Liberation Kitchen: Annotating Intergenerational Conversations Among Black Women in Art and Education

In this essay, we, four Black women art educators, draw from Black feminisms and Afrofemcentrism. Our practice considers nuanced ways that Black women curate spaces of communal care, which position forms of dialogic encounters with one another. We put forward aspects of Black life, as lived in and through sharing intimacies of the geospatial and as continuation of Black radical traditions. We argue that a kitchenspace indexes a Black praxis, centering intergenerational knowledge-sharing and methodology toward liberation. We think with Black feminist scholar/artists and insist a method of self-annotating, indexing our lives into the otherwise absences of Black women’s narratives in the field of art education. We practice the theorization and method of using images of personal artwork and our dialogues. These annotations realign new centers of knowledge and refuse cannibalization by Euro-dominant narratives

A comparison of placebo and nocebo effects on objective and subjective postural stability: a double-edged sword?

Background: Positive expectations (i.e., placebo effect) can improve postural control during quiet standing. This raises an important question: if postural control is susceptible to positive expectations, is it possible to elicit the opposite, a decline in postural stability, simply by suggesting a performance impairment (i.e., nocebo) will take place? Yet no studies have examined the nocebo effect on balance performance. To better understand both phenomena, comparative studies, which include both placebo and nocebo conditions, are needed. Method: Forty-two healthy adults were initially assessed for objective (center of pressure movement) and subjective (perceived) postural stability and performance expectations. Participants were then randomly assigned in equal numbers to a placebo (positive expectation), nocebo (negative expectation) or control (no suggestion) group. Participants in the placebo/nocebo groups were deceptively administered an inert capsule described as a potent supplement which would either positively or negatively influence their balance performance. Objective and subjective postural stability, and performance expectations were reassessed 20 min later. Results: The nocebo procedure evoked an increase in COP sway movements and reduced perceived stability compared to a control group. The placebo group presented with reductions COP sway movements and increased perceived stability following expectation manipulation. Compared to the control group, the placebo group showed a significantly higher performance expectation whilst the nocebo group showed a significantly lower performance expectation. Regression analyses also revealed that performance expectations following the placebo/nocebo procedure significantly predicted perceptions of postural instability (i.e., perceived performance), accounting for around 50% of the variance. These results remained even when controlling for actual performance (i.e., objective postural stability). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that positive and negative performance expectations evoked by instructional manipulation can profoundly influence both objective and subjective postural stability. Postural control—and perceptions regarding such—are clearly susceptible to expectation manipulation, which could have important practical implications and repercussions on testing, training interventions and rehabilitation programs. Positive and negative expectancies are a double-edged sword for postural control

Factors Influencing Patient Satisfaction with Healthcare: The Patient\u27s Perception

The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify factors that perspective patients perceive as ones that influence their satisfaction with healthcare. A distinctive feature of the study was that it addressed factors that influence satisfaction with healthcare from the patient\u27s perception (emic perspective) rather than the provider\u27s (etic) assumptions

Comparison of Intraoperative Fluoroscopy to Postoperative Weight-Bearing Radiographs Obtained 4 to 6 Weeks After Bunion Repair With A Chevron Osteotomy

Background: During operative treatment of bunions, an attempt is made to correct the hallux valgus angle (HVA) and the intermetatarsal angle (IMA). In this study, the HVA and the IMA were measured using intraoperative C-arm fluoroscopic images obtained during surgical treatment of a bunion with chevron osteotomy. These angles were again measured using weight-bearing radiographs obtained 4 to 6 weeks postoperatively. Methods: At our institution, we reviewed medical records of patients who underwent a bunion repair with chevron osteotomy between January 2013 and October 2017. A total of 26 feet from 24 patients were included. Three authors (ALP, TMH, and RAM) measured the HVA and IMA using intraoperative fluoroscopic images and postoperative weight-bearing radiographs (4 measurements per foot; total, 104 measurements). The authors were blinded to their previous angular measurements and to measurements made by the others. An intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated for the HVA and IMA measurements between groups (ie, intraoperative fluoroscopic images and postoperative radiographs) to determine interobserver reliability. We compared the angles measured by the authors between groups and used a paired t test for statistical evaluation. Results: Interobserver difference of the HVA and IMA was low between intraoperative fluoroscopic images and postoperative weight-bearing radiographs (0.98 and 0.79; 0.78 and 0.95, respectively). The measured IMAs were relatively consistent between groups (6.21° and 6.37°, respectively); only two patients had a difference \u3e 3°. There was a greater difference in HVAs between groups (11.5° and 14.2°, respectively). In 11 feet, the HVA was \u3e 5° (range, 5.3-12.7°) in the postoperative radiograph compared to the fluoroscopic image. In one foot, we noted a 7° decrease of the HVA on the postoperative radiograph. The average difference of HVA between groups was 2.6° (P \u3c 0.0001), whereas the IMA was 0.16° (P = 0.002). Conclusions: Interobserver measurements of the HVA and IMA were reliable on both the intraoperative fluoroscopic images and the postoperative weightbearing radiographs. The IMA was similar between groups; however, the HVA was often greater on the postoperative weight-bearing radiographs

Systematic Literature Review of Systemic Corticosteroid Use for Asthma Management

Writing and editing assistance, including preparation of a draft manuscript under the direction and guidance of the authors, incorporating author feedback, and manuscript submission, was provided by Debra Scates, Ph.D., of JK Associates, Inc., and Michael A. Nissen, E.L.S., of AstraZeneca. This support was funded by AstraZeneca.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

An in vitro collagen perfusion wound biofilm model; with applications for antimicrobial studies and microbial metabolomics

BackgroundThe majority of in vitro studies of medically relevant biofilms involve the development of biofilm on an inanimate solid surface. However, infection in vivo consists of biofilm growth on, or suspended within, the semi-solid matrix of the tissue, whereby current models do not effectively simulate the nature of the in vivo environment. This paper describes development of an in vitro method for culturing wound associated microorganisms in a system that combines a semi-solid collagen gel matrix with continuous flow of simulated wound fluid. This enables culture of wound associated reproducible steady state biofilms under conditions that more closely simulate the dynamic wound environment. To demonstrate the use of this model the antimicrobial kinetics of ceftazidime, against both mature and developing Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms, was assessed. In addition, we have shown the potential application of this model system for investigating microbial metabolomics by employing selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) to monitor ammonia and hydrogen cyanide production by Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms in real-time. ResultsThe collagen wound biofilm model facilitates growth of steady-state reproducible Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms under wound like conditions. A maximum biofilm density of 1010 cfu slide-1 was achieved by 30 hours of continuous culture and maintained throughout the remainder of the experiment. Treatment with ceftazidime at a clinically relevant dose resulted in a 1.2 – 1.6 log reduction in biofilm density at 72 hours compared to untreated controls. Treatment resulted in loss of complex biofilm architecture and morphological changes to bacterial cells, visualised using confocal microscopy. When monitoring the biofilms using SIFT-MS, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide levels peaked at 12 hours at 2273 ppb (±826.4) and 138 ppb (±49.1) respectively and were detectable throughout experimentation. ConclusionsThe collagen wound biofilm model has been developed to facilitate growth of reproducible biofilms under wound-like conditions. We have successfully used this method to: (1) evaluate antimicrobial efficacy and kinetics, clearly demonstrating the development of antimicrobial tolerance in biofilm cultures; (2) characterise volatile metabolite production by P. aeruginosa biofilms, demonstrating the potential use of this method in metabolomics studies

Variation in the Glucose Transporter gene <i>SLC2A2 </i>is associated with glycaemic response to metformin

Metformin is the first-line antidiabetic drug with over 100 million users worldwide, yet its mechanism of action remains unclear1. Here the Metformin Genetics (MetGen) Consortium reports a three-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS), consisting of 13,123 participants of different ancestries. The C allele of rs8192675 in the intron of SLC2A2, which encodes the facilitated glucose transporter GLUT2, was associated with a 0.17% (P = 6.6 × 10−14) greater metformin-induced reduction in hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) in 10,577 participants of European ancestry. rs8192675 was the top cis expression quantitative trait locus (cis-eQTL) for SLC2A2 in 1,226 human liver samples, suggesting a key role for hepatic GLUT2 in regulation of metformin action. Among obese individuals, C-allele homozygotes at rs8192675 had a 0.33% (3.6 mmol/mol) greater absolute HbA1c reduction than T-allele homozygotes. This was about half the effect seen with the addition of a DPP-4 inhibitor, and equated to a dose difference of 550 mg of metformin, suggesting rs8192675 as a potential biomarker for stratified medicine