Impulse

Features:[Page 2-3] Solberg family hopes to continue legacy[Page 3] Solberg Loan Fund helps needy students[Page 4-5] Alumnus achieves unique success[Page 5] Inventors Congress enters second year[Page 6] Basilio Gonzalez helps Somalia rebuild[Page 7] Empi CEO named 1993 Entrepreneur of the Year[Page 7] Empi makes Forbes list[Page 8] Jensen wins ASME award[Page 9] Utility industry: a past, present and future of changes[Page 10-11] Daktronics celebrates 25th anniversary[Page 10-11] Daktronics wins Business of the Year, seven other awards[Page 11] Wilkens to retire as CEO of Northwestern Public Service[Page 11-14] Meet the Dean\u27s Advisory Council[Page 11] Wilkens to retire as CEO of Northwestern Public Service[Page 12-14] Meet the Dean\u27s Advisory Council Departments:FACULTY[Page 15] Energy grant benefits students, businesses[Page 16] Instructor teaches entrepreneurship class at SDSU[Page 16-17] Knabach named Engineer of the Year for Siouxland area[Page 17] Center for Power Systems Studies celebrates 25 years[Page 18] Faculty notesStudents:[Page 19] Student notes[Page 20] EED recruits manufacturers, employers, inventors[Page 20] ASCE chapter recognized as 1993 Ridgeway finalist[Page 21] SDSU student works to help ADVANCE[Page 21] SDSU to host student ASME conferenceALUMNI[Page 22] Meet the Engineering Alumni of the Foundation Board[Page 23] Jerry Lohr steers $50 million campaign[Page 24] Guy Rhoades instrumental in GE donation[Page 24] Grommersch Mechanical Engineering Scholarship FundAlumni notes inside back coverPhonathon planned for February back coverBenefactors and Donors:[Page 25] Benefactors[Page 26] Dean\u27s Club[Page 26-32] College of Engineering donorshttps://openprairie.sdstate.edu/coe_impulse/1031/thumbnail.jp

Digital Clock Drawing: Differentiating “Thinking” versus “Doing” in Younger and Older Adults with Depression

Psychomotor slowing has been documented in depression. The digital Clock Drawing Test (dCDT) provides: (i) a novel technique to assess both cognitive and motor aspects of psychomotor speed within the same task and (ii) the potential to uncover subtleties of behavior not previously detected with non-digitized modes of data collection. Using digitized pen technology in 106 participants grouped by Age (younger/older) and Affect (euthymic/unmedicated depressed), we recorded cognitive and motor output by capturing how the clock is drawn rather than focusing on the final product. We divided time to completion (TTC) for Command and Copy conditions of the dCDT into metrics of percent of drawing (%Ink) versus non-drawing (%Think) time. We also obtained composite Z-scores of cognition, including attention/information processing (AIP), to explore associations of %Ink and %Think times to cognitive and motor performance. Despite equivalent TTC, %Ink and %Think Command times (Copy n.s.) were significant (AgeXAffect interaction: p=.03)—younger depressed spent a smaller proportion of time drawing relative to thinking compared to the older depressed group. Command %Think time negatively correlated with AIP in the older depressed group (r=−.46; p=.02). Copy %Think time negatively correlated with AIP in the younger depressed (r=−.47; p=.03) and older euthymic groups (r=−.51; p=.01). The dCDT differentiated aspects of psychomotor slowing in depression regardless of age, while dCDT/cognitive associates for younger adults with depression mimicked patterns of older euthymics

Cognitive and connectome properties detectable through individual differences in graphomotor organization

We investigated whether graphomotor organization during a digitized Clock Drawing Test (dCDT) would be associated with cognitive and/or brain structural differences detected with a tractography-derived structural connectome of the brain. 72 non-demented/non-depressed adults were categorized based on whether or not they used ‘anchor’ digits (i.e., 12, 3, 6, 9) before any other digits while completing dCDT instructions to “draw the face of a clock with all the numbers and set the hands to 10 after 11”. ‘Anchorers’ were compared to ‘non-anchorers’ across dCDT, additional cognitive measures and connectome-based metrics. In the context of grossly intact clock drawings, anchorers required fewer strokes to complete the dCDT and outperformed non-anchorers on executive functioning and learning/memory/recognition tasks. Anchorers had higher local efficiency for the left medial orbitofrontal and transverse temporal cortices as well as the right rostral anterior cingulate and superior frontal gyrus versus non-anchorers suggesting better regional integration within local networks involving these regions; select aspects of which correlated with cognition. Results also revealed that anchorers’ exhibited a higher degree of modular integration among heteromodal regions of the ventral visual processing stream versus non-anchorers. Thus, an easily observable graphomotor distinction was associated with 1) better performance in specific cognitive domains, 2) higher local efficiency suggesting better regional integration, and 3) more sophisticated modular integration involving the ventral (‘what’) visuospatial processing stream. Taken together, these results enhance our knowledge of the brain-behavior relationships underlying unprompted graphomotor organization during dCDT

Trans-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of prostate cancer identifies new susceptibility loci and informs genetic risk prediction.

Prostate cancer is a highly heritable disease with large disparities in incidence rates across ancestry populations. We conducted a multiancestry meta-analysis of prostate cancer genome-wide association studies (107,247 cases and 127,006 controls) and identified 86 new genetic risk variants independently associated with prostate cancer risk, bringing the total to 269 known risk variants. The top genetic risk score (GRS) decile was associated with odds ratios that ranged from 5.06 (95% confidence interval (CI), 4.84-5.29) for men of European ancestry to 3.74 (95% CI, 3.36-4.17) for men of African ancestry. Men of African ancestry were estimated to have a mean GRS that was 2.18-times higher (95% CI, 2.14-2.22), and men of East Asian ancestry 0.73-times lower (95% CI, 0.71-0.76), than men of European ancestry. These findings support the role of germline variation contributing to population differences in prostate cancer risk, with the GRS offering an approach for personalized risk prediction

Effect of remote ischaemic conditioning on clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI): a single-blind randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Remote ischaemic conditioning with transient ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm has been shown to reduce myocardial infarct size in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). We investigated whether remote ischaemic conditioning could reduce the incidence of cardiac death and hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months. METHODS: We did an international investigator-initiated, prospective, single-blind, randomised controlled trial (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI) at 33 centres across the UK, Denmark, Spain, and Serbia. Patients (age >18 years) with suspected STEMI and who were eligible for PPCI were randomly allocated (1:1, stratified by centre with a permuted block method) to receive standard treatment (including a sham simulated remote ischaemic conditioning intervention at UK sites only) or remote ischaemic conditioning treatment (intermittent ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm through four cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of an automated cuff device) before PPCI. Investigators responsible for data collection and outcome assessment were masked to treatment allocation. The primary combined endpoint was cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02342522) and is completed. FINDINGS: Between Nov 6, 2013, and March 31, 2018, 5401 patients were randomly allocated to either the control group (n=2701) or the remote ischaemic conditioning group (n=2700). After exclusion of patients upon hospital arrival or loss to follow-up, 2569 patients in the control group and 2546 in the intervention group were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At 12 months post-PPCI, the Kaplan-Meier-estimated frequencies of cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure (the primary endpoint) were 220 (8·6%) patients in the control group and 239 (9·4%) in the remote ischaemic conditioning group (hazard ratio 1·10 [95% CI 0·91-1·32], p=0·32 for intervention versus control). No important unexpected adverse events or side effects of remote ischaemic conditioning were observed. INTERPRETATION: Remote ischaemic conditioning does not improve clinical outcomes (cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure) at 12 months in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, University College London Hospitals/University College London Biomedical Research Centre, Danish Innovation Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, TrygFonden

The woman warrior and her bodymind in action : an analysis of bodies, minds, gender, and movement in Wonder Woman, 1941 - 2017

Wonder Woman (2017)’s action sequences rearticulate the gendered binaries of male/female, masculine/feminine, active/passive, and mind/body by centering women as the film’s heroes. I map director Patty Jenkins’s representations of the female/feminine body and mind (what I refer to as the bodymind) in her film as transgressive. The filming techniques that Jenkins uses speaks to and against the conventional and sexist filming strategies of Hollywood film. Traditionally, film negotiates the troubling and anxiety inducing female/feminine action hero and superhero by limiting her speaking, action, and power. I situate Jenkins’s film in the action and body genre as it centres the body and the action sequence as a primary site for Diana’s (Wonder Woman’s) character development. To analyze how Wonder Woman (2017) rearticulates gendered binaries, I compare Jenkins’s use of containment strategies in her film to that typically found in Hollywood film as well as in the comic book tradition. Filmmakers use these strategies to inhibit female/feminine characters’ action sequences. I find that Jenkins uses some containment strategies such as casting a white, hetero-passing, able-bodied, and conventionally attractive woman as the film’s hero, Diana, and presenting the German scientist Dr. Isabel Maru (also known as Dr. Poison, for her ‘advances’ in chemical warfare), the villain, as physically disfigured. Although Jenkins uses some traditional containment strategies, however, the film regularly challenges others. The film not only defies but also scrutinizes many of the containment strategies that restrict the action-effectiveness or even emphasize the passivity of the female/feminine hero. In contrast to most action and superhero cinema, therefore, Wonder Woman (2017) consistently presents Diana and the Amazons as performing physically demanding feats of skill, strength, and determination in convincing ways. Thus, the film presents exerting female/feminine bodyminds that overcome obstacles in their physical environment. Contrary to many action and superhero films, Jenkins’ film provides action sequences that show an exerting female/feminine hero who develops her skills while countering external forces with her forceful bodymind. As popular film is a powerful medium that reflects societal assumptions, Jenkins’s representation of female/feminine bodyminds effectively challenges and rearticulates the gendered assumptions that the ‘female’ and ‘feminine’ are passive and weak.Creative and Critical Studies, Faculty of (Okanagan)Graduat

Watch : A Humanities Graduate Students' Anthology 2020-21

Creative and Critical Studies, Faculty of (Okanagan)Graduate Studies, College of (Okanagan)ReviewedGraduat

THink: Inferring Cognitive Status from Subtle Behaviors

The digital clock drawing test is a fielded application that provides a major advance over existing neuropsychological testing technology. It captures and analyzes high precision information about both outcome and process, opening up the possibility of detecting subtle cognitive impairment even when test results appear superficially normal. We describe the design and development of the test, document the role of AI in its capabilities, and report on its use over the past seven years. We outline its potential implications for earlier detection and treatment of neurological disorders. We set the work in the larger context of the THink project, which is exploring multiple approaches to determining cognitive status through the detection and analysis of subtle behaviors.</jats:p