Evaluation of a Rural Organ Donation Campaign Designed to Improve Health Promotion among Young Adults

A health communication campaign to promote organ donation was conducted in partnership with Donate Life America at a rural university campus. Materials included posters, flyers, and postcards, along with personal contact. Participants included university students located at a rural university campus in a survey in a pre-post intervention during National Donate Life Month. Data from research about the campaign included the target audience who completed surveys prior to and after the campaign about attitude and intent towards donation. Likewise, after pre-post intervention of the campaign, reported rates for donor registration increased, and findings indicate that registration rates in this rural university campus are similar to baseline rates in other regions. Based on the population, additional health communication strategies should address disparate groups develop appropriately tailored interventions. Local community health campaigns may be effective in promoting donor registration and increasing communication and beneficial outcomes surrounding organ donation

Integration of Mass Spectrometry Data for Structural Biology

Mass spectrometry (MS) is increasingly being used to probe the structure and dynamics of proteins and the complexes they form with other macromolecules. There are now several specialized MS methods, each with unique sample preparation, data acquisition, and data processing protocols. Collectively, these methods are referred to as structural MS and include cross-linking, hydrogen-deuterium exchange, hydroxyl radical footprinting, native, ion mobility, and top-down MS. Each of these provides a unique type of structural information, ranging from composition and stoichiometry through to residue level proximity and solvent accessibility. Structural MS has proved particularly beneficial in studying protein classes for which analysis by classic structural biology techniques proves challenging such as glycosylated or intrinsically disordered proteins. To capture the structural details for a particular system, especially larger multiprotein complexes, more than one structural MS method with other structural and biophysical techniques is often required. Key to integrating these diverse data are computational strategies and software solutions to facilitate this process. We provide a background to the structural MS methods and briefly summarize other structural methods and how these are combined with MS. We then describe current state of the art approaches for the integration of structural MS data for structural biology. We quantify how often these methods are used together and provide examples where such combinations have been fruitful. To illustrate the power of integrative approaches, we discuss progress in solving the structures of the proteasome and the nuclear pore complex. We also discuss how information from structural MS, particularly pertaining to protein dynamics, is not currently utilized in integrative workflows and how such information can provide a more accurate picture of the systems studied. We conclude by discussing new developments in the MS and computational fields that will further enable in-cell structural studies

Adaptive smartphone-based sensor fusion for estimating competitive rowing kinematic metrics.

Competitive rowing highly values boat position and velocity data for real-time feedback during training, racing and post-training analysis. The ubiquity of smartphones with embedded position (GPS) and motion (accelerometer) sensors motivates their possible use in these tasks. In this paper, we investigate the use of two real-time digital filters to achieve highly accurate yet reasonably priced measurements of boat speed and distance traveled. Both filters combine acceleration and location data to estimate boat distance and speed; the first using a complementary frequency response-based filter technique, the second with a Kalman filter formalism that includes adaptive, real-time estimates of effective accelerometer bias. The estimates of distance and speed from both filters were validated and compared with accurate reference data from a differential GPS system with better than 1 cm precision and a 5 Hz update rate, in experiments using two subjects (an experienced club-level rower and an elite rower) in two different boats on a 300 m course. Compared with single channel (smartphone GPS only) measures of distance and speed, the complementary filter improved the accuracy and precision of boat speed, boat distance traveled, and distance per stroke by 44%, 42%, and 73%, respectively, while the Kalman filter improved the accuracy and precision of boat speed, boat distance traveled, and distance per stroke by 48%, 22%, and 82%, respectively. Both filters demonstrate promise as general purpose methods to substantially improve estimates of important rowing performance metrics

When Do They Choose the Reading Center? Promoting Literacy in a Kindergarten Classroom

This action research project investigated activities designed to encourage children to visit the reading center in a kindergarten classroom. Three interventions were implemented on alternating days. Analyses suggested that these interventions led to increased voluntary use of the reading center. The days the intern read a story produced the most visits. This process of systematic data collection also increased monitoring of the children with the lowest literacy skills and provided opportunities to tailor literacy activities to their interests

Grindr Users Take More Risks, but Are More Open to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Pre-exposure Prophylaxis: Could This Dating App Provide a Platform for HIV Prevention Outreach?

BackgroundTechnology has changed the way that men who have sex with men (MSM) seek sex. More than 60% of MSM in the United States use the internet and/or smartphone-based geospatial networking apps to find sex partners. We correlated use of the most popular app (Grindr) with sexual risk and prevention behavior among MSM.MethodsA nested cohort study was conducted between September 2018 and June 2019 among MSM receiving community-based human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening in central San Diego. During the testing encounter, participants were surveyed for demographics, substance use, risk behavior (previous 3 months), HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use, and Grindr usage. Participants who tested negative for HIV and who were not on PrEP were offered immediate PrEP.ResultsThe study included 1256 MSM, 1090 of whom (86.8%) were not taking PrEP. Overall, 580 of 1256 (46%) participants indicated that they used Grindr in the previous 7 days. Grindr users reported significantly higher risk behavior (greater number of male partners and condomless sex) and were more likely to test positive for chlamydia or gonorrhea (8.6% vs 4.7% of nonusers; P = .005). Grindr users were also more likely to be on PrEP (18.7% vs 8.7% of nonusers; P < .001) and had fewer newly diagnosed HIV infections (9 vs 26 among nonusers; P = .014). Grindr users were also nearly twice as likely as nonusers to initiate PrEP (24.6% vs 14%; P < .001).ConclusionsGiven the higher risk behavior and greater acceptance of PrEP among MSM who used Grindr, Grindr may provide a useful platform to promote HIV and STI testing and increase PrEP uptake

Archeological Survey of Wildlife Mitigation Lands, Justiceburg Reservoir, Garza County, Texas

In order to fulfill its obligations in conjunction with the proposed Jnsticeburg Reservoir project, the City of Lubbock, Texas, is considering the purchase of 2,240 acres in Garza County to serve as wildlife mitigation lands. Prior to the City\u27s final decision to acquire the land, an archeological survey was conducted. The ca. 1,000 acres of incised canyonland and upland margin and ca. 215 acres of selected upland rises were intensively surveyed, while the remaining 1,025 acres of upland flat and low-lying areas were spot checked. Subsurface geomorphic investigations (i.e., backhoe trenching) of the uplands were also conducted. The survey resulted in the documentation of 1 historic and 32 prehistoric archeological sites (1 previously recorded). Of these, the historic site is recommended as eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and eight prehistoric sites are of unknown eligibility. These nine sites will need special management considerations to prevent impacts from wildlife mitigation use of the land. Historic use of the project area is associated with late nineteenth/early twentieth-century cattle ranching, while all of the prehistoric occupations that can be temporally defined are late Archaic or Late Prehistoric. Most of the cultural activity is clustered around three major freshwater spring complexes. There appears to have been intensive use of these areas during the late Holocene but only ephemeral prehistoric use of the uplands more than 0.5 km away from the springs and stream channels. Geomorphic evidence indicates that extensive root-plow disturbance occurred in many upland areas, but well-preserved archeological deposits are present in portions of the eroded upland margin. Three unique upland depositional environments (playas with associated dunes, channels, and pond deposits) have the potential for preserving buried cultural remains of considerable antiquity as well as providing paleo-environmental data which is lacking at this time

Effects of Self-presentation and Social Media Use in Attainment of Beauty Ideals

The Hyperpersonal Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior were integrated to explore self-esteem and use of beauty-related content on social media sites. A multiple regression model tested the relationship between beauty related social media use, enjoyment and self-esteem. Results indicate that participants who reported frequent use of beauty-based social media contents had higher self-esteem and greater engagement with online content. Implications and suggestions for research lines are offered

Extracellular vesicles: Novel communicators in lung diseases

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.The lung is the organ with the highest vascular density in the human body. It is therefore perceivable that the endothelium of the lung contributes significantly to the circulation of extracellular vesicles (EVs), which include exosomes, microvesicles, and apoptotic bodies. In addition to the endothelium, EVs may arise from alveolar macrophages, fibroblasts and epithelial cells. Because EVs harbor cargo molecules, such as miRNA, mRNA, and proteins, these intercellular communicators provide important insight into the health and disease condition of donor cells and may serve as useful biomarkers of lung disease processes. This comprehensive review focuses on what is currently known about the role of EVs as markers and mediators of lung pathologies including COPD, pulmonary hypertension, asthma, lung cancer and ALI/ARDS. We also explore the role EVs can potentially serve as therapeutics for these lung diseases when released from healthy progenitor cells, such as mesenchymal stem cells.NiH R01DA042715NIH R01HL129875NIH P20 GM10363