Putative Mechanisms of Atrazine\u27s Toxic Interactions

Atrazine is an herbicide with several known toxic effects, including interactions with other chemicals. Atrazine increases the toxicity of several organophosphates and has been shown to reduce the toxicity of triclosan to D. magna in a concentration dependent manner. Atrazine is a potent activator in vitro of the xenobiotic-sensing nuclear receptor, HR96, related to vertebrate constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) and pregnane X-receptor (PXR). HR96 is a promiscuous nuclear receptor that is activated and inhibited by a variety of xenobiotics, and regulates transcription of Phase I-III enzymes, as well as genes involved in cholesterol homeostasis and triglyceride uptake. RNA sequencing (RNAseq) was performed to determine if atrazine is inducing phase I-III detoxification enzymes in vivo, and estimate its potential for mixture interactions. RNAseq analysis demonstrates induction of glutathione S-transferases (GSTs), cytochrome P450s (CYPs), glucosyltransferases, and xenobiotic transporters, of which several are verified by qPCR. Pathway analysis demonstrates changes in drug, glutathione, and sphingolipid metabolism, indicative of HR96 activation. Based on our RNAseq data, we hypothesized as to which environmentally relevant chemicals may show altered toxicity with co-exposure to atrazine. Acute toxicity tests were performed to determine individual LC50 and Hillslope values as were toxicity tests with binary mixtures containing atrazine. The observed mixture toxicity was compared with modeled mixture toxicity using the Computational Approach to the Toxicity Assessment of Mixtures (CATAM) to assess whether atrazine is exerting antagonism, additivity, or synergistic toxicity in accordance with our hypothesis. Atrazine mixtures with triclosan decreased toxicity as expected; atrazine mixtures with parathion, endosulfan, and to a lesser extent p-nonylphenol increased toxicity. In summary, exposure to atrazine activates HR96, and induces phase I-III detoxification genes that are likely responsible for mixture interactions

Marketing Theory and Pregnancy Help Centers: A Unified Pregnancy Help Center Brand

Starting as a grassroots movement formed by individuals who are opposed to abortion, pregnancy help centers commonly provide resources to help women during and after their unplanned pregnancy. Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics serve as primary competition to pregnancy help centers. Planned Parenthood has branded themselves as the number one nonprofit relating to women\u27s healthcare, sex education, birth control, and abortion. Planned Parenthood clinics are united under national branding and engage their audience through comprehensive sex education and healthcare services while embracing innovative digital technology. By researching how different demographics influence abortion attitudes, different market segments can be developed to reach the best audience with an appropriate message. A story-branding model communicating values builds a deep and meaningful brand which can be established to build loyalty. Millennial and Generation Z patients will be drawn to the brand through accessible mobile-first conveniences. Establishing a brand will help a unified pregnancy help center brand gain competitive edge and favor over competition

Assessing word recognition through head turn preference in infants with chronic otitis media

Previous studies across a variety of different languages have shown that eleven-month-olds tested via the head-turn preference paradigm show a preference for familiar words over unfamiliar words, as demonstrated by longer look times. This study examined the effect of chronic otitis media on the preference for familiar over unfamiliar words. Nine eleven-month-old children (mean age 342 days, SD = 9.61) with chronic ear infections, defined as three or more diagnoses before the test date, were tested using wordlists adapted from a study performed by Vihman et al. (2004). Children with a history of chronic otitis media did not show a preference towards either unfamiliar or familiar wordlists (t(8) = 0.668, p = .523) as did their fellow American peers without chronic otitis media in unpublished data from our lab (t(11)= 2.915, p = .014). When combined with other language limiting factors such as low socioeconomic status or potential learning disabilities, additional professional support may be warranted. More research is required before specific recommendations can be made; however, this research provides the foundation for further analysis of the effects chronic otitis media has on early language learning

Using Behavior Skills Training To Teach Effective Conversation Skills To Individuals With Disabilities

A behavioral skills training (BST) package consisting of instructions, modeling an appropriate conversation, participant rehearsal, and constructive feedback, was used to teach appropriate conversation skills to three adults with developmental disabilities. A task analysis was used to define the steps of having a conversation. These steps included greetings, initiations, initiating a topic, responding, and maintaining a topic as the target skills. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants was used; an A-B-C format was embedded within the design for participants 1 and 2. Participant 3 was assessed using an A-B format. In situ was measured across three settings: each participant\u27s home; the assessment room where the sessions were held; and the lobby of the facility housing the assessment room. Latency to begin a conversation with a confederate was measured during baseline and in all in situ settings. The results of the study demonstrated the BST package was effective in increasing the appropriate conversation skills of all participants and all settings, while decreasing the amount of time it took for participants to initiate a conversation

The Ethics of Medicaid’s Work Requirements and Other Personal Responsibility Policies

Breaking controversial new ground, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently invited states to consider establishing work requirements as a condition of receiving Medicaid benefits. Noncompliant beneficiaries may lose some or all benefits, and if they do, will incur higher spending if they have to pay for medical care out of pocket. Current evidence suggests work requirements and related policies, which proponents claim promote personal responsibility, can create considerable risks of health and financial harm in vulnerable populations. Concerns about implementing these policies in Medicaid have been widely expressed, including by major physician organizations, and others have examined their legality. Setting these issues aside, if the policies survive legal challenges, CMS should act to minimize the potential harms these policies could cause to the health of Medicaid’s vulnerable population. To this end, CMS should create guidance that would minimize risks, ensure proportionality of penalties (i.e., that benefits are not eliminated for first-time or relatively minor infractions), and stipulate when harms rise to a level that requires program changes or termination

EFFECT OF COUNTERFACE ON CARTILAGE BOUNDARY LUBRICATING ABILITY BY HYALURONAN AND PROTEOGLYCAN 4: CARTILAGE-CARTILAGE VS CARTILAGE-GLASS

INTRODUCTION Proteoglycan 4 (PRG4), also known as lubricin, is a mucin-like glycoprotein found in synovial fluid (SF) [1]. Hyaluronan (HA) is another constituent of SF that works synergistically with PRG4 to promote joint lubrication required for joint health [2]. Current in vitro friction tests used to analyze these lubricants have found similar trends but varying friction coefficient (m) magnitudes. These effects may be attributed to different testing protocols, and in particular the various interfaces [3,4,5,6,7,8]. Previous studies have used cartilage-cartilage [7,8] and cartilage-glass [6] friction tests to assess SF lubricants. However, few studies have examined the friction reducing ability of SF lubricants at various velocities and different interfaces. The objective of this study was to determine HA and PRG4’s lubricating ability at cartilage-glass and cartilage-cartilage biointerfaces at various velocities.   METHODS HA (1.5 MDa, Lifecore Biomedical) was prepared at 3.3 mg/mL with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) [9]. PRG4 was purified from media conditioned bovine cartilage explants, and prepared at 450 μg/mL in PBS [9]. Two sets of tests were conducted using a modified boundary lubrication test protocol [7]. For cartilage-glass, a 6mm radius glass piece, with a root mean square surface roughness of 6.061±0.7554 nm, acted as the base core with a cartilage annuli [7]. Three lubricants were tested over three days, PBS (n=8), HA or PRG4 (n=4), and SF (n=8). Cartilage-cartilage underwent the same test sequence. Both sets of samples underwent the same testing protocol; samples were compressed to 18% of the total cartilage thickness with a 40 minute stress relaxation [9]. Samples were then rotated at effective sliding velocities of 10, 3, 1, 0.3, 0.1, and 0.01 mm/s with a 120s pre-sliding duration. Kinetic μ was calculated with instantaneous (<μkinetic>) load values. A two-factor ANOVA was used to determine effects of lubricant and velocity, with Tukey post-hoc testing. RESULTS At the cartilage-glass interface (Fig. 1A), <μkinetic> varied with test lubricant and velocity (p<0.001), with no interaction (p=0.78). All lubricants were significantly different from each other (p<0.001), except for PBS/HA (p=0.65) and PRG4/SF (p=0.72). Velocities were significantly different from each other when comparing 0.01 mm/s to all other speeds (p<0.02). At the cartilage-cartilage interface (Fig. 1B), <μkinetic> varied with test lubricant and velocity (p<0.01), with no interaction (p=0.82). All lubricants were significantly different from each other (p<0.01), except for HA/SF (p=0.07) and HA/PRG4 (p=0.35). Velocity was only significantly different at 0.01mm/s when compared to 3 and 10 mm/s (p<0.028). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that different articulating interfaces can result in different trends of <μkinetic>, and also affect the magnitude of the value. This agrees with previous research; showing that stiff and impermeable surfaces versus hydrated and permeable surfaces results in different <μkinetic> [3]. This data illustrates that HA is indeed a cartilage boundary lubricant and reduces friction at the cartilage-cartilage interface, but not at a cartilage-glass set up. Overall, different test systems are suitable for characterizing lubrication properties, but direct <μkinetic> values should not be compared

On Universal Codes for Integers: Wallace Tree, Elias Omega and Variations

A universal code for the (positive) integers can be used to store or compress a sequence of integers. Every universal code implies a probability distribution on integers. This implied distribution may be a reasonable choice when the true distribution of a source of integers is unknown. Wallace Tree Code (WTC) is a universal code for integers based on binary trees. We give the encoding and decoding routines for WTC and analyse the properties of the code in comparison to two well-known codes, the Fibonacci and Elias omega codes. Some improvements on the Elias omega code are also described and examined.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures (3 figure image files

Psychological Health and Smoking in Young Adulthood: Smoking Trajectories and Responsiveness to State Cigarette Excise Taxes

While smoking rates have significantly decreased among the general population in the past several decades, they have not significantly decreased among those with poorer psychological health. As posited by theories such as the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, smoking may represent an important coping mechanism for individuals who experience stress or unpleasant feelings related to poorer psychological health. If poorer psychological health is experienced during young adulthood, a critical time for tobacco use experimentation and uptake, individuals may be particularly likely to become dependent on nicotine and develop longer term smoking habits. In addition, tobacco control policies that have reduced tobacco use in the general population, like raising the price of cigarettes, may be less effective among people with poorer psychological health. Using two indicators of psychological health, a continuum of psychological distress and ever diagnosis of a mental illness, this dissertation explored first, how psychological health accounts for variability within and between individuals in trajectories of smoking (status and amount) across the ages of 18 to 30, and second, whether psychological health moderates the effectiveness of cigarette excise taxes in preventing and reducing smoking. Using a longitudinal national sample across years 2007 to 2013, between-individual effects were found such that individuals with poorer psychological health were more likely to be smokers and to smoke greater numbers of cigarettes over young adulthood than those with better psychological health (Aim 1 and Aim 2). Additionally, the positive effect of having a diagnosed mental illness on smoking amount increased with age, suggesting older young adults may be important targets for intervention (Aim 1). While the effect of cigarette excise taxes encouragingly was not shown to differ by psychological health, cigarette excise taxes showed little effect on smoking at all, perhaps suggesting taxes need to be raised higher than they have been to meaningfully impact smoking (Aim 2). Interventions should aim to target high-risk young adults with poorer psychological health to treat unpleasant psychological symptoms simultaneously with smoking prevention and cessation programs. Overall, this work helps us understand the relationships between psychological health, smoking, and tobacco control policy, with implications for interventions.Doctor of Philosoph

Understanding statistical power in the context of applied research

Estimates of statistical power are widely used in applied research for purposes such as sample size calculations. This paper reviews the benefits of power and sample size estimation and considers several problems with the use of power calculations in applied research that result from misunderstandings or misapplications of statistical power. These problems include the use of retrospective power calculations and standardized measures of effect size. Methods of increasing the power of proposed research that do not involve merely increasing sample size (such as reduction in measurement error, increasing ‘dose’ of the independent variable and optimizing the design) are noted. It is concluded that applied researchers should consider a broader range of factors (other than sample size) that influence statistical power, and that the use of standardized measures of effect size should be avoided (except as intermediate stages in prospective power or sample size calculations)

The Standard Model of Particle Physics. Neutrino Oscillations

The Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics was tested to great precision by experiments at the highest energy colliders (LEP, Hera, Tevatron, SLAC). The only missing particle is the Higgs boson, which will be the first particle to be searched for at the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The SM anticipated that there are 3 types of left handed neutrinos. Experiments on atmospheric and solar neutrinos (made in Japan, Italy, Canada, Russia and the US) have shown the existence of neutrino oscillations, which imply that neutrinos have very small mass differences and violate the conservation of individual leptonic numbers. Neutrino oscillations were verified in long baseline neutrino experiments (in Japan and in the USA); and cosmology has given reasonably precise indications on the sum of the neutrino masses. In this general lecture will be summarized some of the main properties of the SM and some of the main results obtained in the field and the experiments in preparation. Some of the main open questions will be briefly discussed.Comment: 6 pages, 13 EPS figures. Special lecture given at the 24th ICNTS Conference, 1-5 September 2008, Bologna, Italy. Changed reference