Using complex behavior to understand brain mechanisms in health and disease

At this point in the history of the science of behavior, a focus on neuroscience-based outcomes has become dominant in neuropsychiatric fields at the preclinical and clinical levels of analysis. The notion that behavior is caused by brain function, and that changing brain function can alter behavior, has fueled this push to understand these neurobiological mechanisms. Within this conceptual framework and the funding to incentivize its adoption, the neuroscience field grew rapidly with the goal to understand the relation between the brain and behavior. As such, a reductionist perspective emerged whereby neural manipulations of increasing sophistication became required for assessing the necessity and sufficiency of a particular brain mechanism’s role in behavior (Krakauer et al., 2017). Yet, despite the amazing advances in neuroscience, some, such as the former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Thomas Insel, have noted the lack of progress in treatment outcomes for mental illness following the shift in funding from behavioral research to genetics and neuroscience research (Barry, 2022)

Vitamin D in incident nephrotic syndrome: a Midwest Pediatric Nephrology Consortium study

Cross-sectional studies of children with prevalent nephrotic syndrome (NS) have shown 25-vitamin D (25(OH)D) deficiency rates of 20–100 %. Information on 25(OH)D status in incident patients or following remission is limited. This study aimed to assess 25(OH)D status of incident idiopathic NS children at presentation and longitudinally with short-term observation

Modernizing and Expanding the NASA Space Geodesy Network to Meet Future Geodetic Requirements

NASA maintains and operates a global network of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), and Global Navigation Satellite System ground stations as part of the NASA Space Geodesy Program. The NASA Space Geodesy Network (NSGN) provides the geodetic products that support Earth observations and the related science requirements as outlined by the US National Research Council (NRC in Precise geodetic infrastructure: national requirements for a shared resource, National Academies Press, Washington, 2010. http://nap.edu/12954, Thriving on our changing planet: a decadal strategy for Earth observation from space, National Academies Press, Washington, 2018. http://nap.edu/24938). The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) and the NRC have set an ambitious goal of improving the Terrestrial Reference Frame to have an accuracy of 1 mm and stability of 0.1 mm per year, an order of magnitude beyond current capabilities. NASA and its partners within GGOS are addressing this challenge by planning and implementing modern geodetic stations colocated at existing and new sites around the world. In 2013, NASA demonstrated the performance of its next-generation systems at the prototype next-generation core site at NASAs Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory in Greenbelt, Maryland. Implementation of a new broadband VLBI station in Hawaii was completed in 2016. NASA is currently implementing new VLBI and SLR stations in Texas and is planning the replacement of its other aging domestic and international legacy stations. In this article, we describe critical gaps in the current global network and discuss how the new NSGN will expand the global geodetic coverage and ultimately improve the geodetic products. We also describe the characteristics of a modern NSGN site and the capabilities of the next-generation NASA SLR and VLBI systems. Finally, we outline the plans for efficiently operating the NSGN by centralizing and automating the operations of the new geodetic stations

Astrometry and geodesy with radio interferometry: experiments, models, results

Summarizes current status of radio interferometry at radio frequencies between Earth-based receivers, for astrometric and geodetic applications. Emphasizes theoretical models of VLBI observables that are required to extract results at the present accuracy levels of 1 cm and 1 nanoradian. Highlights the achievements of VLBI during the past two decades in reference frames, Earth orientation, atmospheric effects on microwave propagation, and relativity.Comment: 83 pages, 19 Postscript figures. To be published in Rev. Mod. Phys., Vol. 70, Oct. 199

Gaining the PROMIS perspective from children with nephrotic syndrome: a Midwest pediatric nephrology consortium study

Background and objectives Nephrotic syndrome (NS) represents a common disease in pediatric nephrology typified by a relapsing and remitting course and characterized by the presence of edema that can significantly affect the health-related quality of life in children and adolescents. The PROMIS pediatric measures were constructed to be publically available, efficient, precise, and valid across a variety of diseases to assess patient reports of symptoms and quality of life. This study was designed to evaluate the ability of children and adolescents with NS to complete the PROMIS assessment via computer and to initiate validity assessments of the short forms and full item banks in pediatric NS. Successful measurement of patient reported outcomes will contribute to our understanding of the impact of NS on children and adolescents. Design This cross-sectional study included 151 children and adolescents 8-17 years old with NS from 16 participating institutions in North America. The children completed the PROMIS pediatric depression, anxiety, social-peer relationships, pain interference, fatigue, mobility and upper extremity functioning measures using a web-based interface. Responses were compared between patients experiencing active NS (n = 53) defined by the presence of edema and patients with inactive NS (n = 96) defined by the absence of edema. Results All 151 children and adolescents were successfully able to complete the PROMIS assessment via computer. As hypothesized, the children and adolescents with active NS were significantly different on 4 self-reported measures (anxiety, pain interference, fatigue, and mobility). Depression, peer relationships, and upper extremity functioning were not different between children with active vs. inactive NS. Multivariate analysis showed that the PROMIS instruments remained sensitive to NS disease activity after adjusting for demographic characteristics. Conclusions Children and adolescents with NS were able to successfully complete the PROMIS instrument using a web-based interface. The computer based pediatric PROMIS measurement effectively discriminated between children and adolescents with active and inactive NS. The domain scores found in this study are consistent with previous reports investigating the health-related quality of life in children and adolescents with NS. This study establishes known-group validity and feasibility for PROMIS pediatric measures in children and adolescents with NS

Clinical trial of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis in children and young adults

This NIH-funded multicenter randomized study of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) treatment compared the efficacy of a 12-month course of cyclosporine to a combination of oral pulse dexamethasone and mycophenolate mofetil in children and adults with steroid-resistant primary FSGS. Of the 192 patients enrolled, 138 were randomized to cyclosporine (72) or to mycophenolate/dexamethasone (66). The primary analysis compared the levels of an ordinal variable measuring remission during the first year. The odds ratio (0.59) for achieving at least a partial remission with mycophenolate/dexamethasone compared to cyclosporine was not significant. Partial or complete remission was achieved in 22 mycophenolate/dexamethasone- and 33 cyclosporine-treated patients at 12 months. The main secondary outcome, preservation of remission for 26 weeks following cessation of treatment, was not significantly different between these two therapies. During the entire 78 weeks of study, 8 patients treated with cyclosporine and 7 with mycophenolate/dexamethasone died or developed kidney failure. Thus, our study did not find a difference in rates of proteinuria remission following 12 months of cyclosporine compared to mycophenolate/dexamethasone in patients with steroid-resistant FSGS. However, the small sample size might have prevented detection of a moderate treatment effect

1968: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

CROWNING FIFTY YEARS” Being the Fiftieth Annual ABILENE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE BIBLE LECTURES - 1968 J. D. THOMAS, LECTURESHIP DIRECTOR, EDITOR Published by ABILENE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE ACC Station, Abilene, Texas 7960