I Can See! : A Health Promotion Project to Improve Quality of Life in Jamaican Communities

Sacred Heart University’s nursing students of the undergraduate and graduate level, along with the University’s faculty and community healthcare providers travel to Kingston, Jamaica annually to provide medical care to impoverished populations. During this one-week clinical experience, a health promotion project that students focus on is testing the population for hyperopia, dispensing reading glasses, and observing the conditions that may be leading to various visual conditions in the Caribbean. As the project began two years ago with much success, plans for expansion to improve visual impairments in the population served include early interventions for cataract prevention, continual dispensing of reading glasses, and collection and dissemination of sunglasses for the next clinical program

Affects of Budgets on Creativity and Revenue

This paper explores the potential factors that could optimize the revenue growth of different companies. These factors include the creativity levels of the head of the business and the budget they have to work with. The businesses analyzed in this paper were Apple and 21st Century Fox

Assessing the status and challenges of pediatric oncology in low and middle-income countries

In the past decade, an increased global effort has been directed towards improving pediatric oncology status in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Several international organizations and large consortiums have collaborated to undertake this effort, such as the United States (U.S.) National Cancer Institute (NCI), The Middle East Cancer Consortium, African Cancer Registry Network, The Middle East Childhood Cancer Alliance, Pediatric Oncology East and Mediterranean (POEM) Group and others. However, underreporting of incidence, mortality, and survival rate of childhood cancer in LMICs have so far limited the global community from understanding the true scale of the problem. Underestimating the extent of pediatric cancer in LMICs creates a massive challenge and plays a significant role in delaying improvement of pediatric cancer medical care. In this study, a rapid review and data assessment from publicly available databases and literature was performed to define the status of pediatric cancer data in low-income countries (LICs) and compare it to that of high-income countries (HICs). This assessment revealed that the amount of pediatric cancer data published in HICs was significantly larger compared to LICs, especially for African countries. The analysis also highlighted the existence of a significant discrepancy of pediatric cancer data reported by different sources in LICs, whereas there was a minimal discrepancy in data reported in HICs. To better understand the extent of data underreporting in LICs, a questionnaire was sent to cancer registries in selected African countries to assess the factors that might impact the process and quality of data collection and reporting. The results of the questionnaire highlighted that limited resources of registries, staff workload, lack of training, access to diagnostic tools and underrepresentation of their data in global databases were some of the factors that mostly contributed to pediatric cancer data underreporting. Results also indicated that incidence rates reported by cancer registries were not comparable with those reported by global databases, thus confirming the discrepancy outlined in the data assessment. To further investigate underreporting in LICs and collect pediatric data directly from cancer centers, a fieldwork trip in Egypt took place in 2018. The outcome of interviews and meetings during the visit illustrated that lack of resources, access to therapies, and access to diagnostic tools and protocols were key gaps and challenges that those cancer centers faced. Moreover, future collaborations and action plans were established, and data digitalization and training programs were the main two action plans prioritized. In summary, the combined outcome of the rapid review and data assessment, cancer registries questionnaire, and field trip suggested that there is a significant underreporting of pediatric cancer data and discrepancy in data reported in LICs. Additionally, cancer hospitals, centers, and registries face tremendous challenges and gaps that negatively impact data collection and reporting. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the global community to establish strategies to quantify the true scale of pediatric cancer, which should lead to allocate sufficient funds to improve pediatric cancer medical care in LICs

Metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk after liver transplantation: a single-center experience.

Excessive weight gain, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes are frequently observed among orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) patients. These alterations, which are probably multifactorial in origin, contribute to posttransplantation metabolic syndrome (PTMS), which increases the risk of cardiovascular events. We assessed the prevalence of PTMS (diagnosed according to modified NCEP Adult Treatment Panel III criteria) in 156 OLT patients undergoing regular follow-up after transplantation (median 68 months; range, 6 to 234 months). Several pre- and post-OLT data were collected to identify the factors associated with the presence of PTMS which was found in 28% of cases. The only independent predictive factors for PTMS were diabetes mellitus and patients who were overweight or obese before-OLT. The prevalence of PTSM was lower among patients on tacrolimus immunosuppression. In our population, 21% of patients showed a high cardiovascular risk score with a 4% incidence of cardiovascular events, which was higher among subjects with PTMS. Close follow-up is mandatory to prevent the development of PTMS mainly among overweight and diabetic patients before transplantation

Mix and match recognition modules for the formation of H-bonded duplexes.

Oligomeric molecules equipped with complementary H-bond recognition sites form stable duplexes in non-polar solvents. The use of a single H-bond between a good H-bond donor and a good H-bond acceptor as the recognition motif appended to a non-polar backbone leads to an architecture with interchangeable recognition alphabets. The interactions of three different families of H-bond acceptor oligomers (pyridine, pyridine N-oxide or phosphine oxide recognition module) with a family of H-bond donor oligomers (phenol recognition module) are compared. All three donor-acceptor combinations form stable duplexes, where the stability of the 1 : 1 complex increases with increasing numbers of recognition modules. The effective molarity for formation of intramolecular H-bonds that lead to zipping up of the duplex (EM) increases with decreasing flexibility of the recognition modules: 14 mM for the phosphine oxides which are connected to the backbone via a flexible linker; 40 mM for the pyridine N-oxides which have three fewer degrees of torsional freedom, and 80 mM for the pyridines where the geometry of the H-bond is more directional. However, the pyridine-phenol H-bond is an order of magnitude weaker than the other two types of H-bond, so overall the pyridine N-oxides form the most stable duplexes with the highest degree of cooperativity. The results show that it is possible to use different recognition motifs with the same duplex architecture, and this makes it possible to tune overall stabilities of the complexes by varying the components.We thank the EPSRC and ERC for fundin

(Ghosts of) Generative Literature in Italy between Past, Present and Future

This paper focuses on Italian literary works based on generative practices, from the first combinatorial examples up to the most recent developments related to the use of AI systems. A comparative approach is used in order to highlight themes, tools, practices and methods of Italian authors

Sequence-Selective Formation of Synthetic H-Bonded Duplexes

Oligomers equipped with a sequence of phenol and pyridine N-oxide groups form duplexes via H-bonding interactions between these recognition units. Reductive amination chemistry was used to synthesize all possible 3-mer sequences: AAA, AAD, ADA, DAA, ADD, DAD, DDA, and DDD. Pairwise interactions between the oligomers were investigated using NMR titration and dilution experiments in toluene. The measured association constants vary by 3 orders of magnitude (102 to 105 M–1). Antiparallel sequence-complementary oligomers generally form more stable complexes than mismatched duplexes. Mismatched duplexes that have an excess of H-bond donors are stabilized by the interaction of two phenol donors with one pyridine N-oxide acceptor. Oligomers that have a H-bond donor and acceptor on the ends of the chain can fold to form intramolecular H-bonds in the free state. The 1,3-folding equilibrium competes with duplex formation and lowers the stability of duplexes involving these sequences. As a result, some of the mismatch duplexes are more stable than some of the sequence-complementary duplexes. However, the most stable mismatch duplexes contain DDD and compete with the most stable sequence-complementary duplex, AAA·DDD, so in mixtures that contain all eight sequences, sequence-complementary duplexes dominate. Even higher fidelity sequence selectivity can be achieved if alternating donor–acceptor sequences are avoided.We thank the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/J008044/2) and European Research Council (ERC-2012-AdG 320539-duplex) for funding

AN INNOVATIVE NUMERICAL APPROACH FOR TRAIN PASS-BY NOISE FORECASTING

This paper deals with an engineering method for the prediction of vehicle pass-by noise based on a FEM/ BEM exterior acoustic calculation in the frequency domain. The researchers simulate, in a virtual environment, the experimental outdoor pass-by noise measurement. The simulated pass-by noise campaign is synthesized from multiple acoustic transfer functions between a line of virtual microphones located 7.5m on the side of the vehicle and each noise source. A numerical FEM/BEM train bogie acoustic model has been created within the MSC ACTRAN commercial softwares. Wheel-rail rolling noise, engine and powertrain noise acoustic source have been implemented and posi-tioned inside the FEM and BEM model to demonstrate the validity of the proposed methods. The contribu-tion from noise sources, expressed both in terms of sound pressure level and overall value, to the pass-by noise were evaluated up to 5 kHz. The virtual pass-by-noise assessment has been then validated by experi-mental measurement of the complete four coach’s train with respect to different speed regimes