The Impact of COVID-19 on Radiation Oncology Treatments

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, hospitals became overwhelmed. There was a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and a lack of capacity within emergency departments, which caused a panic amongst medical facilities. Facilities were forced to prioritize patients and cancel appointments that were not urgent. Many doctors’ appointments were switched to tele-visits to limit exposure to the virus and to allow priority to COVID-19 patients. Not only were diagnostic testing and treatments postponed or canceled, but news was published that those who were immunosuppressed need to take extra precautions because the risk of fatality is greater for those with preexisting conditions. The combination of the delay in care and the fear that has been introduced among the people has caused a significant impact on the overall health status of patients. Delayed diagnosis and treatment had led to premature death and progressed disease.https://digitalcommons.misericordia.edu/medimg_seniorposters/1007/thumbnail.jp

Computational models of temporal expectations

With Western, tonal music, the expectedness of any given note or chord can be estimated using various methodologies, from perceptual distance to information content. However, in the realm of rhythm and meter, the same sort of predictive capability is lacking. To date, most computational models have focused on predicting meter (a global cognitive framework for listening), rather than fluctuations in metric attention or expectations at each moment in time. This theoretical contribution reviews existing models, noting current capabilities and outlining necessities for future work

Relationship of spindle assembly checkpoint fidelity to species body mass, lifespan, and developmental rate

We have examined the tolerance of the spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC), as measured by the appearance of tetraploid cells in the presence of a microtubule inhibitor, in a series of primary cell strains derived from species with diverse lifespan and body size. We find that the integrity of the SAC varies among these species. There is a robust correlation between the integrity of the SAC and body size, but poor correlation with longevity and parameters of species development (i.e., time of female fertility, gestation length, and postnatal growth rate). The results suggest that fidelity of the SAC co-evolved more closely with the number of mitoses needed to reach adulthood than with species lifespan

Policy Levers to Strengthen Community College Transfer Student Success in Texas

This report to the Greater Texas Foundation recommends ways that state policy could help to improve outcomes for community college transfer students in Texas. It is based on three sets of analyses: (1) analysis of National Student Clearinghouse data on transfer and degree outcomes for Texas students compared to those in other states; (2) analysis of state transfer policies to better understand the policy environment and identify policies that may facilitate or inhibit transfer success in the state; and (3) interviews with over 50 persons at 36 Texas colleges (18 two-year and 18 four-year institutions) on how state policy plays out on the ground with students and institutions. The report finds that existing transfer policy in Texas fails to help students transfer successfully and efficiently. First, students do not have clear “transfer pathways” that lead in coherent, transparent, widely accepted ways from community college enrollment, through transfer, to bachelor’s completion. Second, even if there were clearer pathways, students are not given much help in choosing, entering, and staying on transfer pathways. The report recommends ways state policy might be enhanced to achieve three objectives that are key to improving transfer student success: (1) create stronger transfer pathways, (2) help students choose and stay on a transfer pathway, and (3) build momentum for regional community college-university collaboration to improve transfer outcomes

The application of eye-tracking in music research

Though eye-tracking is typically a methodology applied in the visual research domain, recent studies suggest its relevance in the context of music research. There exists a community of researchers interested in this kind of research from varied disciplinary backgrounds scattered across the globe. Therefore, in August 2017, an international conference was held at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany, to bring this research community together. The conference was dedicated to the topic of music and eye-tracking, asking the question: what do eye movements, pupil dilation, and blinking activity tell us about musical processing? This special issue is constituted of top-scoring research from the conference and spans a range of music-related topics. From tracking the gaze of performers in musical trios to basic research on how eye movements are affected by background music, the contents of this special issue highlight a variety of experimental approaches and possible applications of eye-tracking in music research

Left ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction after infusion of tumor necrosis factor-alpha in conscious dogs

We used a load-insensitive index of systolic left ventricular (LV) function and an analysis of diastolic pressure-dimension relationships to test the hypothesis that recombinant human (rh) tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha) impairs LV function in dogs. Animals were studied 7-10 d after aseptic implantation of instrumentation to monitor cardiac output, external anterior-posterior LV diameter, and LV and pleural pressures. Data were analyzed from seven dogs that received active rhTNF alpha (100 micrograms/kg over 60 min) and from five dogs that received heat-inactivated rhTNF alpha. At 24 h after infusion of active rhTNF alpha, the slope of the LV end-diastolic dimension-stroke work relationship decreased significantly, indicating a decrement in LV systolic contractility. Simultaneously, LV unstressed dimension increased significantly, suggesting diastolic myocardial creep. The end-diastolic relationship between LV transmural pressure and normalized LV dimension (strain) was markedly displaced to the left, suggesting increased diastolic elastic stiffness. Despite these changes in LV performance, cardiac index was maintained by tachycardia. The abnormalities in LV function were resolved by 72 h. We conclude that rhTNF alpha reversibly impairs LV systolic and diastolic function in unanesthetized dogs. Because dysfunction occurs greater than 6 h after the infusion of rhTNF alpha and persists for 24-48 h, the mechanism underlying this phenomenon may involve secondary mediators or a change in myocardial gene expression

53BP1 contributes to a robust genomic stability in human fibroblasts

Faithful repair of damaged DNA is a crucial process in maintaining cell viability and function. A multitude of factors and pathways guides this process and includes repair proteins and cell cycle checkpoint factors. Differences in the maintenance of genomic processes are one feature that may contribute to species-specific differences in lifespan. We predicted that 53BP1, a key transducer of the DNA damage response and cell cycle checkpoint control, is highly involved in maintaining genomic stability and may function differently in cells from different species. We demonstrate a difference in the levels and recruitment of 53BP1 in mouse and human cells following DNA damage. In addition, we show that unresolved DNA damage persists more in mouse cells than in human cells, as evidenced by increased numbers of micronuclei. The difference in micronuclei seems to be related to the levels of 53BP1 present in cells. Finally, we present evidence that unresolved DNA damage correlates with species lifespan. Taken together, these studies suggest a link between recruitment of 53BP1, resolution of DNA damage, and increased species lifespan

Cyclooxygenase, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), extracellular signal-regulated kinase MAPK, Rho kinase, and Src mediate hydrogen peroxide-induced contraction of rat thoracic aorta and vena cava.

ABSTRACT In hypertension, blood vessels exhibit increased reactive oxygen species production that may alter vascular tone. We previously observed that H 2 O 2 contracted rat thoracic vena cava under resting tone and aorta contracted with KCl. In arteries but not veins, H 2 O 2 -induced contraction required extracellular Ca 2ϩ influx. Because of this difference in Ca 2ϩ utilization, we hypothesized that signaling pathways mediating H 2 O 2 -induced contraction in vena cava under resting tone differed from those mediating did not reduce aortic or venous H 2 O 2 -induced contraction. p38 MAPK, Erk MAPK, and src inhibition did not reduce aortic or venous contraction to the TXA 2 receptor agonist U46619 (9,11-dideoxy-9␣,11␣-methanoepoxy PGF 2␣ , 1 M), whereas rho kinase inhibition significantly reduced aortic and venous contraction to U46619, and PI3-K inhibition reduced venous contraction to U46619. Our data suggest that, in rat thoracic aorta and vena cava, a COX-derived metabolite is one important mediator of H 2 O 2 contraction, possibly via rho kinase activation, and that H 2 O 2 -induced contraction via p38 and Erk MAPK probably occurs independently of TXA 2 receptor activation

A linear oscillator model predicts dynamic temporal attention and pupillary entrainment to rhythmic patterns

Rhythm is a ubiquitous feature of music that induces specific neural modes of processing. In this paper, we assess the potential of a stimulus-driven linear oscillator model (Tomic & Janata, 2008) to predict dynamic attention to complex musical rhythms on an instant-by-instant basis. We use perceptual thresholds and pupillometry as attentional indices against which to test our model pre- dictions. During a deviance detection task, participants listened to continuously looping, multi- instrument, rhythmic patterns, while being eye-tracked. Their task was to respond anytime they heard an increase in intensity (dB SPL). An adaptive thresholding algorithm adjusted deviant in- tensity at multiple probed temporal locations throughout each rhythmic stimulus. The oscillator model predicted participants’ perceptual thresholds for detecting deviants at probed locations, with a low temporal salience prediction corresponding to a high perceptual threshold and vice versa. A pupil dilation response was observed for all deviants. Notably, the pupil dilated even when partic- ipants did not report hearing a deviant. Maximum pupil size and resonator model output were sig- nificant predictors of whether a deviant was detected or missed on any given trial. Besides the evoked pupillary response to deviants, we also assessed the continuous pupillary signal to the rhythmic patterns. The pupil exhibited entrainment at prominent periodicities present in the stimuli and followed each of the different rhythmic patterns in a unique way. Overall, these results repli- cate previous studies using the linear oscillator model to predict dynamic attention to complex auditory scenes and extend the utility of the model to the prediction of neurophysiological signals, in this case the pupillary time course; however, we note that the amplitude envelope of the acoustic patterns may serve as a similarly useful predictor. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to show entrainment of pupil dynamics by demonstrating a phase relationship between musical stimuli and the pupillary signal

A Double Machine Learning Trend Model for Citizen Science Data

1. Citizen and community-science (CS) datasets have great potential for estimating interannual patterns of population change given the large volumes of data collected globally every year. Yet, the flexible protocols that enable many CS projects to collect large volumes of data typically lack the structure necessary to keep consistent sampling across years. This leads to interannual confounding, as changes to the observation process over time are confounded with changes in species population sizes. 2. Here we describe a novel modeling approach designed to estimate species population trends while controlling for the interannual confounding common in citizen science data. The approach is based on Double Machine Learning, a statistical framework that uses machine learning methods to estimate population change and the propensity scores used to adjust for confounding discovered in the data. Additionally, we develop a simulation method to identify and adjust for residual confounding missed by the propensity scores. Using this new method, we can produce spatially detailed trend estimates from citizen science data. 3. To illustrate the approach, we estimated species trends using data from the CS project eBird. We used a simulation study to assess the ability of the method to estimate spatially varying trends in the face of real-world confounding. Results showed that the trend estimates distinguished between spatially constant and spatially varying trends at a 27km resolution. There were low error rates on the estimated direction of population change (increasing/decreasing) and high correlations on the estimated magnitude. 4. The ability to estimate spatially explicit trends while accounting for confounding in citizen science data has the potential to fill important information gaps, helping to estimate population trends for species, regions, or seasons without rigorous monitoring data.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figure