and VADx (6%) compared to fixed speed operation. Conclusion: This study demonstrated asynchronous modulation of HVAD and VADx maintained near-physiologic pulsatility and LV unloading at the expense of minimal hemolysis and increased power consumption in the partial VAD support model. Future studies in clinically-relevant heart failure models warrant further investigation

Automated conversion of MultiCellDS Digital Cell Lines and ISA-Tab filesets.

Biological simulation tools are a valuable asset to bridge the gap between biological experimentation and biological theory. As systems thinking has become more regularly applied to biological materials and processes, these materials and processes have been characterized in multi-disciplinary, computational manners. This characterization has yielded an ability to create more realistic simulation tools that can provide in silico experiments for a wider range of scenarios. One prominent simulation tool is PhysiCell, an open-source physics-based multicellular simulation program which utilizes input Digital Cell Lines or Digital Snapshots from the MultiCellular Data Standard (MCDS) project. This project aims to allow data exchange between MCDS Digital Cell Lines and ISA-Tab file sets to bring benefits of online editing and searching held by ISA-Tab files to Digital Cell Lines, which are useful for biological simulation. Additionally, conversion of ISA-Tab file sets to Digital Cell Lines allows a vast increase in the number of cell lines that can be used for simulation within PhysiCell. This project allows data exchange between the two file types by using Python scripts to convert between the Digital Cell Line (XML) and ISA-Tab (text) file formats. The scripts produced in this project are validated for file format and verified for file contents for the Digital Cell Lines which exist at time of writing (up to DCL #242). All tools and outputs created in this project are open-source and provided on GitHub in order to facilitate cooperation in biological research to increase the knowledge of the scientific community. In this project, the scope of inputs for ISA-Tab to Digital Cell Line conversion are limited to those which are derivatives of Digital Cell Lines due to limited ability of the conversion script to match ISA-Tab labels to MCDS Digital Cell Line elements. While limited, the created ISA-Tab to MCDS-DCL script provides an accepted ISA-Tab formatting framework for automated conversion rather than requiring file conversion “by hand”. The products of this project should be expanded in the future to allow a greater range of ISA-Tab input formats for conversion to Digital Cell Lines

Limits to (de)growth: Theorizing ‘the dialectics of hatchet and seed’ in emergent socio-ecological transformations

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ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF BANNING SUBTHERAPEUTIC USE OF ANTIBIOTICS IN SWINE PRODUCTION

Public health officials and physicians are concerned about possible development of bacterial resistance and potential effects on human health that may be related to the use of antimicrobial agents in livestock feed. The focus of this research is aimed at determining the economic effects that subtherapeutic bans of antimicrobials would have on both swine producers and consumers. The results show that a ban on growth promotants for swine would be costly, totaling $242.5 million annually, with swine producers sharing the larger portion in the short run and consumers sharing the larger portion in the long run.banning subtherapeutic use, feed efficiency, mortality rate, sort loss, Livestock Production/Industries, Q18, D61,

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF BANNING SUBTHERAPEUTIC USE OF ANTIBIOTICS IN SWINE PRODUCTION

Public health officials and physicians are concerned about possible development of bacterial resistance and potential effects on human health that may be related to the use of antimicrobial agents in livestock feed. The focus of this research is aimed at determining the economic effects that subtherapeutic bans of antimicrobials would have on both swine producers and consumers. The results show that a ban on growth promotants for swine would be costly, totaling $242.5 million annually with swine producers sharing the larger portion in the short run and consumers sharing about 75$586 million per year with swine producers sharing about the same as in bans for swine only and consumers sharing significantly more than the swine only case.Crop Production/Industries,