Labor Management Protocol for Parturients on Buprenorphine

... Opioid dependence during pregnancy may lead to negative outcomes for both the parturient and the fetus. Opioid dependent parturients are often prescribed buprenorphine, a form of medication- assisted therapy. The use of buprenorphine within the parturient population is a relatively new practice and anesthesia providers are encountering difficulties in managing this population during the peripartum period. Literature has demonstrated anesthesia providers may best serve this population by utilizing a multimodal approach when providing analgesia (Jones et al., 2008; Meyer et al., 2010; Reddy et al., 2017). A combination of oral, intravenous and neuraxial modalities, in conjunction with the daily dose of buprenorphine is the recommended analgesic regimen. This project aimed to educate anesthesia and obstetric providers at a tertiary care center in central Illinois with regards to pain management for parturients on buprenorphine. The results of this project suggested the providers increased their knowledge of buprenorphine and also enhanced their ability to manage parturients on buprenorphine during the peripartum period

The Use of a Visual Motor Test to Identify Lingering Deficits in Concussed Collegiate Athletes

Context: 1.6 to 3.8 million sports-related concussions occur annually. Athletes who have suffered a concussion but are symptom free and have returned to baseline on conventional tests may not necessarily be recovered from the effects of the concussion. The premature return to play of an unrecovered athlete may increase the risk of a subsequent concussion. Measurement of upper-limb visual motor coordination has identified lingering deficits following concussion and so it may provide clinicians with a more sensitive means of tracking recovery. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine if a visual motor coordination test would identify lingering deficits in a concussed population of collegiate student-athletes who have returned to baseline on conventional assessments when compared to healthy controls. Design: Prospective cross-sectional. Setting: The biomechanics laboratory of a large southeastern university. Participants: 13 recently concussed intercollegiate student-athletes, and 13 matched, healthy, control participants. Intervention(s): Each group completed two testing sessions on a visual motor exam. Main Outcome Measure(s): Average score, visual quadrant reaction time, simple visual reaction time and movement time. Results: There was no group interaction in A* score, quadrant response time, SVRT reaction time and SVRT movement time. There was a significant improvement in A* score, quadrant response time, SVRT reaction time and SVRT movement time in both groups between the two sessions. Conclusions: There appears to be no deficit in the visual motor coordination of recently concussed student-athletes after they have recovered according to the standard assessments. The visual motor coordination exam may not provide a useful means of tracking recovery following concussion, due to a substantial practice effect. Key Words: Concussion, visual motor, coordination, Dynavision, deficits, reaction time

Integrating single-molecule FRET and biomolecular simulations to study diverse interactions between nucleic acids and proteins

The conformations of biological macromolecules are intimately related to their cellular functions. Conveniently, the well-characterized dipole–dipole distance-dependence of Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) makes it possible to measure and monitor the nanoscale spatial dimensions of these conformations using fluorescence spectroscopy. For this reason, FRET is often used in conjunction with single-molecule detection to study a wide range of conformationally dynamic biochemical processes. Written for those not yet familiar with the subject, this review aims to introduce biochemists to the methodology associated with single-molecule FRET, with a particular emphasis on how it can be combined with biomolecular simulations to study diverse interactions between nucleic acids and proteins. In the first section, we highlight several conceptual and practical considerations related to this integrative approach. In the second section, we review a few recent research efforts wherein various combinations of single-molecule FRET and biomolecular simulations were used to study the structural and dynamic properties of biochemical systems involving different types of nucleic acids (e.g., DNA and RNA) and proteins (e.g., folded and disordered)

The Entrepreneurial State Cannot Deliver Without an Entrepreneurial Society

In The Entrepreneurial State and Mission Economy, Mazzucato argues that the state should adopt a proactive and entrepreneurial approach, setting ambitious missions that inspire collective action nurtured by emotions of urgency. By defining clear goals, the state can mobilize resources and talent from both the public and private sectors. We do not challenge Mazzucato’s facts or discredit her analysis. We agree that states successfully have and perhaps should continue to play a role in mobilizing talent and other resources around urgent societal challenges. Healthcare, climate change, and inequality are not problems that “markets” will solve on their own, and relevant and competent government organizations are an essential tool in our toolbox to address them. We would even agree that the state would do well to formulate clear missions and approach them in an entrepreneurial fashion. That is, experiment with an open mind and be willing to fail and learn, rather than develop interventions on the drawing board and then stick to them because of bureaucratic or political lock-in. But all that effort will only pay off, often in many unexpected ways, if we do not succumb to the fallacy of hindsight. That is, a well-defined and entrepreneurially executed state-led mission can only succeed in also generating a stream of valuable but largely unanticipated spin-off innovations, if the conditions for acting on such opportunities are right.</p

The Entrepreneurial State Cannot Deliver Without an Entrepreneurial Society

In The Entrepreneurial State and Mission Economy, Mazzucato argues that the state should adopt a proactive and entrepreneurial approach, setting ambitious missions that inspire collective action nurtured by emotions of urgency. By defining clear goals, the state can mobilize resources and talent from both the public and private sectors. We do not challenge Mazzucato’s facts or discredit her analysis. We agree that states successfully have and perhaps should continue to play a role in mobilizing talent and other resources around urgent societal challenges. Healthcare, climate change, and inequality are not problems that “markets” will solve on their own, and relevant and competent government organizations are an essential tool in our toolbox to address them. We would even agree that the state would do well to formulate clear missions and approach them in an entrepreneurial fashion. That is, experiment with an open mind and be willing to fail and learn, rather than develop interventions on the drawing board and then stick to them because of bureaucratic or political lock-in. But all that effort will only pay off, often in many unexpected ways, if we do not succumb to the fallacy of hindsight. That is, a well-defined and entrepreneurially executed state-led mission can only succeed in also generating a stream of valuable but largely unanticipated spin-off innovations, if the conditions for acting on such opportunities are right

A Family of GFP-like Proteins with Different Spectral Properties in Lancelet Branchiostoma Floridae

Background: Members of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) family share sequence similarity and the 11-stranded β-barrel fold. Fluorescence or bright coloration, observed in many members of this family, is enabled by the intrinsic properties of the polypeptide chain itself, without the requirement for cofactors. Amino acid sequence of fluorescent proteins can be altered by genetic engineering to produce variants with different spectral properties, suitable for direct visualization of molecular and cellular processes. Naturally occurring GFP-like proteins include fluorescent proteins from cnidarians of the Hydrozoa and Anthozoa classes, and from copepods of the Pontellidae family, as well as non-fluorescent proteins from Anthozoa. Recently, an mRNA encoding a fluorescent GFP-like protein AmphiGFP, related to GFP from Pontellidae, has been isolated from the lancelet Branchiostoma floridae, a cephalochordate (Deheyn et al., Biol Bull, 2007 213:95). Results: We report that the nearly-completely sequenced genome of Branchiostoma floridae encodes at least 12 GFP-like proteins. The evidence for expression of six of these genes can be found in the EST databases. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that a gene encoding a GFP-like protein was present in the common ancestor of Cnidaria and Bilateria. We synthesized and expressed two of the lancelet GFP-like proteins in mammalian cells and in bacteria. One protein, which we called LanFP1, exhibits bright green fluorescence in both systems. The other protein, LanFP2, is identical to AmphiGFP in amino acid sequence and is moderately fluorescent. Live imaging of the adult animals revealed bright green fluorescence at the anterior end and in the basal region of the oral cirri, as well as weaker green signals throughout the body of the animal. In addition, red fluorescence was observed in oral cirri, extending to the tips. Conclusion GFP-like proteins may have been present in the primitive Metazoa. Their evolutionary history includes losses in several metazoan lineages and expansion in cephalochordates that resulted in the largest repertoire of GFP-like proteins known thus far in a single organism. Lancelet expresses several of its GFP-like proteins, which appear to have distinct spectral properties and perhaps diverse functions. Reviewers: This article was reviewed by Shamil Sunyaev, Mikhail Matz (nominated by I. King Jordan) and L. Aravind

Why computing students learn on their own: motivation for self-directed learning of computing

In this article, we address the question of why computing students choose to learn computing topics on their own. A better understanding of why some students choose to learn on their own may help us to motivate other students to develop this important skill. In addition, it may help in curriculum design; if we need to leave some topics out of our expanding curriculum, a good choice might be those topics that students readily learn on their own. Based on a thematic analysis of 17 semistructured interviews, we found that computing students’ motivations for self-directed learning fall into four general themes: projects, social and peer interactions, joy of learning, and fear. Under these, we describe several more specific subthemes, illustrated in the words of the students. The project-related and social motivations are quite prominent. Although these motivations appear in the literature, they received greater emphasis from our interviewees. Perhaps most characteristic of computing is the motivation to learn to complete some project, both projects done for fun and projects required for school or work.</jats:p

Measuring Pancharatnam's relative phase for SO(3) evolutions using spin polarimetry

In polarimetry, a superposition of internal quantal states is exposed to a single Hamiltonian and information about the evolution of the quantal states is inferred from projection measurements on the final superposition. In this framework, we here extend the polarimetric test of Pancharatnam's relative phase for spin$-{1/2}$ proposed by Wagh and Rakhecha [Phys. Lett. A {\bf 197}, 112 (1995)] to spin $j\geq 1$ undergoing noncyclic SO(3) evolution. We demonstrate that the output intensity for higher spin values is a polynomial function of the corresponding spin$-{1/2}$ intensity. We further propose a general method to extract the noncyclic SO(3) phase and visibility by rigid translation of two $\pi /2$ spin flippers. Polarimetry on higher spin states may in practice be done with spin polarized atomic beams.Comment: New title, minor corrections, journal reference adde