Inhalation exposure system for diesel exhaust particulates

The objectives of this research were twofold. First, a Hazelton 2000 Inhalation Chamber was modified to minimize the amount of diesel exhaust particulate (DEP) needed for animal inhalation exposures. Second, instrumentation was evaluated for aerosolizing DEP, monitoring the mass concentration and size distribution, and determining the uniformity of the aerosol.;The Jet-O-Mizer jet mill produced a single mode DEP mass median diameter (MMD) of 0.33 mum while maintaining a relatively steady mass concentration of 10 mg/m3. The uniformity of a carbon black aerosol was found to vary from 9.9 mg/m3 in the front part of the chamber, to 10.4 mg/m3 in the center, and 11.7 mg/m 3 in the rear. The Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM) was found to satisfactorily monitor the mass concentration but the filter lifetime at high mass concentrations would necessitate periodic observations

Designing a Programming Game to Improve Children’s Procedural Abstraction Skills in Scratch

© The Author(s) 2020. The recent shift in compulsory education from ICT-focused computing curricula to informatics, digital literacy and computer science, has resulted in children being taught computing using block-based programming tools such as Scratch, with teaching that is often limited by school resources and teacher expertise. Even without these limitations, Scratch users often produce code with ‘code smells’ such as duplicate blocks and long scripts which impact how they understand and debug projects. These code smells can be removed using procedural abstraction, an important concept in computer science rarely taught to this age group. This article describes the design of a novel educational block-based programming game, Pirate Plunder, which concentrates on how procedural abstraction is introduced and reinforced. The article then reports an extended evaluation to measure the game’s efficacy with children aged 10 and 11, finding that children who played the game were then able to use procedural abstraction in Scratch. The article then uses game analytics to explore why the game was effective and gives three recommendations for educational game design based on this research: using learning trajectories and restrictive success conditions to introduce complex content, increasing learner investment through customisable avatars and suggestions for improving the evaluations of educational games

Comparisons of Two Proteomic Analyses of Non-Mucoid and Mucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa Clinical Isolates from a Cystic Fibrosis Patient

Pseudomonas aeruginosa chronically infects the lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. The conditions in the CF lung appear to select for P. aeruginosa with advantageous phenotypes for chronic infection. However, the mechanisms that allow the establishment of this chronic infection have not been fully characterized. We have previously reported the transcriptional analysis of two CF isolates strains 383 and 2192. Strain 2192 is a mucoid, alginate overproducing strain whereas strain 383 is non-mucoid. Mucoid strains are associated with chronic infection of the CF lung and non-mucoid strains are the typical initially infecting isolates. To elucidate novel differences between these two strains, we employed two methods of shotgun proteomics: isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). iTRAQ compares the amount of protein between samples and relies on protein abundance, while 2-DE gel electrophoresis depends on selection of separated protein spots. For both these methods, mass spectrometry was then used to identify proteins differentially expressed between the two strains. The compilation of these two proteomic methods along with Western blot analysis revealed proteins of the HSI-I operon of the type 6 secretion system, showed increased expression in 383 compared to 2192, confirming the our previous transcriptional analysis. Proteomic analysis of other proteins did not fully correlate with the transcriptome but other differentially expressed proteins are discussed. Also, differences were noted between the results obtained for the two proteomic techniques. These shotgun proteomic analyses identified proteins that had been predicted only through gene identification; we now refer to these as “proteins of unknown functions” since their existence has now been established however their functional characterization remains to be elucidated

Jedi public health: Co-creating an identity-safe culture to promote health equity

© 2016 The Authors. The extent to which socially-assigned and culturally mediated social identity affects health depends on contingencies of social identity that vary across and within populations in day-to-day life. These contingencies are structurally rooted and health damaging inasmuch as they activate physiological stress responses. They also have adverse effects on cognition and emotion, undermining self-confidence and diminishing academic performance. This impact reduces opportunities for social mobility, while ensuring those who "beat the odds" pay a physical price for their positive efforts. Recent applications of social identity theory toward closing racial, ethnic, and gender academic achievement gaps through changing features of educational settings, rather than individual students, have proved fruitful. We sought to integrate this evidence with growing social epidemiological evidence that structurally-rooted biopsychosocial processes have population health effects. We explicate an emergent framework, Jedi Public Health (JPH). JPH focuses on changing features of settings in everyday life, rather than individuals, to promote population health equity, a high priority, yet, elusive national public health objective. We call for an expansion and, in some ways, a re-orienting of efforts to eliminate population health inequity. Policies and interventions to remove and replace discrediting cues in everyday settings hold promise for disrupting the repeated physiological stress process activation that fuels population health inequities with potentially wide application.National Institute on Aging (Grant # R01 AG032632)National Institute on Aging (Grant # T32 AG00221

Matrix Rigidity Regulates Cancer Cell Growth by Modulating Cellular Metabolism and Protein Synthesis

Background: Tumor cells in vivo encounter diverse types of microenvironments both at the site of the primary tumor and at sites of distant metastases. Understanding how the various mechanical properties of these microenvironments affect the biology of tumor cells during disease progression is critical in identifying molecular targets for cancer therapy. Methodology/Principal Findings: This study uses flexible polyacrylamide gels as substrates for cell growth in conjunction with a novel proteomic approach to identify the properties of rigidity-dependent cancer cell lines that contribute to their differential growth on soft and rigid substrates. Compared to cells growing on more rigid/stiff substrates (>10,000 Pa), cells on soft substrates (150–300 Pa) exhibited a longer cell cycle, due predominantly to an extension of the G1 phase of the cell cycle, and were metabolically less active, showing decreased levels of intracellular ATP and a marked reduction in protein synthesis. Using stable isotope labeling of amino acids in culture (SILAC) and mass spectrometry, we measured the rates of protein synthesis of over 1200 cellular proteins under growth conditions on soft and rigid/stiff substrates. We identified cellular proteins whose syntheses were either preferentially inhibited or preserved on soft matrices. The former category included proteins that regulate cytoskeletal structures (e.g., tubulins) and glycolysis (e.g., phosphofructokinase-1), whereas the latter category included proteins that regulate key metabolic pathways required for survival, e.g., nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase, a regulator of the NAD salvage pathway. Conclusions/Significance: The cellular properties of rigidity-dependent cancer cells growing on soft matrices are reminiscent of the properties of dormant cancer cells, e.g., slow growth rate and reduced metabolism. We suggest that the use of relatively soft gels as cell culture substrates would allow molecular pathways to be studied under conditions that reflect the different mechanical environments encountered by cancer cells upon metastasis to distant sites

Scientific review by the marine science advisory panel of Oregon University System scientists of the US Commission on ocean policy preliminary report for Governor Kulongoski's Oregon response

The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy (USCOP) has articulated a set of overarching Guiding Principles to frame the creation of a new national ocean policy. When taken collectively, these principles provide a careful, circumspect, and ambitious context from which to develop policies that will promote vibrant coastal communities, healthy and resilient ecosystems, abundant wildlife, sustainable fisheries, clean and safe shorelines, and enjoyable and inspirational recreational opportunities—in short, the visions that Oregonians articulate for their coast and ocean. The Guiding Principles align closely with Oregon’s Statewide Planning Goals, policies, and values. In fact, they underscore the importance of weighing long-term interests more heavily than short-term ones in the balance of competing uses. They are holistic in geographic scope, rather than focused on a single component of a complex ecosystem. The USCOP Guiding Principles were conceived to foster an atmosphere of objective scientific inquiry to form the basis of policy and decision-making to reconcile the diverse needs of all Oregonians.Keywords: Estuary, Shellfish, Beach, Fish, Kelp, Estuarine, Habitat, Algae, Marine, Indicators, Freshwater, Mammal

Physicians' use of the 5As in counseling obese patients: is the quality of counseling associated with patients' motivation and intention to lose weight?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Physicians are encouraged to counsel obese patients to lose weight, but studies measuring the quality of physicians' counseling are rare. We sought to describe the quality of physicians' obesity counseling and to determine associations between the quality of counseling and obese patients' motivation and intentions to lose weight, key predictors of behavior change.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted post-visit surveys with obese patients to assess physician's use of 5As counseling techniques and the overall patient-centeredness of the physician.. Patients also reported on their motivation to lose weight and their intentions to eat healthier and exercise. One-way ANOVAs were used to describe mean differences in number of counseling practices across levels of self-rated intention and motivation. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess associations between number of 5As counseling practices used and patient intention and motivation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>137 patients of 23 physicians were included in the analysis. While 85% of the patients were counseled about obesity, physicians used only a mean of 5.3 (SD = 4.6) of 18 possible 5As counseling practices. Patients with higher levels of motivation and intentions reported receiving more 5As counseling techniques than those with lower levels. Each additional counseling practice was associated with higher odds of being motivated to lose weight (OR 1.31, CI 1.11-1.55), intending to eat better (OR 1.23, CI 1.06-1.44), and intending to exercise regularly (OR 1.14, CI 1.00-1.31). Patient centeredness of the physician was also positively associated with intentions to eat better (OR 2.96, CI 1.03-8.47) and exercise (OR 26.07, CI 3.70-83.93).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Quality of physician counseling (as measured using the 5As counseling framework and patient-centeredness scales) was associated with motivation to lose weight and intentions to change behavior. Future studies should determine whether higher quality obesity counseling leads to improved behavioral and weight outcomes.</p

Conservation successes and challenges for wide-ranging sharks and rays

Overfishing is the most significant threat facing sharks and rays. Given the growth in consumption of seafood, combined with the compounding effects of habitat loss, climate change, and pollution, there is a need to identify recovery paths, particularly in poorly managed and poorly monitored fisheries. Here, we document conservation through fisheries management success for 11 coastal sharks in US waters by comparing population trends through a Bayesian state-space model before and after the implementation of the 1993 Fisheries Management Plan for Sharks. We took advantage of the spatial and temporal gradients in fishing exposure and fisheries management in the Western Atlantic to analyze the effect on the Red List status of all 26 wide-ranging coastal sharks and rays. We show that extinction risk was greater where fishing pressure was higher, but this was offset by the strength of management engagement (indicated by strength of National and Regional Plan of Action for sharks and rays). The regional Red List Index (which tracks changes in extinction risk through time) declined in all regions until the 1980s but then improved in the North and Central Atlantic such that the average extinction risk is currently half that in the Southwest. Many sharks and rays are wide ranging, and successful fisheries management in one country can be undone by poorly regulated or unregulated fishing elsewhere. Our study underscores that well-enforced, science-based management of carefully monitored fisheries can achieve conservation success, even for slow-growing species