Findings of the Joint Workshop on Evaluation of Impacts of Space Station Freedom Ground Configurations

At the workshop, experts from the plasma interactions community evaluated the impacts of environmental interactions on the Space Station Freedom (SSF) under each of the proposed grounding schemes. The grounding scheme chosen for the SSF power system was found to have serious implications for SSF design. Interactions of the SSF power system and structure with the low Earth orbit (LEO) plasma differ significantly between different proposed grounding schemes. Environmental constraints will require modification of current SSF designs under any grounding scheme. Maintaining the present negative-grounding scheme compromises SSF safety, structural integrity, and electromagnetic compatibility. It also will increase contamination rates over alternative grounding schemes. One alternative, positive grounding of the array, requires redesign of the primary power system in work package four. Floating the array reduces the number of circuit changes to work package four but adds new hardware. Maintaining the current design will affect all work packages; however, no impacts were identified on work packages one, two, or three by positively grounding or floating the array, with the possible exception of extra corona protection in multi-wire connectors

An Empirical Analysis that Forecast a High Likelihood of Emergency Loan Need Between Ages 27 to 41 Among Graduate Students for Policy Decisions

The increase in graduate schools’ enrollments due to the global recession poses a complex challenge for graduate school deans and policy decisions. The data indicate that between the ages 27 to 41 emergency loan need is high among graduate students. As more non-traditional students seek admission into graduate school, there may be a prescribed role for the emergency loan in order to reduce the level of borrowing necessary among traditional as well as non-traditional graduate students for effective policy decision making. Analysis of emergency loan recipients provides insight for future researchers to investigate other critical factors that influence emergency loan need not addressed in this assessment. In any case, however, emergency loans will clearly improve policy decisions relating to retention and completion rates among graduate students in a post recession world

Emergency Loan Need Among Graduate Students Signals Debt Trends in Higher Education May Influence the Expansion of the U.S. Economy Long-term

This article proposes that the rising cost of graduate education and debt may suppress interest of domestic and international students in advanced education and impact the market economy. There are three challenges indicated through emergency loan need increases that deter students from graduate education. First, intellectual and skills growth has been a path to wealth building with the cost of education modest and not a potential lifetime debt. Second, Responsibility Centered Management (RCM), galvanized due to reduction of state and federal funds to support education, may have the detrimental effect of exponentially increasing tuition and fees to maintain programs, staff, and faculty. Third, the phenomena of Nonomics evolve where the student invests the sweat equity to achieve the credentials, but lifestyle enrichment is deferred ten to twenty years due to education cost

An Empirical Analysis Of Survey Data About Comprehension Of Collaboration

Statement of Problem: Collaboration a Means to Chaos Likert Type Survey Instrument: Collaborating with other students on academic assignments without having permission from your professor. A large Southwest university examines five years of data about the distinction that may contribute to ethical misconduct in the classroom and misguided actions as a future professional. The classroom models the evolution of technological shifts, which requires broader interaction across disciplines to manage projects. The encouragement to build teamwork skills through class assignments benefits preparation to enter the market economy to lead in e-commerce, social media, information Systems, and Business Analytics. The survey data indicates that collaboration with or without professorial approval is acceptable. An impending issue of an unauthorize collaborative effort signals an absence of clarity does not matter. As professionals in our disciplines, it is imperative to communicate the importance of appropriate use of collaboration as a tool. Fail to do so establishes a weakness in learning and professional development protocols detrimental to success in the market. The engagement of collaborative projects includes internal and external strangers that may be less oriented toward best practices criteria. There must be an elevation to share why clarity matters to the team that comprise potential legal ramifications: 1. Incompetence: inability to do something successfully, ineptitude. 2. Misconduct: managed badly or dishonestly or willfully engaged in wrongful behavior. 3. Malfeasance: wrongdoing or misconduct by a public/private official or the commission of an act that is illegal. 4. Misfeasance: doing of a lawful act in an unlawful or improper manner that infringes on the rights of others. 5. Nonfeasance: the failure to do what duty requires. The five years of empirical research data punctuates a lack of understanding risk associated with the integration of professional disciplines to manages problems of today and tomorrow. Training is preparation to alleviate disruption in a world that struggles with cultural and disciplinary interaction. The research looks closer at the vitality of collaboration readiness among students and professionals

Emergency Loan Need among Graduate Students Signals Debt Trends in Higher Education May Influence the Expansion of the U.S. Economy Long-term

This article proposes that the rising cost of graduate education and debt may suppress interest of domestic and international students in advanced education and impact the market economy.  There are three challenges indicated through emergency loan need increases that deter students from graduate education. First, intellectual and skills growth has been a path to wealth building with the cost of education modest and not a potential lifetime debt.  Second, Responsibility Centered Management (RCM), galvanized due to reduction of state and federal funds to support education, may have the detrimental effect of exponentially increasing tuition and fees to maintain programs, staff, and faculty.  Third, the phenomena of Nonomics evolve where the student invests the sweat equity to achieve the credentials, but lifestyle enrichment is deferred ten to twenty years due to education cost

Association of plasma neurofilament light chain with glycaemic control and insulin resistance in middle-aged adults

Aims: This study aimed to determine the association of plasma neurofilament light (NfL), a marker of neurodegeneration, with diabetes status and glycaemic parameters in people with normal glycaemia (NG), pre-diabetes (PD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods: Clinical and descriptive data for the diagnostic groups, NG (n=30), PD (n=48) and T2D (n=29), aged between 40 and 75 years were included in this cross-sectional analysis. Plasma NfL levels were analyzed using the ultra-sensitive single-molecule array (Simoa) platform. Results: A positive correlation was evident between plasma NfL and fasting glucose (r = 0.2824; p = 0.0032). Plasma NfL levels were not correlated with fasting insulin and insulin resistance. Plasma Nfl levels were significantly different across the diabetes groups (T2D \u3e PD \u3e NG, p = 0.0046). Post-hoc analysis indicated significantly higher plasma NfL levels in the T2D [12.4 (5.21) pg/mL] group than in the PD [10.2 (4.13) pg/mL] and NG [8.37 (5.65) pg/mL] groups. The relationship between diabetes status and NfL remained significant after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, HOMA-IR and physical activity (adjusted r2 = 0.271, p = 0.035). Conclusions: These results show biomarker evidence of neurodegeneration in adults at risk or with T2D. Larger sample size and longitudinal analysis are required to better understand the application of NfL in people with risk and overt T2D

Improved Survival Associated with Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation in Patients with Clinical Stage IIIA(N2) Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer

IntroductionOptimal management of clinical stage IIIA-N2 non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is controversial. This study examines whether neoadjuvant chemoradiation plus surgery improves survival rates when compared with other recommended treatment strategies.MethodsAdult patients from the National Cancer Database, with clinical stage IIIA-N2 disease definitively treated between 1998 and 2004 at American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer accredited facilities, were included in the study. Treatment was defined as neoadjuvant chemoradiation plus either lobectomy (NeoCRT+L) or pneumonectomy (NeoCRT+P), lobectomy plus adjuvant therapy (L+AT), pneumonectomy plus adjuvant therapy (P+AT), and concurrent chemoradiation (CRT). Median follow-up and overall survival (OS) were defined from date of diagnosis to last contact. Five-year OS was estimated using Kaplan–Meier methods. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for sociodemographic, clinical, and facility characteristics.ResultsMedian follow-up was 11.8 months for 11,242 eligible patients. Five-year OS was 33.5%, 20.7%, 20.3%, 13.35%, and 10.9% for NeoCRT+L, NeoCRT+P, L+AT, P+AT, and CRT, respectively (p < 0.0001). On multivariable analysis, the estimated hazard ratio was 0.51 (CI: 0.45–0.58) for NeoCRT+L; 0.77 (0.63–0.95) for NeoCRT+P; 0.66 (0.59–0.75) for L+AT; 0.69 (0.54–0.88) for P+AT; and 1.0 (reference) for the CRT group. Comorbidity did not attenuate the relationship between treatment and survival.ConclusionThis large study demonstrates that patients with clinical stage IIIA-N2 NSCLC, who underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiation followed by lobectomy, were associated with an improved survival

TRPV4 mediates cell damage induced by hyperphysiological compression and regulates COX2/PGE2 in intervertebral discs

Background Aberrant mechanical loading of the spine causes intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration and low back pain. Current therapies do not target the mediators of the underlying mechanosensing and mechanotransduction pathways, as these are poorly understood. This study investigated the role of the mechanosensitive transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4) ion channel in dynamic compression of bovine nucleus pulposus (NP) cells in vitro and mouse IVDs in vivo. Methods Degenerative changes and the expression of the inflammatory mediator cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2) were examined histologically in the IVDs of mouse tails that were dynamically compressed at a short repetitive hyperphysiological regime (vs sham). Bovine NP cells embedded in an agarose-collagen hydrogel were dynamically compressed at a hyperphysiological regime in the presence or absence of the selective TRPV4 antagonist GSK2193874. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) release, as well as phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), were analyzed. Degenerative changes and COX2 expression were further evaluated in the IVDs of trpv4-deficient mice (vs wild-type; WT). Results Dynamic compression caused IVD degeneration in vivo as previously shown but did not affect COX2 expression. Dynamic compression significantly augmented LDH and PGE2 releases in vitro, which were significantly reduced by TRPV4 inhibition. Moreover, TRPV4 inhibition during dynamic compression increased the activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1/2 (ERK) MAPK pathway by 3.13-fold compared to non-compressed samples. Trpv4-deficient mice displayed mild IVD degeneration and decreased COX2 expression compared to WT mice. Conclusions TRPV4 therefore regulates COX2/PGE2 and mediates cell damage induced by hyperphysiological dynamic compression, possibly via ERK. Targeted TRPV4 inhibition or knockdown might thus constitute promising therapeutic approaches to treat patients suffering from IVD pathologies caused by aberrant mechanical stress

Type II fatty acid synthesis is essential only for malaria parasite late liver stage development

Intracellular malaria parasites require lipids for growth and replication. They possess a prokaryotic type II fatty acid synthesis (FAS II) pathway that localizes to the apicoplast plastid organelle and is assumed to be necessary for pathogenic blood stage replication. However, the importance of FAS II throughout the complex parasite life cycle remains unknown. We show in a rodent malaria model that FAS II enzymes localize to the sporozoite and liver stage apicoplast. Targeted deletion of FabB/F, a critical enzyme in fatty acid synthesis, did not affect parasite blood stage replication, mosquito stage development and initial infection in the liver. This was confirmed by knockout of FabZ, another critical FAS II enzyme. However, FAS II-deficient Plasmodium yoelii liver stages failed to form exo-erythrocytic merozoites, the invasive stage that first initiates blood stage infection. Furthermore, deletion of FabI in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum did not show a reduction in asexual blood stage replication in vitro. Malaria parasites therefore depend on the intrinsic FAS II pathway only at one specific life cycle transition point, from liver to blood