The Uncharted, Uncertain Future of HOPE VI Redevelopments: The Case for Assessing Project Sustainability

Discusses the need for a third-party assessment of the management and financial stability issues posed by the publicly and privately funded redevelopment of housing projects into mixed-income, mixed-tenure properties. Explores feasibility at two sites

Young Patient Education on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a genetic disorder that primarily causes the degeneration of major muscle groups. It’s caused by the absence of an essential sarcolemma protein called Dystrophin due to mutations in its gene that is in the X-chromosome. DMD affects 1 out of 4,000 boys worldwide with most being diagnosed between ages 3-5 and if left untreated, most patients would succumb to the disorder by their late teens or early twenties. While there currently isn’t a cure for DMD, there are different treatments available that are effective in prolonging patients’ lives. Because DMD is such a deadly disorder, it is important for current and future patients to understand their disorder as soon as possible in order to prepare themselves for whatever the future may hold for them. Currently, there are many information resources about the disorder online. However, most of this information caters to adult audiences, like the parents of DMD patients, and there are very few that cater specifically to the young patients themselves. For this reason, I created an animated educational video about DMD for young patients, so they would be properly educated about the disorder

Estimating Infinite-Dimensional Continuum Robot States From the Tip

Knowing the state of a robot is critical for many problems, such as feedback control. For continuum robots, state estimation is incredibly challenging. First, the motion of a continuum robot involves many kinematic states, including poses, strains, and velocities. Second, all these states are infinite-dimensional due to the robot's flexible property. It has remained unclear whether these infinite-dimensional states are observable at all using existing sensing techniques. Recently, we presented a solution to this challenge. It was a mechanics-based dynamic state estimation algorithm, called a Cosserat theoretic boundary observer, which could recover all the infinite-dimensional robot states by only measuring the velocity twist of the tip. In this work, we generalize the algorithm to incorporate tip pose measurements for more tuning freedom. We also validate this algorithm offline using recorded experimental data of a tendon-driven continuum robot. Specifically, we feed the recorded tension of the tendon and the recorded tip measurements into a numerical solver of the Cosserat rod model based on our continuum robot. It is observed that, even with purposely deviated initialization, the state estimates by our algorithm quickly converge to the recorded ground truth states and closely follow the robot's actual motion

Editorial: small scale spatial and temporal patterns in particles, plankton, and other organisms

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nayak, A. R., Jiang, H., Byron, M. L., Sullivan, J. M., McFarland, M. N., & Murphy, D. W. Editorial: small scale spatial and temporal patterns in particles, plankton, and other organisms. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, (2021): 669530, https://doi.org/10.3389./fmars.2021.669530Scientists have long known that small-scale interactions of aquatic particles, plankton, and other organisms with their immediate environment play an important role in diverse research areas, including marine ecology, ocean optics, and climate change (Guasto et al., 2012; Prairie et al., 2012). Typically, the distribution of particles and other organisms in the water column tends to be quite “patchy,” i.e., non-homogeneous, both spatially and temporally (Durham and Stocker, 2012). Patchiness can manifest itself through well-known phenomena such as harmful algal blooms (HABs), phytoplankton and zooplankton “thin layers,” deep scattering layers, and schooling of marine organisms such as krill and fish. This non-homogeneous distribution can significantly influence predator-prey encounters and outcomes, export fluxes, marine ecosystem health, and biological productivity (Sullivan et al., 2010; Durham et al., 2013). Thus, there is a continuing need to study and characterize the small-scale biological-physical interactions between particles/organisms and their local environment, as well as the scaled-up effects of these small-scale interactions on larger-scale dynamics. These studies are also directly linked to broader research topics listed as part of the future “grand challenges” in marine ecosystem ecology, as outlined in Borja et al. (2020).AN was supported through a National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Gulf Research Program (GRP) Early Career Research Fellowship and a faculty start-up grant at Florida Atlantic University. HJ was supported by US National Science Foundation awards (OCE-1559062 and IOS-1353937). MB was supported by a faculty start-up grant at Penn State University. AN, JS, and MM were supported by US National Science Foundation awards (OCE-1634053 and OCE-1657332). DM was supported by the US National Science Foundation (CBET-1846925)

The Effects of Mothers' Depression on the Behavioral Assessment of Disruptive Child Behavior

This study uses a group design to compare depressed and non-depressed mothers and their disruptive children. It controls for broad environmental stress factors to examine whether specific differences between groups can be linked with mothers’ depression. It aims to build a more comprehensive picture of depressed mothers’ interactions with their disruptive children by comparing these interactions with those of similar, but non-maternally depressed mother-child dyads, and a non-clinic control group

Architecture Library Needs Assessment Report & Recommendations

Final Report with 25 Key Findings and 25 Key Recommendations.The University Libraries and the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation both face pressures on limited space and budgets, the need to plan for new technologies, and to provide innovative educational experiences. There is a need to survey library patrons, examine models of cutting edge information gathering and sharing environments, as well as anticipate the needs of current and future patrons. This report looks at what technologies are available, usage trends, collections, and funding in order to remain vibrant, dynamic, and attract top students

Low-dose (0.01%) atropine eye drops to reduce progression of myopia in children: a multi-centre placebo-controlled randomised trial in the United Kingdom (CHAMP-UK) – study protocol

Background/aims To report the protocol of a trial designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety and mechanism of action of low-dose atropine (0.01%) eye-drops for reducing progression of myopia in UK children. Methods Multicentre, double-masked, superiority, placebo-controlled, randomised trial. We will enrol children aged 6–12 years with myopia of −0.50 dioptres or worse in both eyes. We will recruit 289 participants with an allocation ratio of 2:1 (193 atropine; 96 placebo) from five centres. Participants will instil one drop in each eye every day for 2 years and attend a research centre every 6 months. The vehicle and preservative will be the same in both study arms. The primary outcome is SER of both eyes measured by autorefractor under cycloplegia at 2 years (adjusted for baseline). Secondary outcomes include axial length, best corrected distance visual acuity, near visual acuity, reading speed, pupil diameter, accommodation, adverse event rates and allergic reactions, quality of life (EQ-5D-Y) and tolerability at 2 years. Mechanistic evaluations will include: peripheral axial length, peripheral retinal defocus, anterior chamber depth, iris colour, height and weight, activities questionnaire, ciliary body biometry and chorioretinal thickness. Endpoints from both eyes will be pooled in combined analysis using generalised estimating equations to allow for the correlation between eyes within participant. Three years after cessation of treatment, we will also evaluate refractive error and adverse events. Conclusions The Childhood Atropine for Myopia Progression in the UK study will be the first randomised trial reporting outcomes of low-dose atropine eye-drops for children with myopia in a UK population. Trial registration number ISRCTN99883695 , NCT0369008

Repair of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome in COVID-19 by Stromal Cells (REALIST-COVID Trial):A Multicentre, Randomised, Controlled Trial

RationaleMesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) may modulate inflammation, promoting repair in COVID-19-related Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).ObjectivesWe investigated safety and efficacy of ORBCEL-C (CD362-enriched, umbilical cord-derived MSCs) in COVID-related ARDS.MethodsThis multicentre, randomised, double-blind, allocation concealed, placebo-controlled trial (NCT03042143) randomised patients with moderate-to-severe COVID-related ARDS to receive ORBCEL-C (400million cells) or placebo (Plasma-Lyte148).MeasurementsThe primary safety and efficacy outcomes were incidence of serious adverse events and oxygenation index at day 7 respectively. Secondary outcomes included respiratory compliance, driving pressure, PaO2/FiO2 ratio and SOFA score. Clinical outcomes relating to duration of ventilation, length of intensive care unit and hospital stays, and mortality were collected. Long-term follow up included diagnosis of interstitial lung disease at 1 year, and significant medical events and mortality at 2 years. Transcriptomic analysis was performed on whole blood at day 0, 4 and 7.Main results60 participants were recruited (final analysis n=30 ORBCEL-C, n=29 placebo: 1 in placebo group withdrew consent). 6 serious adverse events occurred in the ORBCEL-C and 3 in the placebo group, RR 2.9(0.6-13.2)p=0.25. Day 7 mean[SD] oxygenation index did not differ (ORBCEL-C 98.357.2], placebo 96.667.3). There were no differences in secondary surrogate outcomes, nor mortality at day 28, day 90, 1 or 2 years. There was no difference in prevalence of interstitial lung disease at 1year nor significant medical events up to 2 years. ORBCEL-C modulated the peripheral blood transcriptome.ConclusionORBCEL-C MSCs were safe in moderate-to-severe COVID-related ARDS, but did not improve surrogates of pulmonary organ dysfunction. Clinical trial registration available at www.Clinicaltrialsgov, ID: NCT03042143. This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Treatment of depressed mothers with disruptive children: A controlled evaluation of cognitive behavioral family intervention

This study compared the effects of two forms of behavioral family intervention in reducing mothers' depression and disruptive behavior problems in families with a clinically depressed parent and a child with significant conduct problems. Fortyseven parents were randomly assigned to either a Behavioral Family Intervention (BFI) or to Cognitive Behavioral Family Intervention (CBFI) which integrated cognitive therapy strategies to treat depression and teaching of parenting skills. Both treatments were equally effective in reducing mothers' depression and child disruptive behavior on observational and self-report measures at postintervention. However, at 6-month follow-up more families in CBFI (53%) compared to BFI (13%) experienced concurrent clinically reliable reductions in maternal depression and child disruptive behavior. These findings support the value of CBFI in reducing depression in mothers of children with disruptive behavior problems