Use of the Ober2 system for analysis of eye movements made during reading

Introduction: The Ober2 system uses infrared reflections to record and analyze eye movements made during reading. The system\u27s ability to analyze data from normal subjects, and the reliability of the data produced by subjects who read standard paragraphs were investigated in this study. Subjects: Forty-two college students and 20 junior high students participated in the project. All were self-reported normal readers. Methods: Subjects read 5 different paragraphs during each of two sessions. Ober2 analysis was attempted for each paragraph; analysis of all 10 paragraphs was successful for 38 percent of the college subjects and 20 percent of the junior high subjects. Use of manual calibration procedures did not allow any additional data to be analyzed by the Ober2 system. Results: Data from 30% of the paragraph presentations could not be analyzed by the Ober2. When analysis was successful, grade equivalent scores based on fixations, span of recognition, regressions, fixation duration, and reading rate were provided. Using mean grade equivalents from the 16 college subjects for whom all 10 paragraphs could be analyzed, significant differences were found between results for two of the test paragraphs. Split-half reliability coefficients for grade equivalent data from the two sessions ranged from 0.84 to 0.95. Conclusions: Although the Ober2 can provide valuable information on eye movements made during reading, problems exist with respect to its ability to analyze data. The analysis failures that occurred for approximately one-third of the paragraph presentations were frustrating and time consuming. With respect to the standard paragraphs, significant grade equivalent differences were found between several of them. These results suggest that caution be used when interpreting data from the Ober2 reading analysis system

A single baseline ultrasound assessment of fibroid presence and size is strongly predictive of future uterine procedure: 8-year follow-up of randomly sampled premenopausal women aged 35-49 years.

STUDY QUESTION: How well can a single baseline ultrasound assessment of fibroid burden (presence or absence of fibroids and size of largest, if present) predict future probability of having a major uterine procedure? SUMMARY ANSWER: During an 8-year follow-up period, the risk of having a major uterine procedure was 2% for those without fibroids and increased with fibroid size for those with fibroids, reaching 47% for those with fibroids ≥4 cm in diameter at baseline. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Uterine fibroids are a leading indication for hysterectomy. However, when fibroids are found, there are few available data to help clinicians advise patients about disease progression. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION: Women who were 35-49 years old were randomly selected from the membership of a large urban health plan; 80% of those determined to be eligible were enrolled and screened with ultrasound for fibroids ≥0.5 cm in diameter. African-American and white premenopausal participants who responded to at least one follow-up interview (N = 964, 85% of those eligible) constituted the study cohort. During follow-up (5822 person-years), participants self-reported any major uterine procedure (67% hysterectomies). Life-table analyses and Cox regression (with censoring for menopause) were used to estimate the risk of having a uterine procedure for women with no fibroids, small (diameter), medium (2-3.9 cm), and large fibroids (≥4 cm). Differences between African-American and white women, importance of a clinical diagnosis of fibroids prior to study enrollment, and the impact of submucosal fibroids on risk were investigated. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS: There was a greater loss to follow-up for African-Americans than whites (19 versus 11%). For those with follow-up data, 64% had fibroids at baseline, 33% of whom had had a prior diagnosis. Of those with fibroids, 27% had small fibroids (diameter), 46% had medium (largest fibroid 2-3.9 cm in diameter), and 27% had large fibroids (largest ≥4 cm in diameter). Twenty-one percent had at least one submucosal fibroid. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE: Major uterine procedures were reported by 115 women during follow-up. The estimated risk of having a procedure in any given year of follow-up for those with fibroids compared with those without fibroids increased markedly with fibroid-size category (from 4-fold, confidence interval (CI) (1.4-11.1) for the small fibroids to 10-fold, CI (4.4-24.8) for the medium fibroids, to 27-fold, CI (11.5-65.2) for the large fibroids). This influence of fibroid size on risk did not differ between African-Americans and whites (P-value for interaction = 0.88). Once fibroid size at enrollment was accounted for, having a prior diagnosis at the time of ultrasound screening was not predictive of having a procedure. Exclusion of women with a submucosal fibroid had little influence on the results. The 8-year risk of a procedure based on lifetable analyses was 2% for women with no fibroids, 8, 23, and 47%, respectively, for women who had small, medium or large fibroids at enrollment. Given the strong association of fibroid size with subsequent risk of a procedure, these findings are unlikely to be due to chance. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION: Despite a large sample size, the number of women having procedures during follow-up was relatively small. Thus, covariates such as BMI, which were not important in our analyses, may have associations that were too small to detect with our sample size. Another limitation is that the medical procedures were self-reported. However, we attempted to retrieve medical records when participants agreed, and 77% of the total procedures reported were verified. Our findings are likely to be generalizable to other African-American and white premenopausal women in their late 30s and 40s, but other ethnic groups have not been studied. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: Though further studies are needed to confirm and extend the results, our findings provide an initial estimate of disease progression that will be helpful to clinicians and their patients. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTERESTS: Funding came from the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Office of Research on Minority Health, National Institutes of Health, Health and Human Services (IRB #OH95-E-N048). The authors have no conflicts of interest. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Not applicable

AAPM medical physics practice guideline 10.a.: Scope of practice for clinical medical physics.

The American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) is a nonprofit professional society whose primary purposes are to advance the science, education, and professional practice of medical physics. The AAPM has more than 8000 members and is the principal organization of medical physicists in the United States. The AAPM will periodically define new practice guidelines for medical physics practice to help advance the science of medical physics and to improve the quality of service to patients throughout the United States. Existing medical physics practice guidelines will be reviewed for the purpose of revision or renewal, as appropriate, on their fifth anniversary or sooner. Each medical physics practice guideline (MPPG) represents a policy statement by the AAPM, has undergone a thorough consensus process in which it has been subjected to extensive review, and requires the approval of the Professional Council. The medical physics practice guidelines recognize that the safe and effective use of diagnostic and therapeutic radiation requires specific training, skills, and techniques as described in each document. As the review of the previous version of AAPM Professional Policy (PP)-17 (Scope of Practice) progressed, the writing group focused on one of the main goals: to have this document accepted by regulatory and accrediting bodies. After much discussion, it was decided that this goal would be better served through a MPPG. To further advance this goal, the text was updated to reflect the rationale and processes by which the activities in the scope of practice were identified and categorized. Lastly, the AAPM Professional Council believes that this document has benefitted from public comment which is part of the MPPG process but not the AAPM Professional Policy approval process. The following terms are used in the AAPM's MPPGs: Must and Must Not: Used to indicate that adherence to the recommendation is considered necessary to conform to this practice guideline. Should and Should Not: Used to indicate a prudent practice to which exceptions may occasionally be made in appropriate circumstances

Spatiotemporal Control of Opioid Signaling and Behavior

SummaryOptogenetics is now a widely accepted tool for spatiotemporal manipulation of neuronal activity. However, a majority of optogenetic approaches use binary on/off control schemes. Here, we extend the optogenetic toolset by developing a neuromodulatory approach using a rationale-based design to generate a Gi-coupled, optically sensitive, mu-opioid-like receptor, which we term opto-MOR. We demonstrate that opto-MOR engages canonical mu-opioid signaling through inhibition of adenylyl cyclase, activation of MAPK and G protein-gated inward rectifying potassium (GIRK) channels and internalizes with kinetics similar to that of the mu-opioid receptor. To assess in vivo utility, we expressed a Cre-dependent viral opto-MOR in RMTg/VTA GABAergic neurons, which led to a real-time place preference. In contrast, expression of opto-MOR in GABAergic neurons of the ventral pallidum hedonic cold spot led to real-time place aversion. This tool has generalizable application for spatiotemporal control of opioid signaling and, furthermore, can be used broadly for mimicking endogenous neuronal inhibition pathways

Biomass Derived, Hierarchically Porous, Activated Starbons® as Adsorbents for Volatile Organic Compounds

The use of potassium hydroxide activated Starbons® derived from starch and alginic acid as adsorbents for 29 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was investigated. In every case, the alginic acid derived Starbon (A800K2) was found to be the optimal adsorbent, significantly outperforming both commercial activated carbon and starch derived, activated Starbon (S800K2). The saturated adsorption capacity of A800K2 depends on both the size of the VOC and the functional groups it contains. The highest saturated adsorption capacities were obtained with small VOCs. For VOC's of similar size, the presence of polarizable electrons in lone pairs or π-bonds within non-polar VOCs was beneficial. Analysis of porosimetry data suggests that the VOC's are being adsorbed within the pore structure of A800K2 rather than just on its surface. The adsorption was completely reversible by thermal treatment of the saturated Starbon under vacuum

C5 Palsy After Cervical Spine Surgery: A Multicenter Retrospective Review of 59 Cases.

STUDY DESIGN: A multicenter, retrospective review of C5 palsy after cervical spine surgery. OBJECTIVE: Postoperative C5 palsy is a known complication of cervical decompressive spinal surgery. The goal of this study was to review the incidence, patient characteristics, and outcome of C5 palsy in patients undergoing cervical spine surgery. METHODS: We conducted a multicenter, retrospective review of 13 946 patients across 21 centers who received cervical spine surgery (levels C2 to C7) between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2011, inclusive. P values were calculated using 2-sample t test for continuous variables and χ(2) tests or Fisher exact tests for categorical variables. RESULTS: Of the 13 946 cases reviewed, 59 patients experienced a postoperative C5 palsy. The incidence rate across the 21 sites ranged from 0% to 2.5%. At most recent follow-up, 32 patients reported complete resolution of symptoms (54.2%), 15 had symptoms resolve with residual effects (25.4%), 10 patients did not recover (17.0%), and 2 were lost to follow-up (3.4%). CONCLUSION: C5 palsy occurred in all surgical approaches and across a variety of diagnoses. The majority of patients had full recovery or recovery with residual effects. This study represents the largest series of North American patients reviewed to date

Affinity enrichment of extracellular vesicles from plasma reveals mRNA changes associated with acute ischemic stroke

Currently there is no in vitro diagnostic test for acute ischemic stroke (AIS), yet rapid diagnosis is crucial for effective thrombolytic treatment. We previously demonstrated the utility of CD8(+) T-cells’ mRNA expression for AIS detection; however extracellular vesicles (EVs) were not evaluated as a source of mRNA for AIS testing. We now report a microfluidic device for the rapid and efficient affinity-enrichment of CD8(+) EVs and subsequent EV’s mRNA analysis using droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). The microfluidic device contains a dense array of micropillars modified with anti-CD8α monoclonal antibodies that enriched 158 ± 10 nm sized EVs at 4.3 ± 2.1 × 109 particles/100 µL of plasma. Analysis of mRNA from CD8(+) EVs and their parental T-cells revealed correlation in the expression for AIS-specific genes in both cell lines and healthy donors. In a blinded study, 80% test positivity for AIS patients and controls was revealed with a total analysis time of 3.7 h

Electrophysiological network alterations in adults with copy number variants associated with high neurodevelopmental risk

Rare copy number variants associated with increased risk for neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders (referred to as ND-CNVs) are characterized by heterogeneous phenotypes thought to share a considerable degree of overlap. Altered neural integration has often been linked to psychopathology and is a candidate marker for potential convergent mechanisms through which ND-CNVs modify risk; however, the rarity of ND-CNVs means that few studies have assessed their neural correlates. Here, we used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate resting-state oscillatory connectivity in a cohort of 42 adults with ND-CNVs, including deletions or duplications at 22q11.2, 15q11.2, 15q13.3, 16p11.2, 17q12, 1q21.1, 3q29, and 2p16.3, and 42 controls. We observed decreased connectivity between occipital, temporal and parietal areas in participants with ND-CNVs. This pattern was common across genotypes and not exclusively characteristic of 22q11.2 deletions, which were present in a third of our cohort. Furthermore, a data-driven graph theory framework enabled us to successfully distinguish participants with ND-CNVs from unaffected controls using differences in node centrality and network segregation. Together, our results point to alterations in electrophysiological connectivity as a putative common mechanism through which genetic factors confer increased risk for neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders

Synthesis and Characterization of Single-Phase Metal Dodecaboride Solid Solutions: Zr1–xYxB12 and Zr1–xUxB12

Single-phase metal dodecaboride solid solutions, Zr0.5Y0.5B12 and Zr0.5U0.5B12, were prepared by arc melting from pure elements. The phase purity and composition were established by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and 10B and 11B solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The effects of carbon addition to Zr1–xYxB12 were studied and it was found that carbon causes fast cooling and as a result rapid nucleation of grains, as well as “templating” and patterning effects of the surface morphology. The hardness of the Zr0.5Y0.5B12 phase is 47.6 ± 1.7 GPa at 0.49 N load, which is ∼17% higher than that of its parent compounds, ZrB12 and YB12, with hardness values of 41.6 ± 2.6 and 37.5 ± 4.3 GPa, respectively. The hardness of Zr0.5U0.5B12 is ∼54% higher than that of its UB12 parent. The dodecaborides were confirmed to be metallic by band structure calculations, diffuse reflectance UV–vis, and solid-state NMR spectroscopies. The nature of the dodecaboride colors—violet for ZrB12 and blue for YB12—can be attributed to charge-transfer. XPS indicates that the metals are in the following oxidation states: Y3+, Zr4+, and U5+/6+. The superconducting transition temperatures (Tc) of the dodecaborides were determined to be 4.5 and 6.0 K for YB12 and ZrB12, respectively, as shown by resistivity and superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) measurements. The Tc of the Zr0.5Y0.5B12 solid solution was suppressed to 2.5 K

Flight Development for Cryogenic Fluid Management in Support of Exploration Missions

This paper describes the results of the "Experimentation for the Maturation of Deep Space Cryogenic Refueling Technology" study. The purposes of this study were to identify cryogenic fluids management technologies requiring low gravity flight experiments to bring to technology readiness level (TRL) 5-6; to study many possible flight experiment options; and to develop near-term low-cost flight experiment concepts to mature core technologies of refueling. A total of twenty-five white papers were prepared in the course of this study. Each white paper is briefly summarized and relevant references cited. A total of 90 references are cited