Adaptive Beach Walker

The RAPD program is a federal organization funded by the National Science Foundation that supports the development of technologies for new and improved devices or software for persons with disabilities; in the case of our project and our fellow classmates, the program provided grants to student projects that are designed to help persons with disabilities in participating and enjoying physical activity. Our project is directed with the help of Dr. Widmann and Dr. Taylor of the Mechanical Engineering and Kinesiology Departments respectively, at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Three students from the Mechanical Department and one student from the Kinesiology department have been tasked with the design of this unique mobility walker to assist a local 8-year old Special Olympian. The walker makes use of lightweight materials, specialized balloon beach tires, and a very rigid frame to ensure safety, longevity and overall aesthetic appeal. This report details the idea generation, concept selection, calculations and design of a mobility walker for traversing the beach environment. The design that the team implemented is a direct influence from Sean’s current beach walker, his general purpose walker and other existing designs that were researched. Our final design was fabricated at a total cost of approximately $850, which was significantly reduced due to generous donations from multiple suppliers. Despite the success of our final product, a few minor improvements could be made to the design. The pipe fittings used to connect the various components of the frame are slightly too big and result in a loose fit with the tube. A new clamp could be selected to help eliminate any clearance that may affect the overall function and strength of the walker. In addition, the weight could be reduced through the use of thinner wall aluminum tube and the caster could be fabricated by bending thicker aluminum as opposed to the welded design we produced. A final recommendation for improvement is making the foam padding more secure by fastening it directly to the frame to eliminate chances of slipping while Sean is in the water. The primary features of the final design include: 1. High surface area, low pressure, polyurethane balloon tires that are specialized for beach environment are used to allow easy traverse across sand and other comparable terrain. In addition, they provide significant stability and buoyancy while in the water. 2. The handlebars can be adjusted to accommodate Sean’s growth. 3. The frame is powder coated and fastened using corrosive resistant hardware to prevent rust from developing, increasing the life and overall functionality of the walker. 4. The front wheels utilize a caster and bushing assembly that makes turning and maneuvering through the sand easier

Using published data in Mendelian randomization: a blueprint for efficient identification of causal risk factors.

Finding individual-level data for adequately-powered Mendelian randomization analyses may be problematic. As publicly-available summarized data on genetic associations with disease outcomes from large consortia are becoming more abundant, use of published data is an attractive analysis strategy for obtaining precise estimates of the causal effects of risk factors on outcomes. We detail the necessary steps for conducting Mendelian randomization investigations using published data, and present novel statistical methods for combining data on the associations of multiple (correlated or uncorrelated) genetic variants with the risk factor and outcome into a single causal effect estimate. A two-sample analysis strategy may be employed, in which evidence on the gene-risk factor and gene-outcome associations are taken from different data sources. These approaches allow the efficient identification of risk factors that are suitable targets for clinical intervention from published data, although the ability to assess the assumptions necessary for causal inference is diminished. Methods and guidance are illustrated using the example of the causal effect of serum calcium levels on fasting glucose concentrations. The estimated causal effect of a 1 standard deviation (0.13 mmol/L) increase in calcium levels on fasting glucose (mM) using a single lead variant from the CASR gene region is 0.044 (95 % credible interval -0.002, 0.100). In contrast, using our method to account for the correlation between variants, the corresponding estimate using 17 genetic variants is 0.022 (95 % credible interval 0.009, 0.035), a more clearly positive causal effect.We thank all EPIC participants and staff for their contribution to the study. We thank staff from the Technical, Field Epidemiology and Data Functional Group Teams of the MRC Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge, UK, for carrying out sample preparation, DNA provision and quality control, genotyping and data-handling work. Funding for the biomarker measurements in the random subcohort was provided by grants to EPIC-InterAct from the European Community Framework Programme 6 (Integrated Project LSHM-CT-2006-037197) and to EPIC-Heart from the Medical Research Council and British Heart Foundation (Joint Award G0800270). Stephen Burgess is supported by the Wellcome Trust (Grant Number 100114). Simon G. Thompson is supported by the British Heart Foundation (Grant Number CH/12/2/29428). No specific funding was received for the writing of this manuscript.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10654-015-0011-

Complementing the sugar code: role of GAGs and sialic acid in complement regulation

Sugar molecules play a vital role on both microbial and mammalian cells, where they are involved in cellular communication, govern microbial virulence, and modulate host immunity and inflammatory responses. The complement cascade, as part of a host’s innate immune system, is a potent weapon against invading bacteria but has to be tightly regulated to prevent inappropriate attack and damage to host tissues. A number of complement regulators, such as factor H and properdin, interact with sugar molecules, such as glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and sialic acid, on host and pathogen membranes and direct the appropriate complement response by either promoting the binding of complement activators or inhibitors. The binding of these complement regulators to sugar molecules can vary from location to location, due to their different specificities and because distinct structural and functional subpopulations of sugars are found in different human organs, such as the brain, kidney, and eye. This review will cover recent studies that have provided important new insights into the role of GAGs and sialic acid in complement regulation and how sugar recognition may be compromised in disease

Chittenden County Child Care Providers & Conflict Implementing Sick Child Guidelines

Introduction: Nationwide, 61% of children under age five are enrolled in a form of non-parental care. Problems arise when a child becomes sick and is not able toattend daycare or has to be sent home. Parents must either miss work to care for their child or find someone else to care for them. Since there is stress surrounding taking time off, and because the criteria used to exclude children from child care can be ambiguous, parents may feel that their child doesn’t need to be sent home. Each child care provider has to set up exclusion criteria that meet state licensing requirements. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) developed exclusion guidelines specifically for childcare settings in 2006, but most daycare providers and pediatricians are unaware of its existence. Conflicts occur when there are differences in opinion on the child’s health status between the child care provider and the parents or the child’s pediatrician.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1023/thumbnail.jp

Internet-based psychoeducation for bipolar disorder: a qualitative analysis of feasibility, acceptability and impact

<p>Background: In a recent exploratory randomised trial we found that a novel, internet-based psychoeducation programme for bipolar disorder (Beating Bipolar) was relatively easy to deliver and had a modest effect on psychological quality of life. We sought to explore the experiences of participants with respect to feasibility, acceptability and impact of Beating Bipolar.</p> <p>Methods: Participants were invited to take part in a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis techniques were employed; to explore and describe participants’ experiences, the data were analysed for emerging themes which were identified and coded.</p> <p>Results: The programme was feasible to deliver and acceptable to participants where they felt comfortable using a computer. It was found to impact upon insight into illness, health behaviour, personal routines and positive attitudes towards medication. Many participants regarded the programme as likely to be most beneficial for those recently diagnosed.</p> <p>Conclusions: An online psychoeducation package for bipolar disorder, such as Beating Bipolar, is feasible and acceptable to patients, has a positive impact on self-management behaviours and may be particularly suited to early intervention. Alternative (non-internet) formats should also be made available to patients.</p&gt

Most recent changepoint detection in Panel data

Detecting recent changepoints in time-series can be important for short-term prediction, as we can then base predictions just on the data since the changepoint. In many applications we have panel data, consisting of many related univariate time-series. We present a novel approach to detect sets of most recent changepoints in such panel data which aims to pool information across time-series, so that we preferentially infer a most recent change at the same time-point in multiple series. Our approach is computationally efficient as it involves analysing each time-series independently to obtain a profile likelihood like quantity that summarises the evidence for the series having either no change or a specific value for its most recent changepoint. We then post-process this output from each time-series to obtain a potentially small set of times for the most recent changepoints, and, for each time, the set of series which has their most recent changepoint at that time. We demonstrate the usefulness of this method on two data sets: forecasting events in a telecommunications network and inference about changes in the net asset ratio for a panel of US firms

High-precision 40Ar/39Ar dating of pleistocene tuffs and temporal anchoring of the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary

DFM thanks NERC for continued funding of the Argon Isotope Facility at SUERC and NERC Faciltiies grant IP/1626/0516. PRR thanks the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation and the U.S. National Science Foundation (grant BCS-0715465) for support of his work. LM was funded by the Marie Curie FP7 Intra-European Fellowship Program for the duration of this project. VCS acknowledges support from the John Fell Fund, University of Oxford.High-precision 40Ar/39Ar ages for a series of proximal tuffs from the Toba super-volcano in Indonesia, and the Bishop Tuff and Lava Creek Tuff B in North America have been obtained. Core from Ocean Drilling Project Site 758 in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean contains discrete tephra layers that we have geochemically correlated to the Young Toba Tuff (73.7 ± 0.3 ka), Middle Toba Tuff (502 ± 0.7 ka) and two eruptions (OTTA and OTTB) related to the Old Toba Tuff (792.4 ± 0.5 and 785.6 ± 0.7 ka, respectively) (40Ar/39Ar data reported as full external precision, 1 sigma). Within ODP 758 Termination IX is coincident with OTTB and hence this age tightly constrains the transition from Marine Isotope Stage 19–20 for the Indian Ocean. The core also preserves the location of the Australasian tektites, and the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary with Bayesian age-depth models used to determine the ages of these events, c. 784 ka and c. 786 ka, respectively. In North America, the Bishop Tuff (766.6 ± 0.4 ka) and Lava Creek Tuff B (627.0 ± 1.5 ka) have quantifiable stratigraphic relationships to the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary. Linear age-depth extrapolation, allowing for uncertainties associated with potential hiatuses in five different terrestrial sections, defines a geomagnetic reversal age of 789 ± 6 ka. Considering our data with respect to the previously published age data for the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary of Sagnotti et al. (2014), we suggest at the level of temporal resolution currently attainable using radioisotopic dating the last reversal of Earths geomagnetic field was isochronous. An overall Matuyama-Brunhes reversal age of 783.4 ± 0.6 ka is calculated, which allowing for inherent uncertainties in the astronomical dating approach, is indistinguishable from the LR04 stack age (780 ± 5 ka) for the geomagnetic boundary. Our high-precision age is 10 ± 2 ka older than the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary age of 773 ± 1 ka, as reported previously by Channell et al. (2010) for Atlantic Ocean records. As ODP 758 features in the LR04 marine stack, the high-precision 40Ar/39Ar ages determined here, as well as the Matuyama-Brunhes boundary age, can be used as temporally accurate and precise anchors for the Pleistocene time scale.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Resolving the contributions of the membrane-bound and periplasmic nitrate reductase systems to nitric oxide and nitrous oxide production in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

The production of cytotoxic nitric oxide (NO) and conversion into the neuropharmacological agent and potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) is linked with anoxic nitrate catabolism by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Salmonella can synthesize two types of nitrate reductase: a membrane-bound form (Nar) and a periplasmic form (Nap). Nitrate catabolism was studied under nitrate-rich and nitrate-limited conditions in chemostat cultures following transition from oxic to anoxic conditions. Intracellular NO production was reported qualitatively by assessing transcription of the NO-regulated genes encoding flavohaemoglobin (Hmp), flavorubredoxin (NorV) and hybrid cluster protein (Hcp). A more quantitative analysis of the extent of NO formation was gained by measuring production of N2O, the end-product of anoxic NO-detoxification. Under nitrate-rich conditions, the nar, nap, hmp, norV and hcp genes were all induced following transition from the oxic to anoxic state, and 20% of nitrate consumed in steady-state was released as N2O when nitrite had accumulated to millimolar levels. The kinetics of nitrate consumption, nitrite accumulation and N2O production were similar to those of wild-type in nitrate-sufficient cultures of a nap mutant. In contrast, in a narG mutant, the steady-state rate of N2O production was ~30-fold lower than that of the wild-type. Under nitrate-limited conditions, nap, but not nar, was up-regulated following transition from oxic to anoxic metabolism and very little N2O production was observed. Thus a combination of nitrate-sufficiency, nitrite accumulation and an active Nar-type nitrate reductase leads to NO and thence N2O production, and this can account for up to 20% of the nitrate catabolized