Fast all-optical switch

An apparatus and method wherein polarization rotation in alkali vapors or other mediums is used for all-optical switching and digital logic and where the rate of operation is proportional to the amplitude of the pump field. High rates of speed are accomplished by Rabi flopping of the atomic states using a continuously operating monochromatic atomic beam as the pump

Full-duplex optical communication system

A method of full-duplex electromagnetic communication wherein a pair of data modulation formats are selected for the forward and return data links respectively such that the forward data electro-magnetic beam serves as a carrier for the return data. A method of encoding optical information is used wherein right-hand and left-hand circular polarizations are assigned to optical information to represent binary states. An application for an earth to low earth orbit optical communications system is presented which implements the full-duplex communication and circular polarization keying modulation format

Evaluability Assessment of “Growing Healthy Communities,” a Mini-grant Program to Improve Access to Healthy Foods and Places for Physical Activity

Mini-grants have been used to stimulate multisector collaboration in support of public health initiatives by funding non-traditional partners, such as economic development organizations. Such mini-grants have the potential to increase access to healthy foods and places for physical activity through built environment change, especially in small and rural towns in the United States. Although a promising practice, few mini-grant evaluations have been done. Therefore, our purpose was to conduct an Evaluability Assessment (EA), which is a process that can help promising programs that lack evidence advance toward full-scale evaluation. Specifically, we conducted an Evaluability Assessment of a statewide mini-grant program, called “Growing Healthy Communities” (GHC), to determine if this program was ready for evaluation and identify any changes needed for future implementation and evaluation that could also inform similar programs

Factors Associated with Physical Activity Increases and Decreases Among a Sample of Appalachian Residents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Physical activity (PA) can prevent and reduce the deleterious physical and mental health effects of COVID-19 and associated lockdowns. Research conducted early in the pandemic demonstrates that a greater proportion of adults in the U.S. have decreased than increased PA, and the effects vary by sociodemographic factors. Ongoing evidence is important to identify patterns in PA changes during the pandemic. Purpose: This study aims to identify factors associated with increases and decreases in PA during the COVID-19 pandemic in a convenience sample of adults residing in Appalachia. Methods: Surveys were collected from a convenience sample of adults from eight counties in West Virginia from January to March 2021. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify sociodemographic, health, and rurality factors associated with (1) increased PA and (2) decreased PA during the pandemic, assessed retrospectively via self-report. Results: Analysis of 1,401 survey responses revealed that better self-rated health, lower body mass index, and higher income and education were associated with a greater likelihood of more time spent doing PA during the pandemic (p ≤ .05). Respondents with lower self-rated health, higher body mass index, lower income, and lower levels of education—plus females and those living in a more urban county—were more likely to spend less time doing PA during the pandemic (p ≤ .05). Implications: Analyses suggest that pre-pandemic disparities in PA by health, wealth, and education were exacerbated during the pandemic. These must be addressed before physical inactivity and ill health become endemic to the Appalachian Region

The scientific and societal uses of global measurements of subsurface velocity

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Szuts, Z. B., Bower, A. S., Donohue, K. A., Girton, J. B., Hummon, J. M., Katsumata, K., Lumpkin, R., Ortner, P. B., Phillips, H. E., Rossby, H. T., Shay, L. K., Sun, C., & Todd, R. E. The scientific and societal uses of global measurements of subsurface velocity. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, (2019): 358, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00358.Ocean velocity defines ocean circulation, yet the available observations of subsurface velocity are under-utilized by society. The first step to address these concerns is to improve visibility of and access to existing measurements, which include acoustic sampling from ships, subsurface float drifts, and measurements from autonomous vehicles. While multiple programs provide data publicly, the present difficulty in finding, understanding, and using these data hinder broader use by managers, the public, and other scientists. Creating links from centralized national archives to project specific websites is an easy but important way to improve data discoverability and access. A further step is to archive data in centralized databases, which increases usage by providing a common framework for disparate measurements. This requires consistent data standards and processing protocols for all types of velocity measurements. Central dissemination will also simplify the creation of derived products tailored to end user goals. Eventually, this common framework will aid managers and scientists in identifying regions that need more sampling and in identifying methods to fulfill those demands. Existing technologies are capable of improving spatial and temporal sampling, such as using ships of opportunity or from autonomous platforms like gliders, profiling floats, or Lagrangian floats. Future technological advances are needed to fill sampling gaps and increase data coverage.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, United States, Grant Numbers 1356383 to ZBS, OCE 1756361 to ASB at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and 1536851 to KAD and HTR; the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, United States, Ocean Observations and Monitoring Division and Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory to RL; Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd., to PBO; the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy National Environmental Science Programme and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes to HEP; and the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Grant V-487 to LS

BRAF(E600)-associated senescence-like cell cycle arrest of human naevi

Most normal mammalian cells have a finite lifespan(1), thought to constitute a protective mechanism against unlimited proliferation(2-4). This phenomenon, called senescence, is driven by telomere attrition, which triggers the induction of tumour suppressors including p16(INK4a) (ref. 5). In cultured cells, senescence can be elicited prematurely by oncogenes(6); however, whether such oncogene-induced senescence represents a physiological process has long been debated. Human naevi ( moles) are benign tumours of melanocytes that frequently harbour oncogenic mutations ( predominantly V600E, where valine is substituted for glutamic acid) in BRAF(7), a protein kinase and downstream effector of Ras. Nonetheless, naevi typically remain in a growth-arrested state for decades and only rarely progress into malignancy (melanoma)(8-10). This raises the question of whether naevi undergo BRAF(V600E)- induced senescence. Here we show that sustained BRAF(V600E) expression in human melanocytes induces cell cycle arrest, which is accompanied by the induction of both p16(INK4a) and senescence- associated acidic beta-galactosidase (SA-beta-Gal) activity, a commonly used senescence marker. Validating these results in vivo, congenital naevi are invariably positive for SA-beta-Gal, demonstrating the presence of this classical senescence-associated marker in a largely growth-arrested, neoplastic human lesion. In growth-arrested melanocytes, both in vitro and in situ, we observed a marked mosaic induction of p16(INK4a), suggesting that factors other than p16(INK4a) contribute to protection against BRAF(V600E)- driven proliferation. Naevi do not appear to suffer from telomere attrition, arguing in favour of an active oncogene-driven senescence process, rather than a loss of replicative potential. Thus, both in vitro and in vivo, BRAF(V600E)-expressing melanocytes display classical hallmarks of senescence, suggesting that oncogene-induced senescence represents a genuine protective physiological process.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62941/1/nature03890.pd

The Diffusion Region in Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection

A review of present understanding of the dissipation region in magnetic reconnection is presented. The review focuses on results of the thermal inertia-based dissipation mechanism but alternative mechanisms are mentioned as well. For the former process, a combination of analytical theory and numerical modeling is presented. Furthermore, a new relation between the electric field expressions for anti-parallel and guide field reconnection is developed

Development of a National Pain Management Competency Profile to Guide Entry-Level Physiotherapy Education in Canada

Background National strategies from North America call for substantive improvements in entry-level pain management education to help reduce the burden of chronic pain. Past work has generated a valuable set of interprofessional pain management competencies to guide the education of future health professionals. However, there has been very limited work that has explored the development of such competencies for individual professions in different regions. Developing profession-specific competencies tailored to the local context is a necessary first step to integrate them within local regulatory systems. Our group is working toward this goal within the context of entry-level physiotherapy (PT) programs across Canada. Aims This study aimed to create a consensus-based competency profile for pain management, specific to the Canadian PT context. Methods A modified Delphi design was used to achieve consensus across Canadian university-based and clinical pain educators. Results Representatives from 14 entry-level PT programs (93% of Canadian programs) and six clinical educators were recruited. After two rounds, a total of 15 competencies reached the predetermined endorsement threshold (75%). Most participants (85%) reported being “very satisfied” with the process. Conclusions This process achieved consensus on a novel pain management competency profile specific to the Canadian PT context. The resulting profile delineates the necessary abilities required by physiotherapists to manage pain upon entry to practice. Participants were very satisfied with the process. This study also contributes to the emerging literature on integrated research in pain management by profiling research methodology that can be used to inform related work in other health professions and regions

Longer Leukocyte Telomere Length Is Associated with Smaller Hippocampal Volume among Non-Demented APOE ε3/ε3 Subjects

Telomere length shortens with cellular division, and leukocyte telomere length is used as a marker for systemic telomere length. The hippocampus hosts adult neurogenesis and is an important structure for episodic memory, and carriers of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele exhibit higher hippocampal atrophy rates and differing telomere dynamics compared with non-carriers. The authors investigated whether leukocyte telomere length was associated with hippocampal volume in 57 cognitively intact subjects (29 ε3/ε3 carriers; 28 ε4 carriers) aged 49–79 yr. Leukocyte telomere length correlated inversely with left (rs = −0.465; p = 0.011), right (rs = −0.414; p = 0.025), and total hippocampus volume (rs = −0.519; p = 0.004) among APOE ε3/ε3 carriers, but not among ε4 carriers. However, the ε4 carriers fit with the general correlation pattern exhibited by the ε3/ε3 carriers, as ε4 carriers on average had longer telomeres and smaller hippocampi compared with ε3/ε3 carriers. The relationship observed can be interpreted as long telomeres representing a history of relatively low cellular proliferation, reflected in smaller hippocampal volumes. The results support the potential of leukocyte telomere length being used as a biomarker for tapping functional and structural processes of the aging brain

SGNP: An Essential Stress Granule/Nucleolar Protein Potentially Involved in 5.8s rRNA Processing/Transport

Background: Stress Granules (SG) are sites of accumulation of stalled initiation complexes that are induced following a variety of cellular insults. In a genetic screen for factors involved in protecting human myoblasts from acute oxidative stress, we identified a gene encoding a protein we designate SGNP (Stress Granule and Nucleolar Protein). Methodology/Principal Findings: A gene-trap insertional mutagenesis screen produced one insertion that conferred resistance to sodium arsenite. RT-PCR/39 RACE was used to identify the endogenous gene expressed as a GFP-fusion transcript. SGNP is localized in both the cytoplasm and nucleolus and defines a non-nucleolar compartment containing 5.8S rRNA, a component of the 60S ribosomal subunit. Under oxidative stress, SGNP nucleolar localization decreases and it rapidly co-localizes with stress granules. The decrease in nucleolar SGNP following oxidative stress was accompanied by a large increase in nucleolar 5.8S rRNA. Knockdown of SGNP with shRNA increased global mRNA translation but induced growth arrest and cell death. Conclusions: These results suggest that SGNP is an essential gene that may be involved in ribosomal biogenesis and translational control in response to oxidative stress