Female Specific Alpinist Gear: An In-Depth Analysis of the Effects of Under-Representation in Alpinist Gear

84 pagesThroughout the ages, women have continually tested their abilities in the mountains. For just as long, their contributions have unfolded behind the scenes, with recognition seldom accorded to them, being cataloged simply as someone's “wife" or simply left without a name. The prevailing narrative often downplayed their capabilities, attributing their summit successes to the assumed assistance of their male counterparts. Yet, despite the persistent challenges and biased narratives, women have persevered. From the late eighteenth century, when the exploits of women in mountaineering were first documented, to the groundbreaking achievement of Caroline North and Christina Huber with their first all-female ascent of Cerro Torre in 2015 (First All-Female Ascent of Cerro Torre via the Ragni Route - Alpinist.Com, n.d.), the magnetic allure of the mountains has resonated for women just as powerfully as it has for men. My thesis project is focused on creating an integrated layering system specifically for female alpinists that takes into account women's specific needs such as bathroom breaks, menstruation, odor control, hygiene, mobility, fit, and thermoregulation. The goal is to make something that allows women to move quickly and efficiently through the mountains in variable conditions

Utilization and Impact of Career Services Among Collegiate Athletes

Career readiness is a concern within the American educational system, particularly among student-athletes that must manage intense time commitments both on and off the field. Student services have emerged in higher education to support career preparation, but the utilization and impact of these services for collegiate athletes is largely unknown. The systems-theory framework (STF) of career development identifies a multitude of internal and external factors that influence individual career development. Guided by STF, the purpose of this study was to predict the factors that influence collegiate athletes\u27 utilization of career services and resulting perceived career skills. An online questionnaire was distributed to collegiate athletes at a Division I university, resulting in 143 collegiate athletes completing the questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated collegiate athletes’ familiarity with career services significantly predicted their utilization of career services. In turn, utilization of only four of nine career services investigated (i.e., Careers Online, Career Fairs, Career Workshops, and Athletic Academic Advisor) significantly predicted perceived career skills positively. Implications for the design and marketing of career services for collegiate athletes are discussed

Biochemical characterization of New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase variants reveals differences in protein stability

Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Rhodes Trust (UK); a Clarendon Scholarship; a St Hugh's College W. Louey Scholarship; the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC); a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship; and the Medical Research Council (MRC)/Canadian Grant G1100135

Just Bust a Move; Relating Subjective Evaluation to Objective Measurements in Hip – Hop Dance

Being globally recognized as a performance art and mode of expression, Hip - hop dance is becoming more prevalent in today’s modern dance and popular culture. With multiple renditions across the globe on what encompasses Hip - hop dance on various social media platforms and the different sub styles of hip-hop dance that currently exist, there are a limited number of ways to assess a dancer and their ability without relying on a high amount of subjectivity from those that are watching it. PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between common dance moves (like the Arm Wave & Inverted Happy Feet) implemented into Hip - hop dance choreography and whether certain biomechanical aspects of those moves can predict how well a dancer may be evaluated in a competition. METHODS: Participants learned a brief Hip - hop dance routine, incorporating the aforementioned dance moves, for one week before data collection. After a brief warm up, the participants performed the learned dance choreography in a lab space while under a 3D motion capture system with force plates collecting kinematic and kinetic data. Video footage of each participant was also collected at this time. Videos of each participant’s performance footage was then sent out to judges for scoring, and a series of regression models were run to determine how well judge’s scores predicted discrete biomechanical variables related to performance of dance moves. RESULTS: Preliminary results suggest that displacement of the arm wave, propagation velocity of the arm wave, shape deviation of the arm wave, and ground reaction force symmetry during foot work have a significant role in predicting how a judge may score a dancer. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that the mechanical aspects of performing certain hip-hop dance moves are significant predictors of judges’ scoring, lending insight into the degree to which scoring is related to the mechanics of Hip – hop dance itself. Thus, a certain level of objectivity in judges’ scoring of hip-hop dance exists. Future work should consider how subjective factors such as age, sex/gender, and clothing choice may also influence judges’ scoring

Comparison of verona integron-borne metallo-beta-lactamase (VIM) variants reveals differences in stability and inhibition profiles

DUZGUN, AZER OZAD/0000-0002-6301-611X; Abboud, Martine I./0000-0003-2141-5988; Brem, Jurgen/0000-0002-0137-3226; McDonough, Michael A/0000-0003-4664-6942; Rydzik, Anna/0000-0003-3158-0493; DUZGUN, AZER OZAD/0000-0002-6301-611X; McDonough, Michael/0000-0003-4664-6942; Schofield, Christopher/0000-0002-0290-6565; SANDALLI, Cemal/0000-0002-1298-3687WOS: 000376490800025PubMed: 26666919Metallo-beta-lactamases (MBLs) are of increasing clinical significance; the development of clinically useful MBL inhibitors is challenged by the rapid evolution of variant MBLs. the Verona integron-borne metallo-beta-lactamase (VIM) enzymes are among the most widely distributed MBLs, with > 40 VIM variants having been reported. We report on the crystallographic analysis of VIM-5 and comparison of biochemical and biophysical properties of VIM-1, VIM-2, VIM-4, VIM-5, and VIM-38. Recombinant VIM variants were produced and purified, and their secondary structure and thermal stabilities were investigated by circular dichroism analyses. Steady-state kinetic analyses with a representative panel of beta-lactam substrates were carried out to compare the catalytic efficiencies of the VIM variants. Furthermore, a set of metalloenzyme inhibitors were screened to compare their effects on the different VIM variants. the results reveal only small variations in the kinetic parameters of the VIM variants but substantial differences in their thermal stabilities and inhibition profiles. Overall, these results support the proposal that protein stability may be a factor in MBL evolution and highlight the importance of screening MBL variants during inhibitor development programs.Rhodes Trust; Scientific and Technology Council of Turkey; Recep Tayyip Erdogan Universitesi Research FundRecep Tayyip Erdogan University [BAP-2013.102.03.13]; Medical Research CouncilMedical Research Council UK (MRC) [MR/L007665/1]; Medical Research Council/Canadian Grant [G1100135]; Biochemical Society Krebs Memorial Award; Medical Research CouncilMedical Research Council UK (MRC) [G1100135, MR/N002679/1] Funding Source: researchfishThe Rhodes Trust provided funding to Anne Makena. Scientific and Technology Council of Turkey provided funding to Cemal Sandalli. Recep Tayyip Erdogan Universitesi Research Fund provided funding to Aysegul Saral, Aysegul C. Cicek, and Cemal Sandalli under grant number BAP-2013.102.03.13. Medical Research Council provided funding to Jurgen Brem, Michael A. McDonough, Anna M. Rydzik, and Christopher J. Schofield under grant number MR/L007665/1. Medical Research Council/Canadian Grant provided funding to Jurgen Brem, Michael A. McDonough, Anna M. Rydzik, and Christopher J. Schofield under grant number G1100135. Biochemical Society Krebs Memorial Award provided funding to Martine I. Abboud

Persistence of anticancer activity in berry extracts after simulated gastrointestinal digestion and colonic fermentation

Fruit and vegetable consumption is associated at the population level with a protective effect against colorectal cancer. Phenolic compounds, especially abundant in berries, are of interest due to their putative anticancer activity. After consumption, however, phenolic compounds are subject to digestive conditions within the gastrointestinal tract that alter their structures and potentially their function. However, the majority of phenolic compounds are not efficiently absorbed in the small intestine and a substantial portion pass into the colon. We characterized berry extracts (raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants) produced by in vitro-simulated upper intestinal tract digestion and subsequent fecal fermentation. These extracts and selected individual colonic metabolites were then evaluated for their putative anticancer activities using in vitro models of colorectal cancer, representing the key stages of initiation, promotion and invasion. Over a physiologically-relevant dose range (0–50 µg/ml gallic acid equivalents), the digested and fermented extracts demonstrated significant anti-genotoxic, anti-mutagenic and anti-invasive activity on colonocytes. This work indicates that phenolic compounds from berries undergo considerable structural modifications during their passage through the gastrointestinal tract but their breakdown products and metabolites retain biological activity and can modulate cellular processes associated with colon cancer

Deficiency of the two-pore-domain potassium channel TREK-1 promotes hyperoxia-induced lung injury

Copyright © 2014 by the Society of Critical Care Medicine and Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Objectives: We previously reported the expression of the twoporedomain K+ channel TREK-1 in lung epithelial cells and proposed a role for this channel in the regulation of alveolar epithelial cytokine secretion. In this study, we focused on investigating the role of TREK-1 in vivo in the development of hyperoxia-induced lung injury. Design: Laboratory animal experiments. Setting: University research laboratory. Subjects: Wild-type and TREK-1-deficient mice. Interventions: Mice were anesthetized and exposed to 1) room air, no mechanical ventilation, 2) 95% hyperoxia for 24 hours, and 3) 95% hyperoxia for 24 hours followed by mechanical ventilation for 4 hours. Measurements and Main Results: Hyperoxia exposure accentuated lung injury in TREK-1-deficient mice but not controls, resulting in increase in lung injury scores, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cell numbers, and cellular apoptosis and a decrease in quasi-static lung compliance. Exposure to a combination of hyperoxia and injurious mechanical ventilation resulted in further morphological lung damage and increased lung injury scores and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cell numbers in control but not TREK-1-deficient mice. At baseline and after hyperoxia exposure, bronchoalveolar lavage cytokine levels were unchanged in TREK-1-deficient mice compared with controls. Exposure to hyperoxia and mechanical ventilation resulted in an increase in bronchoalveolar lavage interleukin-6, monocyte chemotactic protein-1, and tumor necrosis factor-á levels in both mouse types, but the increase in interleukin-6 and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 levels was less prominent in TREK-1-deficient mice than in controls. Lung tissue macrophage inflammatory protein-2, keratinocytederived cytokine, and interleukin-1β gene expression was not altered by hyperoxia in TREK-1-deficient mice compared with controls. Furthermore, we show for the first time TREK-1 expression on alveolar macrophages and unimpaired tumor necrosis factor-á secretion from TREK-1-deficient macrophages. Conclusions: TREK-1 deficiency resulted in increased sensitivity of lungs to hyperoxia, but this effect is less prominent if overwhelming injury is induced by the combination of hyperoxia and injurious mechanical ventilation. TREK-1 may constitute a new potential target for the development of novel treatment strategies against hyperoxiainduced lung injury

PEG-Albumin Plasma Expansion Increases Expression of MCP-1 Evidencing Increased Circulatory Wall Shear Stress: An Experimental Study

Treatment of blood loss with plasma expanders lowers blood viscosity, increasing cardiac output. However, increased flow velocity by conventional plasma expanders does not compensate for decreased viscosity in maintaining vessel wall shear stress (WSS), decreasing endothelial nitric oxide (NO) production. A new type of plasma expander using polyethylene glycol conjugate albumin (PEG-Alb) causes supra-perfusion when used in extreme hemodilution and is effective in treating hemorrhagic shock, although it is minimally viscogenic. An acute 40% hemodilution/exchange-transfusion protocol was used to compare 4% PEG-Alb to Ringer’s lactate, Dextran 70 kDa and 6% Hetastarch (670 kDa) in unanesthetized CD-1 mice. Serum cytokine analysis showed that PEG-Alb elevates monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), a member of a small inducible gene family, as well as expression of MIP-1α, and MIP-2. MCP-1 is specific to increased WSS. Given the direct link between increased WSS and production of NO, the beneficial resuscitation effects due to PEG-Alb plasma expansion appear to be due to increased WSS through increased perfusion and blood flow rather than blood viscosity

Genotoxicity and mutagenicity of Echinodorus macrophyllus (chapéu-de-couro) extracts

Echinodorus macrophyllus, commonly known as chapéu-de-couro, is a medicinal plant used in folk medicine to treat inflammation and rheumatic diseases. In this work, we used short-term bacterial assays based on the induction of SOS functions to examine the genotoxicity and mutagenicity of an aqueous extract of E. macrophyllus leaves. Whole extract and an ethyl acetate fraction showed similar genotoxicity and caused an ~70-fold increase in lysogenic induction. The extract also gave a positive result in the SOS chromotest with an increase of 12-fold in β-Galactosidase enzymatic units. There was a strong trend towards base substitutions and frameshifts at purine sites in the mutations induced by the extract in Escherichia coli (CC103 and CC104 strains) and Salmonella typhimurium test strains (22-fold increase in histidine revertants in TA98 strain). Since reactive oxygen species may be implicated in aging process and in degenerative diseases, we used antioxidant compounds as catalase, thiourea and dipyridyl in the lysogenic induction test. All this compounds were able to reduce the induction factor observed in the treatment with chapéu-de-couro, thus suggesting that the genotoxicity and mutagenicity were attributable to the production of reactive oxygen species that targeted DNA purines

Pathway-based predictive approaches for non-animal assessment of acute inhalation toxicity

New approaches are needed to assess the effects of inhaled substances on human health. These approaches will be based on mechanisms of toxicity, an understanding of dosimetry, and the use of in silico modeling and in vitro test methods. In order to accelerate wider implementation of such approaches, development of adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) can help identify and address gaps in our understanding of relevant parameters for model input and mechanisms, and optimize non-animal approaches that can be used to investigate key events of toxicity. This paper describes the AOPs and the toolbox of in vitro and in silico models that can be used to assess the key events leading to toxicity following inhalation exposure. Because the optimal testing strategy will vary depending on the substance of interest, here we present a decision tree approach to identify an appropriate non-animal integrated testing strategy that incorporates consideration of a substance's physicochemical properties, relevant mechanisms of toxicity, and available in silico models and in vitro test methods. This decision tree can facilitate standardization of the testing approaches. Case study examples are presented to provide a basis for proof-of-concept testing to illustrate the utility of non-animal approaches to inform hazard identification and risk assessment of humans exposed to inhaled substances