The associations between body and knee height measurements and knee joint structure in an asymptomatic cohort

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It has been suggested that knee height is a determinant of knee joint load. Nonetheless, no study has directly examined the relationship between anthropometric measures of height and knee joint structures, such as cartilage.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>89 asymptomatic community-based adults aged 25-62 with no diagnosed history of knee arthropathy were recruited. Anthropometric data (knee height and body height) were obtained by standard protocol, while tibial cartilage volume and defects, as well as bone area were determined from magnetic resonance imaging. Static knee alignment was measured from the joint radiograph.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All anthropometric height measures were associated with increasing compartmental tibial bone area (<it>p </it>≤ 0.05). Although knee height was associated with tibial cartilage volume (e.g. β = 27 mm³95% CI 7- 48; <it>p </it>= 0.009 for the medial compartment), these relationship no longer remained significant when knee height as a percentage of body height was analysed. Knee height as a percentage of body height was associated with a reduced risk of medial tibial cartilage defects (odds ratio 0.6; 95% confidence interval 0.4 - 1.0; <it>p </it>= 0.05).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The association between increased anthropometric height measures and increased tibial bone area may reflect inherently larger bony structures. However the beneficial associations demonstrated with cartilage morphology suggest that an increased knee height may confer a beneficial biomechanical environment to the chondrocyte of asymptomatic adults.</p

MFA15 (MFA 2015)

Catalogue of a culminating student exhibition held at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, May 1 - August 2, 2015 . Introduction / Heather Corcoran and Patricia Olynyk -- Diana Casanova / Emily J. Hanson -- Andrea M. Coates : in the operating theater / Stephanie Dering -- Margaux Crump -- Brandon Daniels -- Addoley Dzegede : do you prefer answers or truth? / Aaron Coleman -- Vita Eruhimovitz -- Carling Hale -- Amanda Helman -- Mike Helms / Ming Ying Hong -- Ming Ying Hong / Emily J. Hanson -- Sea A Joung / Ervin Malakaj -- Stephanie Kang / Jeremy Shipley -- Dayna Jean Kriz / Andrew Johnson -- Thomas Moore : you should move to the city / Nathaniel Rosenthalis -- Jacob Muldowney -- Laurel Panella / Garrett Clough -- Caitlin Penny -- On the bridge, between Juarez and El Paso / Eric Lyle Schultz -- Jeremy Shipley -- Emmeline Solomon -- Kellie Spano / Margaux Crump -- Michael Aaron Williams -- Austin R. Wolf : monumental labor / Adam Turl.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/books/1015/thumbnail.jp

Acupuncture as a Complementary Therapy for Cancer Care: Acceptability and Preferences of Patients and Informal Caregivers

Background: Acupuncture can effectively manage cancer-related side effects, for both patients undergoing treatment and for cancer survivors. It may also be effective in managing physiological and psychological symptoms common among informal caregivers of cancer patients. Objectives: The aim of this survey was to explore the acceptability and preferences of cancer patients, cancer survivors, and their informal caregivers in relation to acupuncture. Methods: The survey was conducted from 20th November to 27th November 2018. The questionnaire was developed to explore acceptability and preferences, including motivation, symptoms to be addressed, and practical issues (location, cost, etc.), in relation to acupuncture. Results: The survey response rate was 94.5% in cancer patients and cancer survivors and 100% in caregivers. Acceptability of acupuncture was 34.5% (n = 40/116) and 48.0% (n = 26/54) in cancer patients and caregivers, respectively. About 52.5% (n = 21/40) of patients preferred to undergo acupuncture at the day center clinic, whereas caregivers had no specific preference. Patients and cancer survivors would use acupuncture for symptoms of fatigue (60%), listlessness (57.5%), and pain (47.5%). Informal caregivers expressed an interest in using acupuncture for their pain, stress, and sleeping difficulties 48.0% (n = 26/54). Conclusion: Cancer patients, cancer survivors, and informal caregivers would accept acupuncture as a complementary therapy. This openness and preference to acupuncture provide the foundations for this complementary therapy to be incorporated into holistic and supportive cancer care, both for patients and those supporting them

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

MFA09 (MFA 2009)

Catalogue of a culminating student exhibition held at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in 2009. Content includes A new paradigm / Carmon Colangelo -- Evolving practices / Patricia Olynyk -- Stephanie Barenz -- Carolyn Dawn Bendel -- Jacob Cruzen -- Rachel Ann Dennis -- Bryan Eaton -- Maya Escobar -- Meredith Foster -- Morgan Gehris -- Gina Grafos -- Stephen Hoskins -- Amelia Jones -- Hye Young Kim -- Anne Lindberg -- Goran Maric -- Kelda Martensen -- Erica L. Millspaugh -- Carianne Noga -- Joel Parker -- Rebecca C. Potts -- Shannon Randol -- Elaine Rickles -- Michael Kenneth Smith -- Dan Solberg -- Natalie Toney -- Glenn Tramantano -- Kathryn Trout -- J. Taylor Wallace.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/books/1006/thumbnail.jp

Validation of a self-efficacy instrument and its relationship to performance of crisis resource management skills

Self-efficacy is thought to be important for resuscitation proficiency in that it influences the development of and access to the associated medical knowledge, procedural skills and crisis resource management (CRM) skills. Since performance assessment of CRM skills is challenging, self-efficacy is often used as a measure of competence in this area. While self-efficacy may influence performance, the true relationship between self-efficacy and performance in this setting has not been delineated. We developed an instrument to measure pediatric residents’ self-efficacy in CRM skills and assessed its content validity, internal structure, and relationship to other variables. After administering the instrument to 125 pediatric residents, critical care fellows and faculty, we performed an exploratory factor analysis within a confirmatory factor analysis as well as a known group comparison. The analyses specified four factors that we defined as: situation awareness, team management, environment management, and decision making. Pediatric residents reported lower self-efficacy than fellows and faculty in each factor. We also examined the correlation between self-efficacy and performance scores for a subset of 30 residents who led video recorded simulated resuscitations and had their performances rated by three observers. We found a significant, positive correlation between residents’ self-efficacy in situation awareness and environment management and their overall performance of CRM skills. Our findings suggest that in a specific context, self-efficacy as a form of self-assessment may be informative with regards to performance

The small molecule specific EphB4 kinase inhibitor NVP-BHG712 inhibits VEGF driven angiogenesis

EphB4 and its cognitive ligand ephrinB2 play an important role in embryonic vessel development and vascular remodeling. In addition, several reports suggest that this receptor ligand pair is also involved in pathologic vessel formation in adults including tumor angiogenesis. Eph/ephrin signaling is a complex phenomena characterized by receptor forward signaling through the tyrosine kinase of the receptor and ephrin reverse signaling through various protein–protein interaction domains and phosphorylation motifs of the ephrin ligands. Therefore, interfering with EphR/ephrin signaling by the means of targeted gene ablation, soluble receptors, dominant negative mutants or antisense molecules often does not allow to discriminate between inhibition of Eph/ephrin forward and reverse signaling. We developed a specific small molecular weight kinase inhibitor of the EphB4 kinase, NVP-BHG712, which inhibits EphB4 kinase activity in the low nanomolar range in cellular assays showed high selectivity for targeting the EphB4 kinase when profiled against other kinases in biochemical as well as in cell based assays. Furthermore, NVP-BHG712 shows excellent pharmacokinetic properties and potently inhibits EphB4 autophosphorylation in tissues after oral administration. In vivo, NVP-BHG712 inhibits VEGF driven vessel formation, while it has only little effects on VEGF receptor (VEGFR) activity in vitro or in cellular assays. The data shown here suggest a close cross talk between the VEGFR and EphR signaling during vessel formation. In addition to its established function in vascular remodeling and endothelial arterio-venous differentiation, EphB4 forward signaling appears to be an important mediator of VEGF induced angiogenesis since inhibition of EphB4 forward signaling is sufficient to inhibit VEGF induced angiogenesis

Can primary care research be conducted more efficiently using routinely reported practice-level data: A cluster randomised controlled trial conducted in England?

Objectives Conducting randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in primary care is challenging; recruiting patients during time-limited or remote consultations can increase selection bias and physical access to patients' notes is costly and time-consuming. We investigated barriers and facilitators to running a more efficient design. Design An RCT aiming to reduce antibiotic prescribing among children presenting with acute cough and a respiratory tract infection (RTI) with a clinician-focused intervention, embedded at the practice level. By using aggregate level, routinely collected data for the coprimary outcomes, we removed the need to recruit individual participants. Setting Primary care. Participants Baseline data from general practitioner practices and interviews with individuals from Clinical Research Networks (CRNs) in England who helped recruit practices and Clinical Commission Groups (CCGs) who collected outcome data. Intervention The intervention included: (1) explicit elicitation of parental concerns, (2) a prognostic algorithm to identify children at low risk of hospitalisation and (3) provision of a printout for carers including safety-netting advice. Coprimary outcomes For 0-9 years old - (1) Dispensing data for amoxicillin and macrolide antibiotics and (2) hospital admission rate for RTI. Results We recruited 294 of the intended 310 practices (95%) representing 336 496 registered 0-9 years old (5% of all 0-9 years old children). Included practices were slightly larger, had slightly lower baseline prescribing rates and were located in more deprived areas reflecting the national distribution. Engagement with CCGs and their understanding of their role in this research was variable. Engagement with CRNs and installation of the intervention was straight-forward although the impact of updates to practice IT systems and lack of familiarity required extended support in some practices. Data on the coprimary outcomes were almost 100%. Conclusions The infrastructure for trials at the practice level using routinely collected data for primary outcomes is viable in England and should be promoted for primary care research where appropriate

The critical role of the linear plasmid lp36 in the infectious cycle of Borrelia burgdorferi

Borrelia burgdorferi, the aetiological agent of Lyme disease, follows a life cycle that involves passage between the tick vector and the mammalian host. To investigate the role of the 36 kb linear plasmid, lp36 (also designated the B. burgdorferi K plasmid), in the infectious cycle of B. burgdorferi, we examined a clone lacking this plasmid, but containing all other plasmids known to be required for infectivity. Our results indicated that lp36 was not required for spirochete survival in the tick, but the clone lacking lp36 demonstrated low infectivity in the mammal. Restoration of lp36 to the mutant strain confirmed that the infectivity defect was due to loss of lp36. Moreover, spirochetes lacking lp36 exhibited a nearly 4-log increase in ID50 relative to the isogenic lp36+ clone. The infectivity defect of lp36-minus spirochetes was localized, in part, to loss of the bbk17 (adeC) gene, which encodes an adenine deaminase. This work establishes a vital role for lp36 in the infectious cycle of B. burgdorferi and identifies the bbk17 gene as a component of this plasmid that contributes to mammalian infectivity