Hope as a Source of Resilience in Later Adulthood

This research provided a preliminary investigation of how variations in trait and state hope are associated with positive adaptation to stress in later adulthood. Trait hope and neuroticism were measured by questionnaires and state hope, stress, and negative emotions were assessed daily for 45 days. Results from multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses suggested that daily hope provides protective benefits by keeping negative emotions low, while also contributing to adaptive recovery from stress. The dynamic linkages between daily hope, stress, and emotion were further moderated by individual differences in trait hope. Compared with those low in trait hope, high-hope individuals showed diminished stress reactivity and more effective emotional recovery

The Effectiveness of a Career Services’ Digital Dirt Workshop for Undergraduate Students

Undergraduate students use Facebook or Myspace to communicate with their peers on the internet. Some of these individuals do not realize that their future employers may have access to their Facebook or Myspace profiles. Any negative information these employers discover about their candidates is “Digital Dirt”. The purpose of this study was to discover the effectiveness of a university-based career services’ Digital Dirt workshop for undergraduate students. This study sought to determine if participants would have different survey responses after the Digital Dirt workshop intervention (post-test) than they had before the Digital Dirt workshop intervention (pre-test). The results of this study indicated that participants are more likely to remove pictures and personal information from their social networking profiles after participation in the Digital Dirt workshop than before attending the workshop

What Is the Magnitude and Long-term Economic Cost of Care of the British Military Afghanistan Amputee Cohort?

Background Personal protection equipment, improved early medical care, and rapid extraction of the casualty have resulted in more injured service members who served in Afghanistan surviving after severe military trauma. Many of those who survive the initial trauma are faced with complex wounds such as multiple amputations. Although costs of care can be high, they have not been well quantified before. This is required to budget for the needs of the injured beyond their service in the armed forces. Question/purposes The purposes of this study were (1) to quantify and describe the extent and nature of traumatic amputations of British service personnel from Afghanistan; and (2) to calculate an estimate of the projected long-term cost of this cohort. Methods A four-stage methodology was used: (1) systematic literature search of previous studies of amputee care cost; (2) retrospective analysis of the UK Joint Theatre Trauma and prosthetic database; (3) Markov economic algorithm for healthcare cost and sensitivity analysis of results; and (4) statistical cost comparison between our cohort and the identified literature. Results From 2003 to 2014, 265 casualties sustained 416 amputations. The average number of limbs lost per casualty was 1.6. The most common type of amputation was a transfemoral amputation (153 patients); the next most common amputation type was unilateral transtibial (143 patients). Using a Markov model of healthcare economics, it is estimated that the total 40-year cost of the UK Afghanistan lower limb amputee cohort is £288 million (USD 444 million); this figure estimates cost of trauma care, rehabilitation, and prosthetic costs. A sensitivity analysis on our model demonstrated a potential ± 6.19% variation in costs. Conclusions The conflict in Afghanistan resulted in high numbers of complex injuries. Our findings suggest that a long-term facility to budget for veterans’ health care is necessary

Allometric scaling of skin thickness, elasticity, viscoelasticity to mass for micro-medical device translation:From mice, rats, rabbits, pigs to humans

Abstract Emerging micro-scale medical devices are showing promise, whether in delivering drugs or extracting diagnostic biomarkers from skin. In progressing these devices through animal models towards clinical products, understanding the mechanical properties and skin tissue structure with which they interact will be important. Here, through measurement and analytical modelling, we advanced knowledge of these properties for commonly used laboratory animals and humans (~30 g to ~150 kg). We hypothesised that skin’s stiffness is a function of the thickness of its layers through allometric scaling, which could be estimated from knowing a species’ body mass. Results suggest that skin layer thicknesses are proportional to body mass with similar composition ratios, inter- and intra-species. Experimental trends showed elastic moduli increased with body mass, except for human skin. To interpret the relationship between species, we developed a simple analytical model for the bulk elastic moduli of skin, which correlated well with experimental data. Our model suggest that layer thicknesses may be a key driver of structural stiffness, as the skin layer constituents are physically and therefore mechanically similar between species. Our findings help advance the knowledge of mammalian skin mechanical properties, providing a route towards streamlined micro-device research and development onto clinical use

A randomised controlled trial of adjunctive triamcinolone acetonide in eyes undergoing vitreoretinal surgery for open globe trauma – the ASCOT study

Background: Eyes sustaining open globe trauma are at high risk of severe visual impairment. Proliferative vitreoretinopathy is the most common cause of retinal detachment and visual loss in eyes with open globe trauma. There is evidence from experimental studies and pilot clinical trials that the use of adjunctive steroid medication triamcinolone acetonide can reduce the incidence of proliferative vitreoretinopathy and improve outcomes of surgery for open globe trauma. Objective: The Adjunctive Steroid Combination in Ocular Trauma or ASCOT study aimed to investigate the clinical effectiveness of adjunctive triamcinolone acetonide given at the time of vitreoretinal surgery for open globe trauma. Design: A phase 3 multicentre double-masked randomised controlled trial randomising patients undergoing vitrectomy following open globe trauma to either adjunctive triamcinolone acetonide or standard care. Setting: Hospital vitreoretinal surgical services dealing with open globe trauma. Participants: Patients undergoing vitrectomy surgery who had sustained open globe trauma. Interventions: Triamcinolone acetonide 4 mg/0.1 ml into the vitreous cavity and 40 mg/1 ml sub-Tenon’s or standard vitreoretinal surgery and postoperative care. Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with at least 10 letters of improvement in corrected visual acuity at six months. Secondary outcomes included retinal detachment secondary to proliferative vitreoretinopathy, retinal reattachment, macula reattachment, tractional retinal detachment, number of operations, hypotony, elevated intraocular pressure and quality of life. Health-related quality of life was assessed using the EuroQol Five Domain and Visual Function Questionnaire 25 questionnaires.Results: A total of 280 patients were randomised; 129 were analysed from the control group and 130 from the treatment group. The treatment group appeared, by chance, to have more severe pathology on presentation. The primary outcome (improvement in visual acuity) and principal secondary outcome (change in visual acuity) did not demonstrate any treatment benefit for triamcinolone acetonide. The proportion of patients with improvement in visual acuity was 47% for triamcinolone acetonide and 43% for standard care (odds ratio 1.03, 95% confidence interval 0.61 to 1.75, p = 0.908); the baseline adjusted mean difference in the six-month change in visual acuity was –2.65 (95% confidence interval –9.22 to 3.92, p = 0.430) for triamcinolone acetonide relative to control. Similarly, the secondary outcome measures failed to show any treatment benefit. For two of the secondary outcome measures, stable complete retinal reattachment and stable macular retinal reattachment, outcomes for the treatment group were significantly worse for triamcinolone acetonide at the 5% level (respectively, odds ratio 0.59, 95% confidence interval 0.36 to 0.99, p = 0.044 and odds ratio 0.59, 95% confidence interval 0.35 to 0.98, p = 0.041) compared with control in favour of control. The cost of the intervention was £132 per patient. Health economics outcome measures (Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study, Visual Function Questionnaire 25 and EuroQol Five Dimensions) did not demonstrate any significant difference in quality-adjusted life-years. Conclusions: The use of combined intraocular and sub-Tenon’s capsule triamcinolone acetonide is not recommended as an adjunct to vitrectomy surgery for intraocular trauma. Secondary outcome measures are suggestive of a negative effect of the adjunct, although the treatment group appeared to have more severe pathology on presentation

Josephson effect between trapped Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the Josephson effect between atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. By drawing on an electrostatic analogy, we derive a semiclassical functional expression for the three-dimensional Josephson coupling energy in terms of the condensate density. Estimates of the capacitive energy and of the Josephson plasma frequency are also given. The effect of dissipation due to the incoherent exchange of normal atoms is analysed. We conclude that coherent Josephson dynamics may already be observable in current experimental systems.Comment: 4 pages, RevTe

The effect of acute angiotensin-converting enzyme and neutral endopeptidase 24.11 inhibition on plasma extravasation in the rat

ABSTRACT The effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and neutral endopeptidase (NEP) inhibition on microvascular plasma leakage (extravasation) was evaluated in a rat model. Progressive inhibition of ACE using captopril caused increased extravasation when lung ACE was inhibited by Ͼ55%. In contrast, the selective inhibition of renal NEP by Ͼ90% using ecadotril did not increase extravasation. In NEP-inhibited rats, extravasation produced by the ACE inhibitors captopril and lisinopril was markedly enhanced. The dual ACE and NEP inhibitor omapatrilat, at oral doses of 0.03, 0.1, and 0.3 mg/kg, selectively inhibited lung ACE by 19, 61, and 76%, respectively, and did not cause significant extravasation. Doses of 1 and 10 mg/kg omapatrilat, which produced Ͼ90% inhibition of ACE and also inhibited renal NEP by 54 and 78%, respectively, significantly increased extravasation. In this model, bradykinin and substance P produced extravasation that could be abolished by the bradykinin 2 (B2) receptor antagonist Hoe 140 (icatibant) or the neurokinin1 (NK1) antagonist CP99994 [(ϩ)-(2S,3S)-3-(2-methoxybenzylamino)-2-phenylpiperidine], respectively. Bradykinin induced extravasation was also partially (ϳ40%) inhibited by CP99994, indicating that a portion of the response involves B2 receptor-mediated release of substance P. In conclusion, this study is the first to relate the degree of ACE and/or NEP inhibition to extravasation liability in the rat model. Our data clearly demonstrate that ACE inhibitor-induced plasma extravasation is enhanced by concomitant inhibition of NEP. In addition, this study provides further evidence for the role for B2 and NK1 receptors in mediating plasma extravasation in the rat. Since their introduction nearly three decades ago, the angiotensin I-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) have become one of the more effective and highly used treatments for hypertension and heart failure. The therapeutic efficacy of these agents is derived in large part from their ability to inhibit the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II, a vasoactive peptide whose direct vasoconstrictor and aldosterone-releasing actions promote increased blood pressure. There are some data to suggest that part of the therapeutic effect of these agents may be due to decreased breakdown of bradykinin (BK), which is also a substrate for ACE 1141 esterase inhibitor deficiency in humans leads to angioedema Materials and Methods Experimental Preparation(s). Male Sprague-Dawley strain rats weighing between 250 and 350 g were used in these studies. The procedures involving the use of rats in these experiments were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee in accordance with National Institutes of Health guidelines (NIH publication 85-23). The animals were housed two per cage with free access to food and water and a 12-h light/dark cycle. To determine the role of ACE and/or NEP inhibition on plasma extravasation, groups of rats received drug treatment orally using an 18-gauge dosing needle and 5-ml syringe. Approximately 50 to 55 min after dosing, the rats were anesthetized via intraperitoneal injection of 70 mg/kg sodium pentobarbital. When anesthesia was achieved (typically less than 10 min), Evans blue dye (30 mg/kg) in heparinized saline (30 U/ml) was administered intravenously at a dose volume of 0.2 ml/100 g b.wt. via the tail vein using a 26-gauge, 1.5-inch-long needle. Five minutes post-Evans blue injection, the thoracic and peritoneal cavities were opened via a single midline incision. A 0.8 to 1.0 cc blood sample was obtained by cardiac puncture using a heparinized 1-ml syringe and 23-gauge needle and placed on ice. The tip of the right atrium was then cut and a steel cannula, attached by latex tubing to a peristaltic pump (Harvard Apparatus Inc., Holliston, MA), was inserted into the heart at the bottom of the left ventricle and was slid up through ventricle until the tip of the cannula was visible in the aortic arch. The cannula was manually held in place using forceps clamped across the heart. The pump was then started and the vascular system was perfused with 120 ml of saline delivered at a rate of 40 ml/min, which results in a perfusion pressure pulse of 80 to 100 mm Hg. This procedure is similar to that described by others For determination of extravasation liability of proinflammatory peptides, rats were anesthetized by intraperitoneal injection of 70 mg/kg pentobarbital sodium. The rats then received an intravenous dose of 30 mg/kg Evans blue dye in saline containing 30 U/ml heparin administered at a dose volume of 200 l/100 g b.wt. via tail vein injection. The Evans blue injection was followed immediately by intravenous injection of bradykinin, des-Arg9-bradykinin, or substance P. In some studies, the effect of selective B2 receptor blockade with Hoe 140 (10 g/kg i.v.) or selective NK1 receptor blockade with CP99994 (3 mg/kg i.v.) on bradykinin and substance P-mediated extravasation was also determined. In those studies, the selective antagonists were administered 3 to 5 min before Evans Blue injection. Five minutes after bradykinin, des-Arg9-bradykinin, or substance P injection, the thoracic and peritoneal cavities were opened via a single midline incision, and the rat was perfused as described above. For evaluation of plasma ex vivo ACE activity, the blood collected by cardiac puncture was spun for 2 min at maximum speed in a Microfuge. Plasma was collected from the top. Thirty-five microliters of plasma was added to a conical-bottomed 96-well plate with 5 l of 1 M KCl, 0.5 M sodium borate, pH 8.3, and 3 M zinc sulfate. Ten microliters of 12.5 mM hippuryl-his-leu substrate For determination of lung ACE activity and kidney NEP activity, approximately 250 mg of tissue was homogenized in 6 volumes of 0.1 M KH 2 PO 4 , pH 8.3, 0.3 M NaCl, and 1 M ZnSO 4 using a Teflonglass motor-driven pestle. For lung ACE activity, 40 l of homogenate was added to conical-bottomed 96-well plates and warmed to 37°C for 5 min. Ten microliters of 7.5 mM hippuryl-his-leu (1.5 mM final) was added to each sample and incubated for 10 min at 37°C. One hundred microliters of 10% TCA was added to each well, and the plates were centrifuged to pellet precipitated proteins. Fifty microliters of supernatant was added to 100 l of 2 mg/ml o-phthaldialdehyde in 10% ethanol and 50 l of 1 N NaOH in a black fluorometric plate. After 60 min, the plate was read in a fluorometer at 390-nm excitation and 460-nm emission. Standard curves were generated using his-leu. Kidney NEP activity was measured by adding 35 l of homogenate to wells containing 5 l of buffer or 10 M phosphoramidon. Plates were warmed to 37°C for 5 min. Ten microliters of 2.5 mM N-dansyl-D-ala-gly-p-nitrophe-gly substrate Drugs. The selective ACE inhibitors captopril and lisinopril were dissolved in water and administered orally at doses of 0.3, 1, 3, 10, and 30 mg/kg (captopril) or 1 and 3 mg/kg (lisinopril) at a dose volume of 1.0 ml/100 g b.wt. The dual ACE/NEP inhibitor omapatrilat was dissolved in a 30% polyethylene glycol200/70% of 25% cyclodextran vehicle and was administered orally as described above at doses of 0.03, 0.1, 0.3, 1, or 10 mg/kg. The selective NEP inhibitor ecadotril was dissolved in the polyethylene glycol200/cyclodextrin vehicle and was administered orally at doses of 3, 10, neutral endopeptidase or 30 mg/kg. Sulpizio et al. In some studies, inhibition of both ACE and NEP was produced by the oral administration of various doses of the selective ACE inhibitor captopril or lisinopril in rats pretreated orally with the selective NEP inhibitor ecadotril. Statistics. All data are expressed as the mean Ϯ S.E.M. The analysis of the differences in the extravasation measurement values between levels of treatments regimes used two-sample Wilcoxon tests. Based on the assumption of increasing extravasation with larger drug doses, one-sided tests were appropriate for the identification of the lowest dosage level with a significant increase in the extravasation values. The identification of these lowest dosages applied a fixed sequence test strategy All other comparisons between dosage levels also had predetermined directions of changes in the extravasation values and used single-sided values from two-sample Wilcoxon tests. The reported p values for these comparisons were all less than 0.05 (Bonferroni adjusted p values were reported for the four comparisons of the captopril and ecadotril combinations and the two comparisons of the bradykinin and CP99994 combinations). The trend comparison for the bradykinin and Hoe combinations used the single-sided Jonckheere-Terpstra trend test. All statistical tests used SAS System Release 8.01 as the analysis software (proc npar1way for the exact Wilcoxon tests and proc freq for the Jonckheere-Terpstra test). An unpaired Student's t test was used to test the effect of drug treatment on enzyme activity. Absolute enzyme rates of drug-treated rats were compared with enzyme rates of the vehicle-treated (control) rats. Acceptance of a significant difference between the groups was at the 0.05 p value level. Results Basal extravasation of Evans blue into the trachea of 29 vehicle-treated rats accumulated over the course of these studies was 8.3 Ϯ 0.43 ng/mg tissue. Baseline plasma ACE, lung ACE, and renal NEP enzyme activity in vehicle-treated rats was 32.7 Ϯ 1.7 nmol/ml/min and 6.5 Ϯ 1.8 and 2.6 Ϯ 0.2 nmol/mg protein/min, respectively. Treatment with increasing oral doses of captopril produced dose-related inhibition of plasma and lung ACE activity and was without effect on renal NEP. The reductions in ACE activity were associated with increased extravasation as measured by tracheal Evans blue concentration Oral doses of 0.03, 0.1, and 0.3 mg/kg of the dual ACE/NEP inhibitor omapatrilat produced dramatic, dose-related inhibition of both plasma and lung ACE with no inhibition of renal NEP Effect of Increasing Lung ACE Inhibition in NEPInhibited Rats. The data with ompatrilat did not clearly define the role that NEP inhibition played in the extravasation of Evans blue into the trachea because the degree of both ACE and NEP inhibition varied with dose. To define the role of NEP in extravasation further, rats were treated with 3.0 mg/kg ecadotril, which resulted in a relatively consistent ACE/NEP Inhibition and Plasma Extravasation in Rat 1143 background inhibition of ϳ74% in renal NEP The selective ACE inhibitor lisinopril was also tested alone and in combination with ecadotril. Doses of 1 and 3 mg/kg lisinopril alone inhibited lung ACE by 63 and 83%, respectively, and did not increase tracheal Evans blue extravasatio

War and the Reelection Motive: Examining the Effect of Term Limits

This article investigates the relationship between term limits and international conflict. Theories of political survival and diversionary war both imply term limits should play a role in international relations, whereas “permanent referendum theory,” largely motivated by work in American politics, suggests otherwise. Drawing on these theories, we formulate and test competing hypotheses regarding term limits and international crises. Using dyadic militarized interstate disputes data and information on forty-eight democracies with term limits, we uncover strong evidence to support the claim that leaders reaching final terms in office are more likely to initiate conflict than those still subject to reelection. Moreover, we find that the likelihood of conflict initiation is significantly higher during times of recession, but only in the absence of binding term limits. While binding electoral terms and economic downturns are both independently associated with increased levels of conflict initiation, in concert their conditional effects actually counteract each other

Randomised controlled trial of adjunctive triamcinolone acetonide in eyes undergoing vitreoretinal surgery following open globe trauma: the ASCOT study

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To investigate the clinical effectiveness of adjunctive triamcinolone acetonide (TA) given at the time of vitreoretinal surgery following open globe trauma (OGT). METHODS: A phase 3, multicentre, double-masked randomised controlled trial of patients undergoing vitrectomy following OGT comparing adjunctive TA (intravitreal and subtenons) against standard care (2014-2020). The primary outcome was the proportion of patients with at least 10 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) letter improvement in corrected visual acuity (VA) at 6 months. Secondary outcomes included: change in ETDRS, retinal detachment (RD) secondary to PVR, retinal reattachment, macular reattachment, tractional RD, number of operations, hypotony, elevated intraocular pressure and quality of life. RESULTS: 280 patients were randomised over 75 months, of which 259 completed the study. 46.9% (n=61/130) of patients in the treatment group had a 10-letter improvement in VA compared with 43.4% (n=56/129) of the control group (difference 3.5% (95% CI -8.6% to 15.6%), OR=1.03 (95% CI 0.61 to 1.75), p=0.908)). Secondary outcome measures also failed to show any treatment benefit. For two of the secondary outcome measures, stable complete retinal and macular reattachment, outcomes were worse in the treatment group compared with controls, respectively, 51.6% (n=65/126) vs 64.2% (n=79/123), OR=0.59 (95% CI 0.36 to 0.99), and 54.0% (n=68/126) vs 66.7% (n=82/123), OR=0.59 (95% CI 0.35 to 0.98), for TA vs control. CONCLUSION: The use of combined intraocular and sub-Tenons capsule TA is not recommended as an adjunct to vitrectomy surgery following OGT. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02873026

Ultra High Energy Cosmology with POLARBEAR

Observations of the temperature anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) lend support to an inflationary origin of the universe, yet no direct evidence verifying inflation exists. Many current experiments are focussing on the CMB's polarization anisotropy, specifically its curl component (called "B-mode" polarization), which remains undetected. The inflationary paradigm predicts the existence of a primordial gravitational wave background that imprints a unique B-mode signature on the CMB's polarization at large angular scales. The CMB B-mode signal also encodes gravitational lensing information at smaller angular scales, bearing the imprint of cosmological large scale structures (LSS) which in turn may elucidate the properties of cosmological neutrinos. The quest for detection of these signals; each of which is orders of magnitude smaller than the CMB temperature anisotropy signal, has motivated the development of background-limited detectors with precise control of systematic effects. The POLARBEAR experiment is designed to perform a deep search for the signature of gravitational waves from inflation and to characterize lensing of the CMB by LSS. POLARBEAR is a 3.5 meter ground-based telescope with 3.8 arcminute angular resolution at 150 GHz. At the heart of the POLARBEAR receiver is an array featuring 1274 antenna-coupled superconducting transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers cooled to 0.25 Kelvin. POLARBEAR is designed to reach a tensor-to-scalar ratio of 0.025 after two years of observation -- more than an order of magnitude improvement over the current best results, which would test physics at energies near the GUT scale. POLARBEAR had an engineering run in the Inyo Mountains of Eastern California in 2010 and will begin observations in the Atacama Desert in Chile in 2011.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, DPF 2011 conference proceeding