Implementation of an Iraqi women’s behavioral health support group: Lessons learned in a pre and post US election climate

The Colorado Refugee Wellness center is an integrated primary and behavioral health care provider for newly arrived refugees resettling in the City of Aurora, CO.  In the Spring of 2016, behavioral health staff responded to a need identified by Iraqi Muslim women clients to come together to share experiences and get support in light of the rise in anti-Muslim and anti-refugee rhetoric, and so a therapy group for Iraqi women was created.Topics addressed in group included cultural considerations related to communication styles, generational hierarchy, respect of authority, religious values, physical health and building community as well as psychological issues of losses, cultural conflicts, fear and safety, and achieving health goals in the face of adversity.  The Iraqi patient navigator served as an invaluable cultural broker in the recruitment and retention of clients, as well as provided cultural insight into conducting ongoing program evaluation to revise the goals and purpose of the group.In this presentation, we share clinical and cross-cultural experiences, as well as lessons learned on the creation, implementation, and adaption of an Iraqi women’s behavioral health support group in the political climate of the 2016 US election year and approaches to flexible program development and evaluation.  We discuss the limitations of applicability of Western core group therapy interventions and recovery models based on the insights from the Iraqi women’s group.  In particular, we focus on the crisis debrief session with group members on the day following the election via a process of reciprocal healing.

Frustrated radical pairs: insights from EPR spectroscopy

Recent progress in frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) chemistry has revealed the importance of the main group elements which has opened new avenues in synthetic chemistry. Recently, new reactivities of frustrated Lewis pairs have been uncovered that disclose certain combinations of Lewis acid and Lewis base undergo single electron transfer (SET) processes. Here a single electron can be transferred from the Lewis basic donor to a Lewis acid acceptor to produce a reactive frustrated radical pair (FRP). This review aims to highlight the recent advancements in this emerging field covering the synthesis and reactivities of frustrated radical pairs, with extensive highlights of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) data to explain the nature and stability of the radical species

Triarylborane catalyzed carbene transfer reactions using diazo precursors

Reactive carbenes generated from diazo compounds are key intermediates for a range of organic reactions to afford synthetically useful organic compounds. The majority of these reactions have been carried out using transition metal catalysts. However, the formation of carbene intermediates using main group elements has not been widely investigated for synthetic purposes. Recent studies have demonstrated that triarylboranes can be used for the in situ generation of reactive carbene intermediates in both stoichiometric and catalytic reactions. These new reactivities of triarylboranes have gained significant attention in synthetic chemistry particularly in catalytic studies. The range of organic compounds that have been synthesized through these reactions are important as pharmaceuticals or agrochemicals. In this perspective, we highlight the recent progress and ongoing challenges of carbene transfer reactions generated from their corresponding diazo precursors using triarylboranes as catalysts. We also highlight the stoichiometric use of triarylboranes in which the boranes not only activate the diazo functionality to afford a carbene intermediate but also actively participate in the reactions as a reagent. The different mechanisms for activation and carbene transfer are described along with the mechanistic and computational studies that have aided the elucidation of these reaction pathways. Potential opportunities for the use of boranes as a catalyst toward different carbene transfer reactions and their future prospects are discussed

Full-State Quantum Circuit Simulation by Using Data Compression

Quantum circuit simulations are critical for evaluating quantum algorithms and machines. However, the number of state amplitudes required for full simulation increases exponentially with the number of qubits. In this study, we leverage data compression to reduce memory requirements, trading computation time and fidelity for memory space. Specifically, we develop a hybrid solution by combining the lossless compression and our tailored lossy compression method with adaptive error bounds at each timestep of the simulation. Our approach optimizes for compression speed and makes sure that errors due to lossy compression are uncorrelated, an important property for comparing simulation output with physical machines. Experiments show that our approach reduces the memory requirement of simulating the 61-qubit Grover's search algorithm from 32 exabytes to 768 terabytes of memory on Argonne's Theta supercomputer using 4,096 nodes. The results suggest that our techniques can increase the simulation size by 2 to 16 qubits for general quantum circuits.Comment: Published in SC2019. Please cite the SC versio

B(3,4,5-F3H2C6)3 Lewis acid-catalysed C3-allylation of indoles

Herein we report the B(3,4,5-F3H2C6)3-catalysed C3-allylation of indoles using allylic esters. 25 examples of C3-allylated products are presented in up to 97% yield. The mechanism for the reaction was explored using detailed Density Functional Theory (DFT) studies

Women’s experiences of maternity care in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic:A follow-up systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis

Background: Maternity care services in the United Kingdom have undergone drastic changes due to pandemic-related restrictions. Prior research has shown maternity care during the pandemic was negatively experienced by women and led to poor physical and mental health outcomes in pregnancy. A synthesis is required of published research on women's experiences of maternity care during the latter half of the COVID-19 pandemic. Aim: To update a previous systematic review of maternity care experiences during the pandemic to June 2021, exploring experiences of maternity care specifically within the United Kingdom and how they may have changed, in order to inform future maternity services. Methods: A systematic review of qualitative literature was conducted using comprehensive searches of five electronic databases and the Cochrane COVID Study Register, published between 1 June 2021 and 13 October 2022, and further updated to 30 September 2023. Thematic Synthesis was utilised for data synthesis. Findings: Of 21,860 records identified, 27 studies were identified for inclusion. Findings included 14 descriptive themes across the five core concepts: (1)Care-seeking and experience; (2)Virtual care; (3)Self-monitoring; (4)COVID-19 vaccination; (5)Ethical future of maternity care. Discussion: Our findings in the UK are consistent with those globally, and extend those of the previous systematic review, particularly about women's perceptions of the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy. Conclusion: Our findings suggest the following are important to women for future maternity care: personalisation and inclusiveness; clear and evidence-based communication to facilitate informed decision-making; and achieving balance between social commitments and time spent settling into motherhood.</p

Lewis acid assisted Brønsted acid catalysed decarbonylation of Isocyanates: a combined DFT and experimental study

An efficient and mild reaction protocol for the decarbonylation of isocyanates has been developed using catalytic amounts of Lewis acidic boranes. The electronic nature (electron withdrawing, electron neutral, and electron donating) and the position of the substituents (ortho/meta/para) bound to isocyanate controls the chain length and composition of the products formed in the reaction. Detailed DFT studies were undertaken to account for the formation of the mono/di‐carboxamidation products and benzoxazolone compounds

Thalamostriatal disconnection underpins long-term seizure freedom in frontal lobe epilepsy surgery

Around 50% of patients undergoing frontal lobe surgery for focal drug-resistant epilepsy become seizure free post-operatively; however, only about 30% of patients remain seizure free in the long-term. Early seizure recurrence is likely to be caused by partial resection of the epileptogenic lesion, whilst delayed seizure recurrence can occur even if the epileptogenic lesion has been completely excised. This suggests a coexistent epileptogenic network facilitating ictogenesis in close or distant dormant epileptic foci. As thalamic and striatal dysregulation can support epileptogenesis and disconnection of cortico-thalamostriatal pathways through hemispherotomy or neuromodulation can improve seizure outcome regardless of focality, we hypothesize that projections from the striatum and the thalamus to the cortex may contribute to this common epileptogenic network. To this end, we retrospectively reviewed a series of 47 consecutive individuals who underwent surgery for drug-resistant frontal lobe epilepsy. We performed voxel-based and tractography disconnectome analyses to investigate shared patterns of disconnection associated with long-term seizure freedom. Seizure freedom after 3 and 5 years was independently associated with disconnection of the anterior thalamic radiation and anterior cortico-striatal projections. This was also confirmed in a subgroup of 29 patients with complete resections, suggesting these pathways may play a critical role in supporting the development of novel epileptic networks. Our study indicates that network dysfunction in frontal lobe epilepsy may extend beyond the resection and putative epileptogenic zone. This may be critical in the pathogenesis of delayed seizure recurrence as thalamic and striatal networks may promote epileptogenesis and disconnection may underpin long-term seizure freedom

Dramatic response of metastatic cutaneous angiosarcoma to an immune checkpoint inhibitor in a patient with xeroderma pigmentosum: whole-genome sequencing aids treatment decision in end-stage disease.

"Mutational signatures" are patterns of mutations that report DNA damage and subsequent repair processes that have occurred. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) can provide additional information to standard diagnostic techniques and can identify therapeutic targets. A 32-yr-old male with xeroderma pigmentosum developed metastatic angiosarcoma that was unresponsive to three lines of conventional sarcoma therapies. WGS was performed on his primary cancer revealing a hypermutated tumor, including clonal ultraviolet radiation-induced mutational patterns (Signature 7) and subclonal signatures of mutated DNA polymerase epsilon (POLE) (Signature 10). These signatures are associated with response to immune checkpoint blockade. Immunohistochemistry confirmed high PD-L1 expression in metastatic deposits. The anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody pembrolizumab was commenced off-label given the POLE mutation and high mutational load. After four cycles, there was a significant reduction in his disease with almost complete resolution of the metastatic deposits. This case highlights the importance of WGS in the analysis, interpretation, and treatment of cancers. We anticipate that as WGS becomes integral to the cancer diagnostic pathway, treatments will be stratified to the individual based on their unique genomic and/or transcriptomic profile, enhancing classical approaches of histologically driven treatment decisions