Boise Exploration Project

To being the innovate challenge, we were presented with five undeveloped properties that we needed to turn into something innovative, filled the needs of the community, was feasible, and grounded in evidence. Our wish was to build something so that Downtown Boise could become a place that truly fostered a sense of community, and culture, while emphasizing education by bringing together everyone from adults to children, students to businessmen, and urban to suburban. This vision was formalized through the construction of our idea: to build a large, interactive Boise City Museum. This museum would take visitors on an interactive journey through the world, from dinosaurs, to Idaho history, to space exploration. We wanted visitors to experience education, to not only learn about history in a classroom; therefore, the Boise City Museum would offer an IMAX experience as well as a public-access planetarium. These innovations would not only allow potential partners like Boise State University, Microsoft, and Hewlett Packard the chance to have a foothold in the community, but also they would inspire young students through sponsoring an exhibit. However, our vision did not stop with the Boise City Museum, we wanted to foster all of the arts, so we added an amphitheatre that could house different plays, local orchestras and support other arts. Next to the amphitheatre, a shopping center called The Marketplace is set; it is a place that will be supportive to small, local businesses and restaurants. This place will have beautiful architecture to provide a breathtaking first glimpse of Boise when exiting the connector. Other innovative aspects to our design was the addition of pedestrian bridges to encourage walking and bicycling; also a parking garage, to help address some of the space issues business people downtown experience. Our design, the Boise Exploration Project, is a large scale, innovative project designed around Boise’s strengths as a community

Probabilistic vs. deterministic fiber tracking and the influence of different seed regions to delineate cerebellar-thalamic fibers in deep brain stimulation

This study compared tractography approaches for identifying cerebellar-thalamic fiber bundles relevant to planning target sites for deep brain stimulation (DBS). In particular, probabilistic and deterministic tracking of the dentate-rubro-thalamic tract (DRTT) and differences between the spatial courses of the DRTT and the cerebello-thalamo-cortical (CTC) tract were compared. Six patients with movement disorders were examined by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including two sets of diffusion-weighted images (12 and 64 directions). Probabilistic and deterministic tractography was applied on each diffusion-weighted dataset to delineate the DRTT. Results were compared with regard to their sensitivity in revealing the DRTT and additional fiber tracts and processing time. Two sets of regions-of-interests (ROIs) guided deterministic tractography of the DRTT or the CTC, respectively. Tract distances to an atlas-based reference target were compared. Probabilistic fiber tracking with 64 orientations detected the DRTT in all twelve hemispheres. Deterministic tracking detected the DRTT in nine (12 directions) and in only two (64 directions) hemispheres. Probabilistic tracking was more sensitive in detecting additional fibers (e.g. ansa lenticularis and medial forebrain bundle) than deterministic tracking. Probabilistic tracking lasted substantially longer than deterministic. Deterministic tracking was more sensitive in detecting the CTC than the DRTT. CTC tracts were located adjacent but consistently more posterior to DRTT tracts. These results suggest that probabilistic tracking is more sensitive and robust in detecting the DRTT but harder to implement than deterministic approaches. Although sensitivity of deterministic tracking is higher for the CTC than the DRTT, targets for DBS based on these tracts likely differ

Interim Analysis of Attrition Rates in Palliative Care Study on Dignity Therapy

A routine threat to palliative care research is participants not completing studies. The purpose of this analysis was to quantify attrition rates mid-way through a palliative care study on Dignity Therapy and describe the reasons cited for attrition. Enrolled in the study were a total of 365 outpatients with cancer who were receiving outpatient specialty palliative care (mean age 66.7 ± 7.3 years, 56% female, 72% White, 22% Black, 6% other race/ethnicity). These participants completed an initial screening for cognitive status, performance status, physical distress, and spiritual distress. There were 76 eligible participants who did not complete the study (58% female, mean age 67.9 ± 7.3 years, 76% White, 17% Black, and 7% other race). Of those not completing the study, the average scores were 74.5 ± 11.7 on the Palliative Performance Scale and 28.3 ± 1.5 on the Mini-Mental Status Examination, whereas 22% had high spiritual distress scores and 45% had high physical distress scores. The most common reason for attrition was death/decline of health (47%), followed by patient withdrawal from the study (21%), and patient lost to follow-up (21%). The overall attrition rate was 24% and within the a priori projected attrition rate of 20%-30%. Considering the current historical context, this interim analysis is important because it will serve as baseline data on attrition prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research will compare these results with attrition throughout the rest of the study, allowing analysis of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the study attrition