ESR Study of (C_5H_{12}N)_2CuBr_4

ESR studies at 9.27, 95.4, and 289.7 GHz have been performed on (C$_5$H$_{12}$N)$_2$CuBr$_4$ down to 3.7 K. The 9.27 GHz data were acquired with a single crystal and do not indicate the presence of any structural transitions. The high frequency data were collected with a polycrystalline sample and resolved two absorbances, consistent with two crystallographic orientations of the magnetic sites and with earlier ESR studies performed at 300 K. Below $B_{C1}=6.6$ T, our data confirm the presence of a spin singlet ground state.Comment: 2 pages, 4 figs., submitted 23rd International Conference on Low Temperature Physics (LT-23), Aug. 200

Illinois State University Concert Choir Fall 2003 Tour

November 3, 200

Implementation of An Immediate Postpartum Long-Acting Reversible Contraception Program in a Southern Texas Border Population

Background: Expanding contraceptive access in a Southern Texas border population can reduce the number of unintended and short-interval pregnancies, which have been associated with poor maternal and neonatal health outcomes. Healthcare encounters can be maximized to include immediate postpartum long-acting reversible contraception (IPP LARC) as an additive to the healthcare access many women have during pregnancy. The implementation of the IPP LARC Program allowed for the provision of accessible LARCs to fulfill the contraceptive needs of our patient population. This program was supported by Medicaid reimbursements and a private teaching grant that was awarded to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Ob/Gyn residency program at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance (DHR). Methods: Data was collected retrospectively from participants who received a LARC from 2/2017 to 7/2021 at DHR Women’s Hospital after receiving IRB approval. Patient demographic information, such as age, gravidity, parity, delivery route, primary provider, and funding were assessed, along with LARC distribution and insertion timing. The reimbursement status for Medicaid-funded devices was obtained from the DHR Billing Department. Results: A total of 467 LARCs were inserted under the IPP LARC Program over 4.5 years. Ages ranged from 13-57 years old. A total of 353 (76%) participants received primary care from the UTRGV Ob/Gyn Residency Program. All others were consults who had received care from private physicians at the DHR WH. A total of 314 (67.2%) implants and 153 (32.8%) IUDs were inserted and 313 (75%) devices were placed following a vaginal delivery, while 103 (25%) after a cesarean section. Majority (257 participants (55.2%)) lacked funding, while 193 (41.4%) had Medicaid, and 16 (3.4%) had private insurance. Conclusion: The IPP LARC program provided for 467 participants, with majority of the recipients requesting immediate postpartum contraception. Most lacked adequate funding and many requests came from private providers wanting to provide patients with their desired postpartum contraceptive method. The program helped fulfill the contraceptive needs of this population by expanding access regardless of funding status. Follow-up studies should assess patient satisfaction and LARC continuation rates to help obtain future funding and promote expansion of the program

A combination of methods needed to assess the actual use of provisioning ecosystem services

Failure to recognize that potential provisioning ecosystem services are not necessarily collected and used by people may have important consequences for management of land and resources. Accounting for people's actual use of ecosystem services in decision making processes requires a robust methodological approach that goes beyond mapping the presence of ecosystem services. But no such universally accepted method exists, and there are several shortcomings of existing methods such as the application of land use/cover as a proxy for provisioning ecosystem service availability and surveys based on respondents' recall to assess people's collection of e.g. wild food. By combining four complementary methods and applying these to the shifting cultivation systems of Laos, we show how people’s actual use of ecosystem services from agricultural fields differs from ecosystem service availability. Our study is the first in Southeast Asia to combine plot monitoring, collection diaries, repeat interviews, and participant observation. By applying these multiple methods borrowed from anthropology and botany among other research domains, the study illustrates that no single method is sufficient on its own. It is of key importance for scientists to adopt methods that can account for both availability of various services and actual use of those services

Very Late Stent Thrombosis due to Neointimal Rupture After Paclitaxel-Eluting Stent Implantation

We report our experience of very late stent thrombosis (VLST) in a young male patient who underwent implantation of two paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES) six years ago. The patient was compliant with standard dual antiplatelet therapy, but he presented with acute myocardial infarction which was associated with VLST. Intravascular ultrasound showed neointimal rupture with thrombus within the PES implanted in the right coronary artery. The lesion was successfully treated with balloon angioplasty without complications, however he was found to be hyporesponsive to clopidogrel when tested for adenosine diphosphate-induced platelet aggregation. The patient was discharged after uneventful recovery with triple anti-platelet therapy using aspirin, clopidogrel and cilostazol. To the best of our knowledge, a time interval of 2,223 days is the longest reported time interval between PES deployment and VLST occurrence. VLST may indeed occur in clinically stable patients, as multiple factors can influence the pathological mechanisms of VLST

PARP-3 and APLF function together to accelerate nonhomologous end joining

PARP-3 is a member of the ADP-ribosyl transferase superfamily of unknown function. We show that PARP-3 is stimulated by DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in vitro and functions in the same pathway as the poly (ADP-ribose)-binding protein APLF to accelerate chromosomal DNA DSB repair. We implicate PARP-3 in the accumulation of APLF at DSBs and demonstrate that APLF promotes the retention of XRCC4/DNA ligase IV complex in chromatin, suggesting that PARP-3 and APLF accelerate DNA ligation during nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ). Consistent with this, we show that class switch recombination in Aplf−/− B cells is biased toward microhomology-mediated end-joining, a pathway that operates in the absence of XRCC4/DNA ligase IV, and that the requirement for PARP-3 and APLF for NHEJ is circumvented by overexpression of XRCC4/DNA ligase IV. These data identify molecular roles for PARP-3 and APLF in chromosomal DNA double-strand break repair reactions