Promissory Notes

There is no doubt that the beginning of the twenty-first century was marked by crises of debt. Less well known is that literature played a historical role in defining and teaching debt to the public. Promissory Notes: On the Literary Conditions of Debt addresses how neoliberal finance has depended upon a historical linking of geopolitical inequality and financial representation that positions the so-called “Third World” as negative value, or debt. Starting with an analysis of Anthony Trollope’s novel,The Eustace Diamonds, Goodman shows how colonized spaces came to inhabit this negative value. Promissory Notes argues that the twentieth-century continues to apply literary innovations in character, subjectivity, temporal and spatial representation to construct debt as the negative creation of value not only in reference to objects, but also houses, credit cards, students, and, in particular, “Third World” geographies, often leading to crisis. Yet, late twentieth century and early twenty-first literary texts, such as Soyinka’s The Road and Ngugi’s. Wizard of the Crow, address the negative space of the indebted world also as a critique of the financial take-over of the postcolonial developmental state. Looking to situations like the Puerto Rican debt crisis, Goodman demonstrates how financial discourse is articulated through social inequalities and how literature can both expose and contest the imposition of a morality of debt as mode of anti-democratic control

Utilizing mindfulness-based practices in a pediatric emergency department

Mental health conditions affect one in five children with only half of these children receiving proper treatment (CDC, 2022). This is partly due to the continued shortage of trained pediatric psychiatric providers in the community (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2019). In addition to the shortage of providers, there remains a shortage of pediatric psychiatric beds (Kraft et al., 2021). These combined factors have led to the pediatric boarding crisis in America (Leyenaar et al., 2021; McEnany et al., 2020; Nash et al., 2021). When adolescents are admitted to the emergency department due to a mental health crisis, their ability to rest and sleep is often disrupted. The “Utilizing Mindfulness-Based Practices in a Pediatric Emergency Department” program offers occupational therapy practitioners a framework to help these adolescents regain a sense of normalcy in their daily routines and purposeful activities. Through the incorporation of mindfulness-based practices and comprehensive education, adolescents can work on re-establishing a healthy balance in their rest and sleep patterns

Comparison of Blood Collected in Acid-Citrate-Dextrose and EDTA for Use in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell Cultures

Paired blood samples collected in acid-citrate-dextrose and EDTA were compared for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infectivity on the day of collection or after 1 day of storage at room temperature. No significant differences between the anticoagulants were observed. Culture positivity was significantly associated with HIV RNA viral loads for both anticoagulants

Spectral triples and the super-Virasoro algebra

We construct infinite dimensional spectral triples associated with representations of the super-Virasoro algebra. In particular the irreducible, unitary positive energy representation of the Ramond algebra with central charge c and minimal lowest weight h=c/24 is graded and gives rise to a net of even theta-summable spectral triples with non-zero Fredholm index. The irreducible unitary positive energy representations of the Neveu-Schwarz algebra give rise to nets of even theta-summable generalised spectral triples where there is no Dirac operator but only a superderivation.Comment: 27 pages; v2: a comment concerning the difficulty in defining cyclic cocycles in the NS case have been adde

Loop groups and noncommutative geometry

We describe the representation theory of loop groups in terms of K-theory and noncommutative geometry. This is done by constructing suitable spectral triples associated with the level l projective unitary positive-energy representations of any given loop group $LG$. The construction is based on certain supersymmetric conformal field theory models associated with LG in the setting of conformal nets. We then generalize the construction to many other rational chiral conformal field theory models including coset models and the moonshine conformal net.Comment: Revised versio

Functional Changes Within the Rod Inner Segment Ellipsoid in Wildtype Mice: An Optical Coherence Tomography and Electron Microscopy Study

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that changing energy needs alter mitochondria distribution within the rod inner segment ellipsoid. Methods: In mice with relatively smaller (C57BL/6J [B6J]) or greater (129S6/ev [S6]) retina mitochondria maximum reserve capacity, the profile shape of the rod inner segment ellipsoid zone (ISez) was measured with optical coherence tomography (OCT) under higher (dark) or lower (light) energy demand conditions. ISez profile shape was characterized using an unbiased ellipse descriptor (minor/major aspect ratio). Other bioenergy indexes evaluated include the external limiting membrane–retinal pigment epithelium (ELM-RPE) thickness and the magnitude of the signal intensity of a hyporeflective band located between the photoreceptor tips and apical RPE. The spatial distribution of rod ellipsoid mitochondria were also examined with electron microscopy. Results: In B6J mice, darkness produced a greater ISez aspect ratio, thinner ELM-RPE, and a smaller hyporeflective band intensity than in light. In S6 mice, dark and light ISez aspect ratio values were not different and were greater than in light-adapted B6J mice; dark-adapted S6 mice showed smaller ELM-RPE thinning versus light, and negligible hyporeflective band intensity in the light. In B6J mice, mitochondria number in light increased in the distal inner segment ellipsoid and decreased proximally. In S6 mice, mitochondria number in the inner segment ellipsoid were not different between light and dark, and were greater than in B6J mice. Conclusions: These data raise the possibility that rod mitochondria activity in mice can be noninvasively evaluated based on the ISez profile shape, a new OCT index that complements OCT energy biomarkers measured outside of the ISez region

The Sensor Management for Applied Research Technologies (SMART) Project

NASA seeks on-demand data processing and analysis of Earth science observations to facilitate timely decision-making that can lead to the realization of the practical benefits of satellite instruments, airborne and surface remote sensing systems. However, a significant challenge exists in accessing and integrating data from multiple sensors or platforms to address Earth science problems because of the large data volumes, varying sensor scan characteristics, unique orbital coverage, and the steep "learning curve" associated with each sensor, data type, and associated products. The development of sensor web capabilities to autonomously process these data streams (whether real-time or archived) provides an opportunity to overcome these obstacles and facilitate the integration and synthesis of Earth science data and weather model output

Clinical and Dosimetric Impact of 2D kV Motion Monitoring and Intervention in Liver Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy.

PURPOSE: Positional errors resulting from motion are a principal challenge across all disease sites in radiation therapy. This is particularly pertinent when treating lesions in the liver with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). To achieve dose escalation and margin reduction for liver SBRT, kV real-time imaging interventions may serve as a potential solution. In this study, we report results of a retrospective cohort of liver patients treated using real-time 2D kV-image guidance SBRT with emphasis on the impact of (1) clinical workflow, (2) treatment accuracy, and (3) tumor dose. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Data from 33 patients treated with 41 courses of liver SBRT were analyzed. During treatment, planar kV images orthogonal to the treatment beam were acquired to determine treatment interventions, namely treatment pauses (ie, adequacy of gating thresholds) or treatment shifts. Patients were shifted if internal markers were \u3e3 mm, corresponding to the PTV margin used, from the expected reference condition. The frequency, duration, and nature of treatment interventions (ie, pause vs shift) were recorded, and the dosimetric impact associated with treatment shifts was estimated using a machine learning dosimetric model. RESULTS: Of all fractions delivered, 39% required intervention, which took on average 1.9 ± 1.6 minutes and occurred more frequently in treatments lasting longer than 7 minutes. The median realignment shift was 5.7 mm in size, and the effect of these shifts on minimum tumor dose in simulated clinical scenarios ranged from 0% to 50% of prescription dose per fraction. CONCLUSION: Real-time kV-based imaging interventions for liver SBRT minimally affect clinical workflow and dosimetrically benefit patients. This potential solution for addressing positional errors from motion addresses concerns about target accuracy and may enable safe dose escalation and margin reduction in the context of liver SBRT