Dynamics of the glucose-insulin-glucagon system

A computer model for the Dynamics of the Glucose-Insulin-Glucagon System has been developed for a 17.5 kg canine using the Continuous Systems Modeling Program (CSMP) for the 360 Computer System. The major body components controlling the glucose dynamics (liver, pancreas, body muscle, blood flow, and body fluid compartments) have been modeled in terms of either their production, absorption, or transport of glucose, and the concentration levels of both the hormones and substrates perfusing the body component. A set of mneumonics has also been developed to label the hundreds of constant and variable terms required to describe a complex system of this magnitude. The dynamic characteristic of the liver\u27s glycogen storage capability has also been modeled in terms of stored glycogen and the blood plasma concentration levels of both glucose and insulin perfusing the liver. Once the Glucose-Insulin-Glucagon System had been modeled, it was first tested under basal conditions with three different levels of glycogen stored in the liver to check the dynamics of the liver glycogen storage. As expected, when the stored glycogen was below the equilibrium level, blood glucose was converted to liver glycogen, and when the stored level was greater, glycogen was converted back to glucose and returned to the blood. The Glucose-Insulin-Glucagon System model was then tested with an almost instantaneous glucose load of 8.75 grams of glucose, elevating the glucose concentration level to approximately 3.5 mg of glucose per ml of blood plasma. This high glucose concentration level returned exponentially over the next 120 minutes to the basal concentration level of 100 mg/100 ml, agreeing generally with in vivo test data. The Glucose-Insulin-Glucagon System model was then tested by injecting insulin into the model at different rates over an extended period of time and observing the rate at which the glucose concentration fell, its final level, and the rate at which the glucose concentration level returned to the basal concentration level once the insulin load had been removed. Here again, there was generally good agreement with in vivo test data, not only for the glucose concentration dynamics but also for the rate at which glucose was produced by the liver during the period when insulin was being injected into the model

Sensing device with whisker elements

A sensing device includes an elongated whisker element having a flexible cantilever region and a base region where a change in moment or curvature is generated by bending of the cantilever region when it contacts an object. One or more sensor elements cooperatively associated with the whisker element provide one or more output signals that is/are representative of two orthogonal components of change in moment or curvature at the whisker base region to permit determination of object distance, fluid velocity profile, or object contour (shape) with accounting for lateral slip of the whisker element and frictional characteristics of the object. Multiple sensing devices can be arranged in arrays in a manner to sense object contour without or with adjustment for lateral slip

American Indian Historical Trauma: Community Perspectives from Two Great Plains Medicine Men

The field of community psychology has long been interested in the relations between how community problems are defined, what interventions are developed in response, and to what degree power is distributed as a result. Tensions around these issues have come to the fore in debates over the influence of historical trauma (HT) in American Indian (AI) communities. After interviewing the two most influential medicine men on a Great Plains reservation to investigate how these tensions were being resolved, we found that both respondents were engaging with their own unique elaboration of HT theory. The first, George, engaged in a therapeutic discourse that reconfigured HT as a recognizable but malleable term that could help to communicate his “spiritual perspective” on distress and the need for healing in the reservation community. The second, Henry, engaged in a nation‐building discourse that shifted attention away from past colonial military violence toward ongoing systemic oppression and the need for sociostructural change. These two interviews located HT at the heart of important tensions between globalization and indigeneity while opening the door for constructive but critical reflection within AI communities, as well as dialogue with allied social scientists, to consider how emerging discourses surrounding behavioral health disparities might be helpful for promoting healing and/or sociostructural change.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/117141/1/ajcp9671.pd

An Experimental Investigation of the Flexural Resistance of Horizontally Curved Steel I-Girder Systems

In 1998 the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) began executing the experimental component of a multi-year program investigating horizontally curved steel I-girder bridges. This experimental program consists of full-scale testing to determine the effects of horizontal curvature on the structural performance of I-girders subject to moment and shear, to investigate moment/shear interaction, and to assess the behavior and ultimate capacity of a composite bridge. The experiments that are the focus of this dissertation are the component tests designed to determine the bending strength of horizontally curved steel I-girders. These tests were conducted full-scale using a 3-girder system in order to eliminate concerns with modeling and scaling of the results. Also, the boundary conditions supplied to the components by the full-scale 3-girder system are considered to be comparable if not equal to those produced on real bridges. The seven bending component tests were designed to examine the influence of compression flange slenderness, web slenderness and transverse stiffener spacing on bending capacity. The components were loaded within a constant moment region of the test frame eliminating applied vertical shear loads from affecting their performance. For each test, an attempt was made to capture the strains due to installation of the component into the test frame and the strain due to dead-load deflection, as well as the strains due to the applied loading

A Return to “The Clinic” for Community Psychology: Lessons from a Clinical Ethnography in Urban American Indian Behavioral Health

Community psychology (CP) abandoned the clinic and disengaged from movements for community mental health (CMH) to escape clinical convention and pursue growing aspirations as an independent field of context‐oriented, community‐engaged, and values‐driven research and action. In doing so, however, CP positioned itself on the sidelines of influential contemporary movements that promote potentially harmful, reductionist biomedical narratives in mental health. We advocate for a return to the clinic—the seat of institutional power in mental health—using critical clinic‐based inquiry to open sites for clinical‐community dialogue that can instigate transformative change locally and nationally. To inform such works within the collaborative and emancipatory traditions of CP, we detail a recently completed clinical ethnography and offer “lessons learned” regarding challenges likely to re‐emerge in similar efforts. Conducted with an urban American Indian community behavioral health clinic, this ethnography examined how culture and culture concepts (e.g., cultural competence) shaped clinical practice with socio‐political implications for American Indian peoples and the pursuit of transformative change in CMH. Lessons learned identify exceptional clinicians versed in ecological thinking and contextualist discourses of human suffering as ideal partners for this work; encourage intense contextualization and constraining critique to areas of mutual interest; and support relational approaches to clinic collaborations.HighlightsCommunity psychology (CP) must reengage the clinic setting to address problems in mental health.Clinical ethnography represents one promising approach to clinic‐based critical CP research.Clinicians versed in ecological thinking and contextualist discourses make ideal collaborators.Intense contextualism and mutual interests can guide a collaborative CP critique of the clinic.Relationally‐driven and contextually specific approaches to collaboration are helpful in this work.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142553/1/ajcp12212.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/142553/2/ajcp12212_am.pd

Incorporating traditional healing in an urban American Indian health organization: A case study of community member perspectives

Facing severe mental health disparities rooted in a complex history of cultural oppression, members of many urban American Indian (AI) communities are reaching out for indigenous traditional healing to augment their use of standard Western mental health services. Because detailed descriptions of approaches for making traditional healing available for urban AI communities do not exist in the literature, this community-based project convened 4 focus groups consisting of 26 members of a midwestern urban AI community to better understand traditional healing practices of interest and how they might be integrated into the mental health and substance abuse treatment services in an Urban Indian Health Organization (UIHO). Qualitative content analysis of focus group transcripts revealed that ceremonial participation, traditional education, culture keepers, and community cohesion were thought to be key components of a successful traditional healing program. Potential incorporation of these components into an urban environment, however, yielded 4 marked tensions: traditional healing protocols versus the realities of impoverished urban living, multitribal representation in traditional healing services versus relational consistency with the culture keepers who would provide them, enthusiasm for traditional healing versus uncertainty about who is trustworthy, and the integrity of traditional healing versus the appeal of alternative medicine. Although these tensions would likely arise in most urban AI clinical contexts, the way in which each is resolved will likely depend on tailored community needs, conditions, and mental health objectives

SOFIA/FORCAST and Spitzer/IRAC Imaging of the Ultra Compact H II Region W3(OH) and Associated Protostars in W3

We present infrared observations of the ultra-compact H II region W3(OH) made by the FORCAST instrument aboard SOFIA and by Spitzer/IRAC. We contribute new wavelength data to the spectral energy distribution, which constrains the optical depth, grain size distribution, and temperature gradient of the dusty shell surrounding the H II region. We model the dust component as a spherical shell containing an inner cavity with radius ~ 600 AU, irradiated by a central star of type O9 and temperature ~ 31,000 K. The total luminosity of this system is 71,000 L_solar. An observed excess of 2.2 - 4.5 microns emission in the SED can be explained by our viewing a cavity opening or clumpiness in the shell structure whereby radiation from the warm interior of the shell can escape. We claim to detect the nearby water maser source W3 (H2O) at 31.4 and 37.1 microns using beam deconvolution of the FORCAST images. We constrain the flux densities of this object at 19.7 - 37.1 microns. Additionally, we present in situ observations of four young stellar and protostellar objects in the SOFIA field, presumably associated with the W3 molecular cloud. Results from the model SED fitting tool of Robitaille et al. (2006, 2007} suggest that two objects (2MASS J02270352+6152357 and 2MASS J02270824+6152281) are intermediate-luminosity (~ 236 - 432 L_solar) protostars; one object (2MASS J02270887+6152344) is either a high-mass protostar with luminosity 3000 L_solar or a less massive young star with a substantial circumstellar disk but depleted envelope; and one object (2MASS J02270743+6152281) is an intermediate-luminosity (~ 768 L_solar) protostar nearing the end of its envelope accretion phase or a young star surrounded by a circumstellar disk with no appreciable circumstellar envelope.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, accepted by Ap

Metadata Extraction Tool and Schema Mapper for Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) images

Standardized metadata and the proper storage of it are critical components of scientific research. However, manually extracting metadata is time-consuming and error-prone. The KIT-developed Mapping Service solves this problem by automating the process of metadata extraction and mapping as per published schema, making it easier for researchers to manage large datasets for improved accessibility and collaboration. At its core, the Mapping Service is an automated tool for researchers in materials science to easily extract metadata from research images generated by various imaging instruments, namely Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM), and map them according to published metadata schemas. The tool comprises two key components: a reader and a mapper. The reader reads all the metadata embedded within the images, which can contain hundreds of pieces of metadata. The mapper takes the relevant schema and cherry-picks all the key variables that the schema says should be included; it then maps these variables to their appropriate standardized name, resulting in a nicely formatted metadata document in JSON format. The tool also generates a CSV table that summarizes all the extracted information. Researchers in materials science who generate research images with metadata requiring efficient and consistent processing can easily adopt the Mapping Service. This tool is a valuable asset for efficient and standardized metadata handling in materials science research, particularly for SEM Focused Ion Beam tomography. With this poster, we succinctly highlight the Mapping Service’s automatic metadata extraction process, and the necessary considerations and prerequisites for its implementation into a research environment