Parent and Infant Occupational Performance in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

The earliest of occupational therapy interventions often commence in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where mothers and fathers begin learning how to parent in unexpected surroundings and with unexpected complications. This project seeks to present an innovative approach to neonatal occupational therapy practice, framed using the Person-Environment- Occupation-Performance (PEOP) Model (Baum et al., 2015). A phenomenological approach was employed to build a picture of understanding by gathering and recording information about context, insights, events, and influences on parent and infant occupational performance in the NICU. Qualitative methods were used to explore the concept of occupational and co- occupational performance in the NICU and to provide rich descriptions of parent and infant occupations in the NICU setting. Five themes of active engagement emerged, serving as global descriptors of parent and infant experience and representing key aspects of the phenomena of parent and infant occupational performance in the NICU: Perceiving ―They‖ vs. ―I‖; Maintaining Proximity; Expressing Emotions, Values, and Beliefs; Addressing Health Issues; and Analyzing. With increased knowledge and awareness of NICU-based occupations, neonatal occupational therapists can utilize The Person-Environment- Occupation-Performance (PEOP) Occupational Therapy Process (Bass et al., 2015) to guide occupation-based practice in the NICU setting. Thus, the purpose of this project was twofold: (a) to explore occupation and co-occupation as described by parents, and (b) to explicate the PEOP Occupational Therapy Process for use in the NICU

Experimental study of super-rotation in a magnetostrophic spherical Couette flow

We report measurements of electric potentials at the surface of a spherical container of liquid sodium in which a magnetized inner core is differentially rotating. The azimuthal angular velocities inferred from these potentials reveal a strong super-rotation of the liquid sodium in the equatorial region, for small differential rotation. Super-rotation was observed in numerical simulations by Dormy et al. [1]. We find that the latitudinal variation of the electric potentials in our experiments differs markedly from the predictions of a similar numerical model, suggesting that some of the assumptions used in the model - steadiness, equatorial symmetry, and linear treatment for the evolution of both the magnetic and velocity fields - are violated in the experiments. In addition, radial velocity measurements, using ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry, provide evidence of oscillatory motion near the outer sphere at low latitude: it is viewed as the signature of an instability of the super-rotating region

Finite reduction and Morse index estimates for mechanical systems

A simple version of exact finite dimensional reduction for the variational setting of mechanical systems is presented. It is worked out by means of a thorough global version of the implicit function theorem for monotone operators. Moreover, the Hessian of the reduced function preserves all the relevant information of the original one, by Schur's complement, which spontaneously appears in this context. Finally, the results are straightforwardly extended to the case of a Dirichlet problem on a bounded domain.Comment: 13 pages; v2: minor changes, to appear in Nonlinear Differential Equations and Application

Zonal shear and super-rotation in a magnetized spherical Couette flow experiment

We present measurements performed in a spherical shell filled with liquid sodium, where a 74 mm-radius inner sphere is rotated while a 210 mm-radius outer sphere is at rest. The inner sphere holds a dipolar magnetic field and acts as a magnetic propeller when rotated. In this experimental set-up called DTS, direct measurements of the velocity are performed by ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry. Differences in electric potential and the induced magnetic field are also measured to characterize the magnetohydrodynamic flow. Rotation frequencies of the inner sphere are varied between -30 Hz and +30 Hz, the magnetic Reynolds number based on measured sodium velocities and on the shell radius reaching to about 33. We have investigated the mean axisymmetric part of the flow, which consists of differential rotation. Strong super-rotation of the fluid with respect to the rotating inner sphere is directly measured. It is found that the organization of the mean flow does not change much throughout the entire range of parameters covered by our experiment. The direct measurements of zonal velocity give a nice illustration of Ferraro's law of isorotation in the vicinity of the inner sphere where magnetic forces dominate inertial ones. The transition from a Ferraro regime in the interior to a geostrophic regime, where inertial forces predominate, in the outer regions has been well documented. It takes place where the local Elsasser number is about 1. A quantitative agreement with non-linear numerical simulations is obtained when keeping the same Elsasser number. The experiments also reveal a region that violates Ferraro's law just above the inner sphere.Comment: Phys Rev E, in pres

Selective and highly efficient dye scavenging by a pH-responsive molecular hydrogelator

A structurally simple low molecular weight hydrogelator derived from isophthalic acid forms robust pH-responsive hydrogels capable of highly efficient and selective dye adsorption

Specific inhibition of binding of antistasin and [A103,106,108] antistasin 93–119 to sulfatide (Gal(3-SO4)β1-1Cer) by glycosaminoglycans

AbstractLeech-derived antistasin is a potent anticoagulant and antimetastatic protein that binds sulfatide (Gal(3-SO4)β1-1Cer)and sulfated polysaccharides. In this study, the synthetic fragment [A103,106,108] antistasin 93–119, which corresponds to the carboxyl terminus, showed specific and saturable binding to sulfatide. Binding was competitively blocked by glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in the order: dextran sulfate 5000 ≅ dextran sulfate 500 0OO > heparin > dermatan sulfate ⪢ chondroitin sulfates A and C. This rank order of inhibitory potency was identical to that observed with whole antistasin. We suggest that residues 93–119 of antistasin represent a critical domain for binding GAGs and sulfated glycolipids

Pathogenesis of Murine Gammaherpesvirus-68 Infection in Interleukin-6-Deficient Mice

AbstractMurine gammaherpesvirus-68 (MHV-68) induces high levels of interleukin (IL)-6 production in both naive and primed lymphocyte populations. Mice that are homozygous (−/−) for deletion of the IL-6 gene were used to investigate the role of this cytokine in MHV-68 infection. The results showed that IL-6 is not essential for clearance of infectious MHV-68 from the lung or for the establishment, or control, of viral latency. Both IL-6 +/+ and −/− mice eliminated replicating virus from the respiratory tract within 15 days of infection, and their lungs remained clear of infectious virus for ≥150 days. Interestingly, the IL-6 −/− mice had both increased numbers of natural killer (NK)1.1+ cells and higher levels of NK cell activity than the +/+ controls at 10–15 days after infection. However, there was no difference in the cytotoxic T cell activity between the two groups of mice. Levels of latent virus were comparable in IL-6 +/+ and −/− mice over the time course studied. Furthermore, analysis of the numbers, types, and activation status of the various leukocyte subsets (other than NK cells) in the bronchoalveolar lavage population, lymph nodes, and spleens of +/+ and −/− mice revealed no striking differences. Apart from the expected lack of IL-6, cytokine profiles were not dramatically altered in IL-6 −/− mice. Thus, there is no evidence for an obligatory role for IL-6 in T cell activation during infection with MHV-68