Predictors of Surgery in Newly Diagnosed Pediatric Crohn's Disease Patients

Objectives: To assess whether small bowel imaging conducted at the time of diagnosis could be used as a predictor of small bowel surgical intervention in a pediatric Crohn's disease patient population. Methods: A retrospective analysis of small bowel imaging within 30 days of diagnosis of pediatric Crohn's disease was conducted. Patients were divide into two groups based on small bowel imaging: those with no or minor abnormalities (71%) and those with more extensive or obstructive abnormalities (29%). Medical records were reviewed for small bowel surgical intervention and clinic follow-up visits. Results: 232 patients were included in the study group (average age at diagnosis 11.7 years). Twenty-seven patients (12%) underwent small bowel surgical intervention. The relative risk for small bowel surgical intervention was 2.91 in the group with more extensive imaging abnormalities. The majority of increased surgical risk occurred in the first year after diagnosis, when the normal-minor group had a 2% surgical risk and the more abnormal group had a 17% surgical risk. Both groups had a 2-3% surgical risk per year after the first year. Conclusions: Small bowel imaging at the time of diagnosis in pediatric Crohn's disease can help predict the risk of small bowel surgical intervention, and should be recommended for all newly diagnosed patients. Nearly one-third of our cohort underwent small bowel surgical intervention through eight years of follow-up. Surgical complications of Crohn's disease often occur in the small bowel, and counseling families about surgical risk is an integral part of pediatric Crohn's disease management

A General Event Location Algorithm with Applications to Eclispe and Station Line-of-Sight

A general-purpose algorithm for the detection and location of orbital events is developed. The proposed algorithm reduces the problem to a global root-finding problem by mapping events of interest (such as eclipses, station access events, etc.) to continuous, differentiable event functions. A stepping algorithm and a bracketing algorithm are used to detect and locate the roots. Examples of event functions and the stepping/bracketing algorithms are discussed, along with results indicating performance and accuracy in comparison to commercial tools across a variety of trajectories

Inclusion of an Introduction to Infrastructure Course in a Civil and Environmental Engineering Curriculum

Civil infrastructure refers to the built environment (sometimes referred to as public works) and consists of roads, bridges, buildings, dams, levees, drinking water treatment facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, power generation and transmission facilities, communications, solid waste facilities, hazardous waste facilities, and other sectors. Although there is a need to train engineers who have a holistic view of infrastructure, there is evidence that civil and environmental engineering (CEE) programs have not fully addressed this increasingly recognized need. One effective approach to address this educational gap is to incorporate a course related to infrastructure into the curriculum for first-year or second-year civil and environmental engineering students. Therefore, this study assesses the current status of teaching such courses in the United States and identifies the incentives for, and the barriers against, incorporating an introduction to infrastructure course into schools’ current CEE curricula. Two distinct activities enabled these objectives. First, a questionnaire was distributed to CEE programs across the United States, to which 33 responses were received. The results indicated that although the majority of participants believe that offering such a course will benefit students by increasing the breadth of the curriculum and by providing a holistic view of CEE, barriers such as the maximum allowable credits for graduation, the lack of motivation within a department—either because such a course did not have a champion or because the department had no plans to revise their curriculum—and a lack of expertise among faculty members inhibited inclusion of the course in curricula. Second, three case studies demonstrating successful inclusion of an introduction to infrastructure course into the CEE curriculum were evaluated. Cases were collected from Marquette University, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and West Point CEE programs, and it was found that the key to success in including such a course is a motivated team of faculty members who are committed to educating students about different aspects of infrastructure. The results of the study can be used as a road map to help universities successfully incorporate an introduction to infrastructure course in their CEE programs

Wnt5a induces ROR1 to recruit cortactin to promote breast-cancer migration and metastasis.

ROR1 is a conserved oncoembryonic surface protein expressed in breast cancer. Here we report that ROR1 associates with cortactin in primary breast-cancer cells or in MCF7 transfected to express ROR1. Wnt5a also induced ROR1-dependent tyrosine phosphorylation of cortactin (Y421), which recruited ARHGEF1 to activate RhoA and promote breast-cancer-cell migration; such effects could be inhibited by cirmtuzumab, a humanized mAb specific for ROR1. Furthermore, treatment of mice bearing breast-cancer xenograft with cirmtuzumab inhibited cortactin phosphorylation in vivo and impaired metastatic development. We established that the proline at 841 of ROR1 was required for it to recruit cortactin and ARHGEF1, activate RhoA, and enhance breast-cancer-cell migration in vitro or development of metastases in vivo. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that the interaction of ROR1 with cortactin plays an important role in breast-cancer-cell migration and metastasis

Exploring the Upper Size Limit for Sterically Stabilized Diblock Copolymer Nanoparticles Prepared by Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly in Non-Polar Media

Reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) dispersion polymerization of benzyl methacrylate is used to prepare a series of well-defined poly(stearyl methacrylate)–poly(benzyl methacrylate) (PSMA–PBzMA) diblock copolymer nanoparticles in mineral oil at 90 °C. A relatively long PSMA54 precursor acts as a steric stabilizer block and also ensures that only kinetically trapped spheres are obtained, regardless of the target degree of polymerization (DP) for the core-forming PBzMA block. This polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) formulation provides good control over the particle size distribution over a wide size range (24–459 nm diameter). 1H NMR spectroscopy studies confirm that high monomer conversions (≥96%) are obtained for all PISA syntheses while transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering analyses show well-defined spheres with a power-law relationship between the target PBzMA DP and the mean particle diameter. Gel permeation chromatography studies indicate a gradual loss of control over the molecular weight distribution as higher DPs are targeted, but well-defined morphologies and narrow particle size distributions can be obtained for PBzMA DPs up to 3500, which corresponds to an upper particle size limit of 459 nm. Thus, these are among the largest well-defined spheres with reasonably narrow size distributions (standard deviation ≤20%) produced by any PISA formulation. Such large spheres serve as model sterically stabilized particles for analytical centrifugation studies

Verification and Validation of the General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT)

This paper describes the processes and results of Verification and Validation (V&V) efforts for the General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT). We describe the test program and environments, the tools used for independent test data, and comparison results. The V&V effort produced approximately 13,000 test scripts that are run as part of the nightly buildtest process. In addition, we created approximately 3000 automated GUI tests that are run every two weeks. Presenting all test results are beyond the scope of a single paper. Here we present high-level test results in most areas, and detailed test results for key areas. The final product of the V&V effort presented in this paper was GMAT version R2013a, the first Gold release of the software with completely updated documentation and greatly improved quality. Release R2013a was the staging release for flight qualification performed at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) ultimately resulting in GMAT version R2013b

3D body scanning in the apparel industry: Do we really know where we are heading?

This paper through - the Diffusion of Innovation Model - shows that while 3D Body Scanning brings some refining and improvements of existing methods, it does not introduce new concepts that depart from traditional retail practices. 3D Body Scanning is - potentially - a powerful way of approaching size and fit in apparel and one that presents novel opportunities. Yet, despite the advantages that this technology offers, and the many initiatives that have taken place, 3D Body Scanning has not reached its full potential and has failed to produce the expected results held by many stakeholders. Stakeholders must increase collaboration to realise 3D Body Scanning’s relative advantage. Much of the potential has, however, been promoted by distinct organisations that are biases about how the diverse processes and structures will work together, whilst focussing on profit from their own incremental IP. In this paper we elicit 3D Body Scanning’s fundamental concepts, and its central goal to provide ‘glue’ needed to create an innovation. We offer further implications for researchers and policymakers about expecting and managing trends in technology. <br

Dual-Band Electronically Beam-Switched Antenna Using Slot Active Frequency Selective Surface

Abstract—A dual-band electronically beam-switching antenna using a cylindrical active frequency selective surface (AFSS) is presented. The antenna structure consists of a slot AFSS and an omnidirectional dual-band feed antenna. The PIN diodes of half the AFSS are switched ON and OFF respectively to reconfigure the surface as transparent and opaque to the incident EM waves. Thus by controlling the bias voltages to different columns, the directive beams can be swept in 4 steps covering the whole azimuth plane. A design validation based on a metallic reflector antenna is performed to predict the performances of the proposed AFSS antenna. To validate the design concept, the transmission coefficients of the active FSS sheet are experimentally examined. Then an antenna prototype operating at 2.5 GHz and 5.3 GHz frequency bands is fabricated and measured. Simulation and measurement results of the fabricated antenna are presented to verify the design principle. A comparison between this work and previous (single-band) designs is given to better interpret the characteristics of the dual-band AFSS antenna