What asteroseismology can do for exoplanets

We describe three useful applications of asteroseismology in the context of exoplanet science: (1) the detailed characterisation of exoplanet host stars; (2) the measurement of stellar inclinations; and (3) the determination of orbital eccentricity from transit duration making use of asteroseismic stellar densities. We do so using the example system Kepler-410 (Van Eylen et al. 2014). This is one of the brightest (V = 9.4) Kepler exoplanet host stars, containing a small (2.8 Rearth) transiting planet in a long orbit (17.8 days), and one or more additional non-transiting planets as indicated by transit timing variations. The validation of Kepler-410 (KOI-42) was complicated due to the presence of a companion star, and the planetary nature of the system was confirmed after analyzing a Spitzer transit observation as well as ground-based follow-up observations.Comment: 4 pages, Proceedings of the CoRoT Symposium 3 / Kepler KASC-7 joint meeting, Toulouse, 7-11 July 2014. To be published by EPJ Web of Conference

A Dominantly Inherited Progressive Deafness Affecting Distal Auditory Nerve and Hair Cells

We have studied 72 members belonging to a large kindred with a hearing disorder inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern. We used audiological, physiological, and psychoacoustic measures to characterize the hearing disorders. The initial phenotypic features of the hearing loss are of an auditory neuropathy (AN) with abnormal auditory nerve and brainstem responses (ABRs) and normal outer hair cell functions [otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) and cochlear microphonics (CMs)]. Psychoacoustic studies revealed profound abnormalities of auditory temporal processes (gap detection, amplitude modulation detection, speech discrimination) and frequency processes (difference limens) beyond that seen in hearing impairment accompanying cochlear sensory disorders. The hearing loss progresses over 10–20 years to also involve outer hair cells, producing a profound sensorineural hearing loss with absent ABRs and OAEs. Affected family members do not have evidence of other cranial or peripheral neuropathies. There was a marked improvement of auditory functions in three affected family members studied after cochlear implantation with return of electrically evoked auditory brainstem responses (EABRs), auditory temporal processes, and speech recognition. These findings are compatible with a distal auditory nerve disorder affecting one or all of the components in the auditory periphery including terminal auditory nerve dendrites, inner hair cells, and the synapses between inner hair cells and auditory nerve. There is relative sparing of auditory ganglion cells and their axons.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41385/1/10162_2004_Article_5014.pd

Female Veteran Use of Palliative and Hospice Care: A Scoping Review

Introduction The number of female veterans in the USA in the age range of 55-64 years increased 7-fold from 2000 to 2015. Female veterans are more likely to suffer from certain mental health disorders, respiratory diseases, neurologic diseases, and some forms of cancer when compared to their male counterparts. Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare providers need to be prepared to care for this growth of female veterans with serious illness. These serious illnesses require appropriate medical management, which often includes palliative care. It is imperative to determine how VA healthcare providers integrate palliative and hospice care for this population. The purpose of our scoping review was to explore the palliative and hospice care literature specific to female veterans to learn: (1) what evidence is available regarding female veterans’ use of palliative and hospice care? (2) To meet the needs of this growing population, what gaps exist specific to female veterans’ use of palliative and hospice care? Methods A scoping review methodology was employed following the nine-step process described by the Joanna Briggs Institute for conducting scoping reviews. Results Nineteen articles met the inclusion criteria. Fourteen quantitative articles were included which comprised 10 retrospective chart reviews, one randomized controlled trial, one correlation, one quality improvement, and one cross-sectional. The remaining five were qualitative studies. The sample populations within the articles were overwhelmingly male and white. Content analysis of the articles revealed three themes: quality of end of life care, distress, and palliative care consult. Conclusions The female veteran population is increasing and becoming more ethnically diverse. Female veterans are not well represented in the literature. Our review also uncovered a significant gap in the study methodologies. We found that retrospective chart reviews dominated the palliative and hospice care literature specific to veterans. More prospective study designs are needed that explore the veteran and family experience while receiving end of life care. With the rising number of older female veterans and their risk for serious illness, it is imperative that research studies purposefully recruit, retain, analyze, and report female veteran statistics along with their male counterparts. We can no longer afford to disregard the value of the female veterans’ perspective

Giant-Cell Tumors of the Temporal Bone: Management Strategies

Objective: To discuss the current management options for giant-cell tumors (GCTs) involving the temporal bone and present two case reports and a review of the literature. Method: In a tertiary-care academic medical center, two patients with GCTs of the temporal bone were evaluated and managed. The patients underwent gross total resection and curettage of GCTs involving the temporal bone. Afterward, both patients were evaluated for postoperative complications as well as for recurrence. Results: Two patients underwent operative excision using curettage. Clinical and radiographic studies demonstrated no evidence of recurrence with 3 years of follow-up in one patient and 10 years of follow-up in the second patient. Conclusion: Based on these results, we concluded that gross total removal and curettage of GCTs in the temporal bone is a viable treatment option. This finding is contrary to previous studies

Accounting for historical injustices in mathematical models of infectious disease transmission: An analytic overview

Differences in infectious disease risk, acquisition, and severity arise from intersectional systems of oppression and resulting historical injustices that shape individual behavior and circumstance. We define historical injustices as distinct events and policies that arise out of intersectional systems of oppression. We view historical injustices as a medium through which structural forces affect health both directly and indirectly, and are thus important to study in the context of infectious disease disparities. In this critical analysis we aim to highlight the importance of incorporating historical injustices into mathematical models of infectious disease transmission and provide context on the methodologies to do so. We offer two illustrations of elements of model building (i.e., parameterization, validation and calibration) that can allow for a better understanding of health disparities in infectious disease outcomes. Mathematical models that do not recognize the historical forces that underlie infectious disease dynamics inevitably lead to the individualization of our focus and the recommendation of untenable individual-behavioral prescriptions to address the burden of infectious disease

Thermal-topographic modeling of the Northern Apennines

Geomorphology can have a strong influence on thermochronometer. In particular, the closure isotherm will tend to form a smoothed version of the surface topography, with greater topographic relief producing larger deflections of the isotherm. Also, erosion rate will influence the mean closure depth given that the faster erosion causes isotherms to migrate to shallower depths. We report on modeling here using the PECUBE software (Braun, 2003), in which we solved the heat transport equation in three dimensions by conduction and advection together with an evolving surface topography, to constrain the evolution of surface relief in the Northern Apennines. In particular, we wish to constrain the decrease in surface topography that may have occurred during the emergence of the orogen as it started interacting with the Apulian margin some 5-10 Myr ago. The Neighbourhood Algorithm (or NA) (Sambridge, 1999) is used to constrain the values of free parameters (i.e. time at which the relief starts to decrease, amount of topography decrease, crustal elastic thickness) by minimizing a misfit function derived from observed and modeled ages. We used a 128-node cluster of PCs to sample parameter space in a meaningful way. Dataset comprises zircon and apatite fission-track and zircon and apatite (U-Th)/He ages obtained through the Northern Apennine chain. The spatial distribution of ages shows a decrease eastwards, with the oldest apatite fisison-track ages of about 11 Ma to the west and the youngest of about 3 Ma along the central range. Results obtained by NA inversion indicate that the dataset can be equally explained with low values of the relief loss and elastic plate thickness or higher values of the relief loss and elastic plate thickness. However, beacuse many of He ages and the general pattern of younger ages near the central axis of the orogen are not well reproduced in the predictions, a detailed investigation of age-elevation relationships suggests that a model in which the denudation is solely driven by surface erosion and isostasy is not appropriate for this chain. The thermochronological dataset is better explained by a model in which relief reduction associated with the emergence of the wedge is accompanied by ongoing tectonic uplift

Surgical Approaches to the Hypoglossal Canal

Objective: To describe and illustrate three distinct surgical approaches that permit exposure and resection of extradural, intradural, and transdural lesions involving the hypoglossal canal. Study design: Case series. Setting: University medical center. Patients: Four patients with lesions of the hypoglossal canal were reviewed to illustrate our philosophy when selecting a surgical approach to the hypoglossal canal. Interventions: Three separate surgical approaches were used to approach lesions involving various segments of the hypoglossal canal. Main outcome measures: Initial clinical presentation, tumor type, treatment course, complications and functional outcomes of hearing, lower cranial nerves, and great vessels. Results: A modified pre- and postauricular infratemporal fossa approach was used to permit the complete resection of an extradural hypoglossal canal schwannoma. The far lateral approach was used to remove a posterior fossa meningioma that involved the intradural hypoglossal canal. A transjugular craniotomy was used to resect a jugulotympanic paraganglioma with transdural hypoglossal canal involvement. Postoperatively, there were no major complications. However, one patient had cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea that resolved with lumbar subarachnoid drainage and another had a pseudomeningocele that resolved spontaneously. Dysphagia was not observed in any patient and all were discharged within 1 week of surgery. All patients are free of recurrence by clinical and radiographic examination with at least 2 years of follow-up. Conclusions: Lesions of the hypoglossal canal can be safely and effectively resected using the appropriate skull base approach. The three skull base approaches described herein provide access to selected portions of the hypoglossal canal and allow for preservation of hearing, the lower cranial nerves, and great vessels

Using thermochrometry to image topographic evolution in the Northern Apennines, Italy

[ATTO DI CONVEGNO

Navigating Disharmony Nurse Experiences Providing End-of-Life Communication

The purpose of this study was to describe nurses\u27 experiences of communicating with patients and families at end of life (EOL). The COMFORT Communication Model guided this descriptive qualitative study. Participants from 1 major health care system located in the Great Plains completed an online survey, which consisted of Likert-type (N = 252) and open-ended questions (n = 201). This article reports the qualitative findings of this survey. Thematic analysis of the participants\u27 narrative responses revealed an overarching theme of disharmony when caring for patients and families at EOL. We identified 3 themes within the overarching theme of disharmony: navigating denial, words matter, and knowledge deficit. Nurses express discomfort and a knowledge deficit when providing communication specific to primary palliative and EOL care. Nursing education has an obligation to ensure that new graduates are trained in and develop comfort with the communication principles of primary palliative and EOL care. This holistic approach may improve the quality of communication surrounding the EOL experience for patients, families, and nurses

Using thermochrometry to image topographic evolution in the Northern Apennines, Italy

Shallow isotherm surfaces tend to follow the overlying surface topography, with the degree of smoothing increasing with depth. The closure isotherms for (U-Th)/He and fission-track (FT) apatite methods are shallow enough (< ~3 km) that they are strongly affected by surface topography. Thus, these cooling ages should provide information about the surface topography at the time of closure. We exploit this phenomenon using a dense suite of (U-Th)/He and fission-track apatite ages from the northern Apennines, and numerical inverse methods that allow estimation of the evolution of surface topography from the cooling ages. Stratigraphic evidence indicates that the Apennines emerged above sea level at ~5 Ma. Our expectation was that topography and relief would have increased over the last 5 m.y., reaching the maximum elevations observed today of ~2500 m. Age-elevation relationships show a linear increase in age with elevation at the local scale. However, at the regional scale, the cooling ages are inversely correlated with elevation. This relationship is diagnostic of a decrease in relief with time. We have analyzed both the FT and He apatites ages using a finite-element routine (PECUBE) and also a fourier-based routine. The best-fit solution was found by numerical search. We find that the relief of the range has decreased since emergence, by a factor of 2 or 3 starting at ~8 Ma. This result makes sense given that the Apennines started at ~30 Ma as a large submarine subduction wedge. The large relief before 8 Ma reflects the large submarine relief of the wedge at that time and the relatively constant sea floor tempetures in the Mediterranean (~14 C). This wedge was reduced in size when it emerged as it overrode the passive margin of the Adriatic platform