Convex plumbings in closed hyperbolic 4-manifolds

We show that every plumbing of disc bundles over surfaces whose genera satisfy a simple inequality may be embedded as a convex submanifold in some closed hyperbolic four-manifold. In particular its interior has a geometrically finite hyperbolic structure that covers a closed hyperbolic four-manifold

Volunteer Motivations, Satisfaction, and Future Intent: A Comparative Analysis Between Student-Athletes and Service-Learning Students

Developing socially responsible and civically engaged citizens has been a priority of higher education in the United States since its conception. As an extension of higher education, intercollegiate athletics has been tasked with the same objective. One method to accomplish this objective is student-athletes’ engagement in community service. With the growing amount of attention placed on community service, it is becoming increasingly important to understand student-athletes’ volunteer experiences, in order to help administrators better coordinate impactful service opportunities for student-athletes. Using functionalist theory as a framework, the purpose of this study was to assess student-athletes’ motivations to volunteer, satisfaction with their experiences, and future intent to volunteer. Further, the current study also compared student-athletes’ volunteer experiences with those of university service-learning students. The results highlight the factors that student-athletes deem as most important for their decision to volunteer and provide insight into the extent to which student-athletes are satisfied with their current volunteer experiences and future intent to volunteer. Practical implications for university athletic administrators are discussed

Assessing the utilization of high-resolution 2-field HLA typing in solid organ transplantation.

HLA typing in solid organ transplantation (SOT) is necessary for determining HLA-matching status between donor-recipient pairs and assessing patients\u27 anti-HLA antibody profiles. Histocompatibility has traditionally been evaluated based on serologically defined HLA antigens. The evolution of HLA typing and antibody identification technologies, however, has revealed many limitations with using serologic equivalents for assessing compatibility in SOT. The significant improvements to HLA typing introduced by next-generation sequencing (NGS) require an assessment of the impact of this technology on SOT. We have assessed the role of high-resolution 2-field HLA typing (HR-2F) in SOT by retrospectively evaluating NGS-typed pre- and post-SOT cases. HR-2F typing was highly instructive or necessary in 41% (156/385) of the cases. Several pre- and posttransplant scenarios were identified as being better served by HR-2F typing. Five different categories are presented with specific case examples. The experience of another center (Temple University Hospital) is also included, whereby 21% of the cases required HR-2F typing by Sanger sequencing, as supported by other legacy methods, to properly address posttransplant anti-HLA antibody issues

Using mobile sensing data to assess stress: Associations with perceived and lifetime stress, mental health, sleep, and inflammation

Background Although stress is a risk factor for mental and physical health problems, it can be difficult to assess, especially on a continual, non-invasive basis. Mobile sensing data, which are continuously collected from naturalistic smartphone use, may estimate exposure to acute and chronic stressors that have health-damaging effects. This initial validation study validated a mobile-sensing collection tool against assessments of perceived and lifetime stress, mental health, sleep duration, and inflammation. Methods Participants were 25 well-characterized healthy young adults (Mage = 20.64 years, SD = 2.74; 13 men, 12 women). We collected affective text language use with a custom smartphone keyboard. We assessed participants’ perceived and lifetime stress, depression and anxiety levels, sleep duration, and basal inflammatory activity (i.e. salivary C-reactive protein and interleukin-1β). Results Three measures of affective language (i.e. total positive words, total negative words, and total affective words) were strongly associated with lifetime stress exposure, and total negative words typed was related to fewer hours slept (all large effect sizes: r = 0.50 – 0.78). Total positive words, total negative words, and total affective words typed were also associated with higher perceived stress and lower salivary C-reactive protein levels (medium effect sizes; r = 0.22 – 0.32). Conclusions Data from this initial longitudinal validation study suggest that total and affective text use may be useful mobile sensing measures insofar as they are associated with several other stress, mental health, behavioral, and biological outcomes. This tool may thus help identify individuals at increased risk for stress-related health problems

Direct probes of R-parity-violating supersymmetric couplings via single-top-squark production

We study the s-channel production of a single top squark in hadron collisions through an R-parity-violating mechanism, examining in detail the case in which the squark decays through an R-parity-conserving process into a bottom quark, a lepton, and missing energy. We show that the top squark can be discovered if its mass is less than 400 GeV, or that the current bound on the size of the R-parity-violating couplings can be reduced by up to one order of magnitude with existing data and by two orders of magnitude at the forthcoming run II of the Fermilab Tevatron.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. D; 32 pgs., 17 ps figs., uses RevTeX; 1 new fig., slight textual clarification

Baryogenesis with Superheavy Squarks

We consider a setup where R-parity is violated in the framework of split supersymmetry. The out-of-equilibrium decays of heavy squarks successfully lead to the generation of a baryon asymmetry. We restrict the R-parity violating couplings to the baryon number violating subset to keep the neutralino sufficiently stable to provide the dark matter. The observed baryon asymmetry can be generated for squark masses larger than 10^11 GeV, while neutralino dark matter induces a stronger bound of 10^13 GeV. Some mass splitting between left- and right-handed squarks may be needed to satisfy also constraints from gluino cosmology.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, 4 figure

Psychosocial and clinical characteristics of a patient with Takotsubo syndrome and her healthy monozygotic twin: a case report

Background: Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is an acute heart failure syndrome characterized by transient left ventricular dysfunction, increased myocardial biomarkers, and electrocardiographic changes. Symptoms of TTS are similar to those of acute coronary syndromes, but there is often no significant coronary stenosis. Although emotional and physical stressors are often reported as having triggered TTS, the pathogenesis is largely unknown. To address this issue, we comprehensively characterized a monozygous pair of twin sisters, one of whom experienced TTS. Case summary: The 60-year-old Caucasian monozygotic female twins with and without TTS were examined at the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland. The twins completed questionnaires and clinical interviews assessing several sociopsychological factors. The twin sister with TTS exhibited higher levels of anxiety, vital exhaustion, social inhibition, and alexithymia, and lower levels of quality of and meaning in life. She was given the diagnoses of social phobia, adjustment disorder, specific anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and an accentuated anxiety-avoidant personality disorder. Additionally, the twin with TTS experienced more-and also more severe-stressors involving life-threatening and dangerous situations over the life course. Discussion: These monozygous female twins with and without TTS differed in several notable aspects of their psychological functioning, psychiatric status, personality, and lifetime stressor exposure. The results thus highlight several factors, besides genetic components, that may play an important role in the pathogenesis of TTS. Looking forward, larger studies using experimental and longitudinal designs are needed to elucidate the role that psychosocial factors play in TTS. Keywords: Case report; Monozygotic twins; Psychology; Stress-induced cardiomyopathy; Takotsubo syndrom