Furniture Stability: A Review of Data and Testing Results

This report by Kids In Danger (KID) and Shane's Foundation focuses on tip-overs of dressers and chests. ASTM International, which has developed thousands of voluntary industry consensus technical standards, has a standard in place to test furniture stability. However, furniture on the market is not required to conform, resulting in widespread non-compliance. Additionally, these standards are too lenient and require reform, as testing protocols have remained virtually unchanged for over a decade, despite continuing injuries and deaths. Units may pass the standard, but still present a significant risk. KID advocates for a two-pronged approach to decreasing tip-over incidents:Increasing consumer awareness of the danger of furniture tip-overs and knowledge of the actions needed to keep children safe, andImproving furniture stability by strengthening standards, making those standards mandatory and enforceable and promoting changes in furniture design.KID compiled data from incidents reported to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) by various sources and from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS). These include reports from January 1, 2010 to October 14, 2015. Findings of the data analysis include:Two-year-olds are the age group most affected by tip-overs, especially in regard to fatal incidents.Children age 2 to 5 accounted for 77% of total incidents.The age range of children injured is wider than the age range of children killed by tip-overs.Fatalities accounted for 12% of total incidents.Head injuries (37%) were the most common category of injury.Almost all (98.7%) of head injuries are related to a television tipping over on a child.KID conducted performance tests on a sample of 19 dressers and chests. Testing was run at the UL Furniture Center of Excellence in Holland, Michigan. UL laboratory technicians followed a testing protocol developed by KID. The protocol included tests based on the current voluntary standard for furniture stability. KID added tests that, among other things, evaluated for tip-overs when more weight was added (simulating larger children), drawers were full of clothes, furniture was placed on carpeting as opposed to bare flooring, televisions were placed on top of the furniture, and additional drawers were opened simultaneous with weighting one drawer. These additional tests were intended to be more representative of real-world scenarios.Test results include:Only nine of the 19 units passed performance tests based on the current tip-over safety standard, ASTM F2057.Only two units passed all tests, including the additional testing protocols added by KID.The weight of a television or any type placed on top of the unit did not decrease the stability of furniture.Furniture placed on carpet is less stable than furniture placed on hard floors.Many units remained stable when more than 70 pounds was placed on an open drawer, while others tipped with less than half that weight

33778 The impact and implications of COVID-19 on using scalp cooling therapy for prevention of chemotherapy-induced alopecia

Background: Scalp cooling therapy (SCT) is currently the most effective method to reduce chemotherapy-induced alopecia. Manual SCT requires a “capper” to change the caps throughout the infusion day whereas machine SCT only requires a 1-time cap fitting prior to infusion, usually performed by the health care staff. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) brought restrictions on permitted infusion center visitors, which we hypothesized would include “cappers,” creating an additional barrier to SCT use. Methods: A scripted call was placed during May 2021 by a study author to infusion centers of Commission on Cancer (CoC) accredited hospitals in Michigan, New York City (NYC) and major cities in Texas in order to investigate how COVID-19 impacted SCT at their institution. The University of Michigan’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) deemed this study exempt from IRB approval. Results: Forty-one infusion centers were successfully contacted (40/62, 64.5%). Of the 33 that allow SCT, 41% (14) did not allow “cappers” under COVID-19 restrictions. Of the 13 institutions offering machine SCT, 92% (12/13) allowed patients to continue using the machines during the pandemic as it does not require an outside “capper.” Conclusion: Our study demonstrates the negative impact of COVID-19 on manual SCT use. As COVID-19 is likely here for the foreseeable future, it is critical to find ways to safely use SCT during these times. Hence, hospital adoption of SCT machines is even more critical given the pandemic, particularly for those of lower socioeconomic status and without strong social support

A single transcription factor is sufficient to induce and maintain secretory cell architecture

We hypothesized that basic helix–loop–helix (bHLH) MIST1 (BHLHA15) is a “scaling factor” that universally establishes secretory morphology in cells that perform regulated secretion. Here, we show that targeted deletion of MIST1 caused dismantling of the secretory apparatus of diverse exocrine cells. Parietal cells (PCs), whose function is to pump acid into the stomach, normally lack MIST1 and do not perform regulated secretion. Forced expression of MIST1 in PCs caused them to expand their apical cytoplasm, rearrange mitochondrial/lysosome trafficking, and generate large secretory granules. Mist1 induced a cohort of genes regulated by MIST1 in multiple organs but did not affect PC function. MIST1 bound CATATG/CAGCTG E boxes in the first intron of genes that regulate autophagosome/lysosomal degradation, mitochondrial trafficking, and amino acid metabolism. Similar alterations in cell architecture and gene expression were also caused by ectopically inducing MIST1 in vivo in hepatocytes. Thus, MIST1 is a scaling factor necessary and sufficient by itself to induce and maintain secretory cell architecture. Our results indicate that, whereas mature cell types in each organ may have unique developmental origins, cells performing similar physiological functions throughout the body share similar transcription factor-mediated architectural “blueprints.

Temperature Dependence of Damping and Frequency Shifts of the Scissors Mode of a trapped Bose-Einstein Condensate

We have studied the properties of the scissors mode of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate of $^{87}$Rb atoms at finite temperature. We measured a significant shift in the frequency of the mode below the hydrodynamic limit and a strong dependence of the damping rate as the temperature increased. We compared our damping rate results to recent theoretical calculations for other observed collective modes finding a fair agreement. From the frequency measurements we deduce the moment of inertia of the gas and show that it is quenched below the transition point, because of the superfluid nature of the condensed gas.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Enhancement of the scissors mode of an expanding Bose-Einstein condensate

We study the time-evolution of the scissors mode of a Bose-Einstein condensate during the ballistic expansion after release from the magnetic trap. We show that despite the nontrivial character of the superfluid expansion, the sinusoidal behavior of the scissor oscillations is recovered after an asymptotic expansion, with an enhancement of the final amplitude. We investigate this phenomenon with a condensate held in an elongated magnetostatic potential, whose particular shape allows for the excitation of the scissors mode.Comment: RevTeX, 5 figure

Fourteen Recommendations to Create a More Inclusive Environment for LGBTQ+ Individuals in Academic Biology

Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and otherwise non-straight and/or non-cisgender (LGBTQ+) have often not felt welcome or represented in the biology community. Additionally, biology can present unique challenges for LGBTQ+ students because of the relationship between certain biology topics and their LGBTQ+ identities. Currently, there is no centralized set of guidelines to make biology learning environments more inclusive for LGBTQ+ individuals. Rooted in prior literature and the collective expertise of the authors who identify as members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community, we present a set of actionable recommendations to help biologists, biology educators, and biology education researchers be more inclusive of individuals with LGBTQ+ identities. These recommendations are intended to increase awareness of LGBTQ+ identities and spark conversations about transforming biology learning spaces and the broader academic biology community to become more inclusive of LGBTQ+ individuals