DO ANKLE STABILIZERS INFLUENCE DYNAMIC STABILITY IN PERSONS WITH FUNCTIONAL ANKLE INSTABILITY?

Ankle sprains are the most common injury in the physically active, and reoccurrence rate is high. Repetitive ankle sprains can cause functional ankle instability (FAI), leading to deficits in balance, strength, and stability. Sports medicine professionals prescribe and administer bracing and taping as extrinsic methods of enhancing ankle stability. What is not clear is how these methods affect neuromuscular control during dynamic movements in persons with FAI. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of taping and bracing on time to stabilization (TTS), as a measure of dynamic stability, in persons with FAI during two landing tasks

PRE-SEASON DYNAMIC STABILIZATION MEASURES IN FIVE COLLEGIATE TEAMS

The purpose of this study was to measure baseline dynamic stability using time to stabilization (TTS) during two landing tasks at the start of pre-season training in a group of college athletes. Seventy-one male and female athletes representing men’s soccer (n=22), women’s soccer (n=13), women’s volleyball (n=12), men’s basketball (n=12), and women’s basketball (n=11) performed single-leg forward jump and lateral drop landing tasks on each leg onto a force plate. GRF data were used to calculate TTS in the anteroposterior (A/P) and mediolateral (M/L) directions. Data were assessed descriptively using SPSS for differences between sports. Results showed that men’s basketball players had higher TTS values for 6 of 8 measures while women’s volleyball players had lower TTS values for 6 of 8 measures

Atomic layer deposition-based tuning of the pore size in mesoporous thin films studied by in situ grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) enables the conformal coating of porous materials, making the technique suitable for pore size tuning at the atomic level, e.g., for applications in catalysis, gas separation and sensing. It is, however, not straightforward to obtain information about the conformality of ALD coatings deposited in pores with diameters in the low mesoporous regime (< 10 nm). In this work, it is demonstrated that in situ synchrotron based grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering (GISAXS) can provide valuable information on the change in density and internal surface area during ALD of TiO2 in a porous titania film with small mesopores (3-8 nm). The results are shown to be in good agreement with in situ x-ray fluorescence data representing the evolution of the amount of Ti atoms deposited in the porous film. Analysis of both data sets indicates that the minimum pore diameter that can be achieved by ALD is determined by the size of the Ti-precursor molecule

EFFECTS OF SIX WEEKS OF TRAINING ON INTERSEGMENTAL COORDINATION IN THE ROWING STROKE OF NOVICE INTERCOLLEGIATE ROWERS

The purpose of the study was to examine changes in coordination during the rowing stroke after 1 and 6 weeks of practice. Initially 11 healthy, females who had elected to join a college rowing program volunteered to participate in both testing sessions: Only 3 participants were still on the novice team at wk 6, thus N=3. Participants were video taped on a land ergometer in 2D using the Peak Motion Measurement System. SPC was assessed between adjacent 2-segment combinations of the T-S (trunk-shoulder), K-T (knee-trunk), and S-E (shoulder-elbow) to quantify intersegmental coordination. Mean changes in T-S (78.7% v 74.6 %), K-T (66.5% v 102.9%) and S-E (88.2% v 71.3%) showed that the rowing stroke is primarily a simultaneous pattern. However. individual SPC (shared positive contribution) changes varied indicating that 6 wks is not a long enough for coordination to develop in novice rowers

Phyllodes Tumor vs Fibroadenoma: Diagnosis and Management

Case: The patient is a 71 year-old woman who presented with enlarging painful breast mass. She had history of previous excision of a fibroadenoma in her left breast in 1993. She underwent menopause at 52 and does not take estrogen. Diagnostic imaging revealed 4.7cm breast mass, which had increased from prior measurement of 2.8cm to 4.7cm. Core biopsy demonstrated a fibroepithelial neoplasm areas of hypercellular stroma and occasional stromal mitotic figures most consistent with phyllodes tumor. Lumpectomy was performed. Final pathology showed a 4.8cm well-demarcated tumor with mildly pleomorphic spindled cells in the stroma and up to 1 per 10 mitoses per high powered field, consistent with benign phyllodes. The patient was followed every 6 months with imaging for 2 years without recurrence. Conclusions: Phyllodes tumors are rare fibroepithelial tumors of varying metastatic potential that can be mistaken for benign fibroadenomas. Phyllodes tumors should be surgically excised with wide margins, needing radiation or chemotherapy only if recurrent or large (>10cm), whereas fibroadenomas can be managed expectantly if asymptomatic (Gnerlich, 2014). Phyllodes tumors are often diagnosed in women ages 35-55. The patient in this case was diagnosed at a more advanced age with benign disease, although older age is more often associated with increased histologic grade (Mishra, 2013) (Karim, 2009). Borderline and malignant tumors are more likely to recur within two years of resection; there is less data on recurrence rates of benign tumors. Clinical Significance: Phyllodes tumors should be suspected with rapid growth of a known fibroadenoma. Core biopsy should be performed rather than fine needle aspiration for accurate diagnosis. Although phyllodes tumors comprise less than 1% of all breast neoplasms, it is crucial that uncommon pathologies are diagnosed correctly so that patients receive appropriate treatment

Nature inspired antibody design and optimization

The biotech industry has seen an explosion in the development of therapeutic antibodies in the last decade. The advantages of antibodies as therapeutics – namely their high affinity, specificity, potency, stability, manufacturability and low toxicity – are compelling. Nevertheless, there are many challenges associated with antibody discovery and development that require key technical advances to improve the rational and reliable generation of potent antibody therapeutics. We have made three key discoveries that address some of these fundamental challenges related to the design and selection of antibodies with high affinity, specificity, stability and solubility. First, we find that the accumulation of affinity-enhancing mutations in the complementaritydetermining regions (CDRs) during affinity maturation is often a destabilizing process. Surprisingly, mutations that enhance antibody binding affinity are commonly destabilizing. Second, we have developed novel yeast surface display methods for co-evolving antibody affinity and stability to address the general problem of antibody destabilization during affinity maturation. Our approach simultaneously evaluates antibody binding to both antigen and a conformational ligand that acts as a folding sensor to rapidly identify sets of mutations that promote both high antibody affinity and stability. This methodology has enabled us to identify novel compensatory mutations that offset the destabilizing effects of affinity-enhancing mutations and lead to affinitymaturated antibodies with high thermodynamic stability. Interestingly, our directed evolution method appears to mimic some aspects of natural antibody evolution, as natural antibodies also accumulate similar types of compensatory mutations to maintain thermodynamic stability during in vivo affinity maturation. Third, we have developed novel antibody library design and selection methods for generating antibodies with high specificity. It is common for antibody specificity to be compromised during in vitro affinity maturation. We have developed innovative methods for designing antibody libraries based on natural antibody diversity to simultaneously sample residues at many sites in the CDRs and framework regions that are most likely to promote high specificity. By coupling these nature-inspired antibody libraries with novel positive and negative selection methods, we have isolated antibodies with specificities that rival those of natural antibodies and which are much higher than typical antibodies identified using in vitro selection methods. Interestingly, we find that antibodies with improved specificity also possess excellent biophysical properties, including high solubility and stability. We are currently using computational methods to understand how rare antibody variants are able to maintain high specificity and stability during affinity maturation. Our long-term goal is to develop systematic and robust design methods to rapidly generate and optimize antibodies for use in a range of diagnostic and therapeutic applications

‘Super disabilities’ vs ‘Disabilities’?:Theorizing the role of ableism in (mis)representational mythology of disability in the marketplace

People with disabilities (PWD) constitute one of the largest minority groups with one in five people worldwide having a disability. While recognition and inclusion of this group in the marketplace has seen improvement, the effects of (mis)representation of PWD in shaping the discourse on fostering marketplace inclusion of socially marginalized consumers remain little understood. Although effects of misrepresentation (e.g., idealized, exoticized or selective representation) on inclusion/exclusion perceptions and cognitions has received attention in the context of ethnic/racial groups, the world of disability has been largely neglected. By extending the theory of ableism into the context of PWD representation and applying it to the analysis of the We’re the Superhumans advertisement developed for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, this paper examines the relationship between the (mis)representation and the inclusion/exclusion discourse. By uncovering that PWD misrepresentations can partially mask and/or redress the root causes of exclusion experienced by PWD in their lived realities, it contributes to the research agenda on the transformative role of consumption cultures perpetuating harmful, exclusionary social perceptions of marginalized groups versus contributing to advancement of their inclusion

Cool, Luminous, and Highly Variable Stars in the Magellanic Clouds. II: Spectroscopic and Environmental Analysis of Thorne-\.Zytkow Object and Super-AGB Star Candidates

In previous work we identified a population of 38 cool and luminous variable stars in the Magellanic Clouds and examined 11 in detail in order to classify them as either Thorne-\.Zytkow Objects (T\.ZOs, red supergiants with a neutron star cores) or super-AGB stars (the most massive stars that will not undergo core collapse). This population includes HV\,2112, a peculiar star previously considered in other works to be either a T\.ZO or high-mass AGB star. Here we continue this investigation, using the kinematic and radio environments and local star formation history of these stars to place constraints on the age of the progenitor systems and the presence of past supernovae. These stars are not associated with regions of recent star formation, and we find no evidence of past supernovae at their locations. Finally, we also assess the presence of heavy elements and lithium in their spectra compared to red supergiants. We find strong absorption in Li and s-process elements compared to RSGs in most of the sample, consistent with super-AGB nucleosynthesis, while HV\,2112 shows additional strong lines associated with T\.ZO nucleosynthesis. Coupled with our previous mass estimates, the results are consistent with the stars being massive (~4-6.5M$_{\odot}$) or super-AGB (~6.5-12M$_{\odot}$) stars in the thermally pulsing phase, providing crucial observations of the transition between low- and high-mass stellar populations. HV\,2112 is more ambiguous; it could either be a maximally massive sAGB star, or a T\.ZO if the minimum mass for stability extends down to <13 M$_\odot$.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, 7 tables, spectroscopic data available at https://zenodo.org/record/7058608, accepted to The Astrophysical Journa