Five Tectonic Settings in Five National Parks and Forests: A Field Camp Experience

In summer 2014, Southern Utah University’s field camp visited five national parks and forests to study five different tectonic settings in five weeks. These included: thick-skinned contraction of the Laramide Orogeny at Capitol Reef National Park; normal faulting due to salt tectonics of the Paradox Formation at Arches National Park; thin-skinned folding and thrusting of the Sevier Orogeny at Fish Lake National Forest and Kolob Canyon of Zion National Park; foreland sedimentary transitions in the Book’s Cliffs areas of Utah; thrusting and conjugate fracture development due to the gravitational collapse of the Marysvale volcanic field at Bryce Canyon National Park; and a metamorphic core complex at Great Basin National Park and Hendry’s Creek in the Northern Snake Range of Nevada. This article provides a brief summary and photographic tour of the students’ experiences studying each tectonic environment, and it highlights wonderful geological features exposed in our national parks

Dimensions of oral health related quality of life measured by EQ-5D+ and OHIP-14

BACKGROUND: The aims of the study were to compare the dimensions of oral-health-related quality-of-life measured by a generic health state measure, the EuroQol, and a specific oral health measure, the Oral Health Impact Profile. METHODS: Data were collected in 2001–02 from a random sample of South Australian dentists using mailed self-complete questionnaires. Dentists recorded the diagnosis of dental problems and provided patients with self-complete questionnaires to record the nature, severity and duration of symptoms using the EuroQol (EQ-5D+) and 14-item version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14) instruments. RESULTS: Data were available from 375 patients (response rate = 72%). The EuroQol items of mobility, self care and usual activities formed a separate cluster of variables, as did anxiety/depression and cognition, while pain clustered with items from the OHIP physical pain subscale. OHIP items tended to form clusters consistent with the subscales of social disability, physical disability, physical pain, functional limitation and psychological discomfort. The OHIP handicap items clustered between the OHIP social disability and physical disability subscales. The OHIP psychological disability items split between the social disability and psychological discomfort subscales. CONCLUSIONS: The observed clusters of variables empirically supported most of the conceptual dimensions of the OHIP. Both instruments covered symptom experience of pain indicating overlapping domains. However there was partial separation of the generic and specific items, EuroQol covered daily activities such as self-care and usual activities and OHIP covered oral health-specific aspects of functional limitation and physical disability as well as psychological and social aspects of disability and handicap

Cytotoxicity of the urokinase-plasminogen activator inhibitor carbamimidothioic acid (4-boronophenyl) methyl ester hydrobromide (BC-11) on triple-negative MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells

Abstract: BC-11 is an easily synthesized simple thiouronium-substituted phenylboronic acid, which has been shown to be cytotoxic on triple negative MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells by inducing a perturbation of cell cycle when administered at a concentration equal to its ED50 at 72 h (117 μM). Exposure of cells to BC-11, either pre-absorbed with a soluble preparation of the N-terminal fragment of urokinase-plasminogen activator (uPa), or in co-treatment with two different EGFR inhibitors, indicated that: (i) BC-11 acts via binding to the N-terminus of the enzyme where uPa- and EGF receptor-recognizing sites are present, thereby abrogating the growth-sustaining effect resulting from receptor binding; and (ii) the co-presence of the EGFR inhibitor PD153035 potentiates BC-11’s cytotoxicity. Exposure of cells to a higher concentration of BC-11 corresponding to its ED75 at 72 h (250 μM) caused additional impairment of mitochondrial activity, the production of reactive oxygen species and promotion of apoptosis. Therefore, BC-11 treatment appears to show potential for the development of this class of compounds in the prevention and/or therapy of “aggressive” breast carcinoma

Towards conformationally-locked difluorosugar analogues : an unexpected sense of dihydroxylation

Difluorinated cyclooctenones, synthesised using RCM, can be used as templates for stereoselective oxidative transformations to products that undergo transannular reactions to afford conformationally-locked analogues of 2-deoxy-2,2-difluorosugars with different stereochemical relationships between the C-2 and C-3 hydroxyl groups

New Horizons: Long-Range Kuiper Belt Targets Observed by the Hubble Space Telescope

We report on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of three Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), discovered in our dedicated ground-based search campaign, that are candidates for long-range observations from the New Horizons spacecraft: 2011 JY31, 2011 HZ102, and 2013 LU35. Astrometry with HST enables both current and future critical accuracy improvements for orbit precision, required for possible New Horizons observations, beyond what can be obtained from the ground. Photometric colors of all three objects are red, typical of the Cold Classical dynamical population within which they reside; they are also the faintest KBOs to have had their colors measured. None are observed to be binary with HST above separations of ~0.02 arcsec (~700 km at 44 AU) and {\Delta}m less than or equal to 0.5.Comment: Pages: 11, Figures: 2, Tables: 3, Icarus, available online May 2014 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2014.04.014

Oral Health in South Australia - 2008

Oral health in South Australia 2008 provides a comprehensive summary of the oral health of South Australian residents. This publication was developed from a range of surveys conducted by the Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health (ARCPOH) and administrative data provided by state dental services. Information provided in this publication includes data on caries experience and periodontal diseases of children and adults, tooth retention and loss among adults, access to dental care, cost of dental care and the dental labour force. Information on the oral health of Indigenous children and adults is also provided. The publication highlights the recent increase in the level of dental decay among primary and secondary school children, the low percentage of school aged children visiting the school dental service, the extent of individual out-of-pocket expenditure on dental services, and issues with access to dentists and dental hygienists outside of the Adelaide metropolitan area

Prefrontal cortex activation supports the emergence of early stone age toolmaking skill

Trends toward encephalization and technological complexity ∼1.8 million years ago may signify cognitive development in the genus Homo. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, we measured relative brain activity of 33 human subjects at three different points as they learned to make replicative Oldowan and Acheulian Early Stone Age tools. Here we show that the more complex early Acheulian industry recruits left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex when skills related to this task are first being learned. Individuals with increased activity in this area are the most proficient at the Acheulian task. The Oldowan task, on the other hand, transitions to automatic processing in less than 4 h of training. Individuals with increased sensorimotor activity demonstrate the most skill at this task. We argue that enhanced working memory abilities received positive selection in response to technological needs during the early Pleistocene, setting Homo on the path to becoming human

Policy Recommendations for Meeting the Grand Challenge to Close the Health Gap

This brief was created forSocial Innovation for America’s Renewal, a policy conference organized by the Center for Social Development in collaboration with the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare, which is leading theGrand Challenges for Social Work initiative to champion social progress. The conference site includes links to speeches, presentations, and a full list of the policy briefs