Digital textile printing: colorfastness of reactive inks versus pigment inks

Digital textile printing is over-taking the printing industry with eco-friendly processes and ability to produce short runs. With its rapid growth, there is a constant need to reproduce consistent colors throughout different print runs and crucial for these colors to perform well and up hold under certain conditions. The purpose of this study was to research the colorfastness digitally printed reactive and pigment inks printed on cotton fabrics. Fabric swatches printed using the reactive and pigment inks were tested according to the AATCC standards for laundering, crocking, light, and perspiration. The digital textile printing industry has slowly started transitioning from printing with reactive inks to primarily pigment inks. Printing with pigment inks is more cost effective and cheaper than reactive inks and has had a large impact on the printing industry. While reactive inks are printed on natural fibers, such as cotton and silk pigment inks, have the ability to be printed on natural and synthetic fibers. To test the textiles, a Mimaki TX2 1600 digital textile printer was used to print the reactive ink samples while an outside printing company was used to print the pigment ink samples. One hundred and twenty-eight test samples sizes 2”x6”printed with a red, blue, and green geometric pattern were tested. Both the pigment and reactive samples were testing according to the AATCC standards for colorfastness to laundering, crocking, light, and perspiration. Using a spectrophotometer, the samples were tested and the CIELAB color and ΔE* color change were obtained. The samples were also tested using the AATCC gray scale and 9-step chromatic transference scale. Using the Wilcoxin rank sum test the pigment and reactive samples were compared to record any statistical significance in color change. The results revealed that the colors printed using pigment inks perform better than reactive inks. Pigment inks experienced much less color loss than the reactive inks in laundering, crocking, and perspiration. Light had little to no impact on the color of both the reactive and pigment samples. Evaluating the reactive and pigments ink types and their colorfastness benefits academia and the industry. This research provides recommendations of how these ink types may be best suited for certain types of apparel and products

Correct Model Selection in Multiple Regression Analyses of Big Data

Goals: Improve statistical modeling in a variety of application areas Correctly identify the relationships present in data sets Understand the difficulty in choosing the correct statistical model in big dat

Colorectal Cancer Brochure Development for African Americans

Introduction: African Americans are more likely to die from colorectal cancer (CRC) than any other racial/ethnic group in the United States. Unfortunately, African Americans are also less likely to undergo screening for CRC than their White counterparts. Focus groups methodology was used to refine educational brochures designed to increase CRC screening among African Americans. Methods: Two series of focus groups were completed, with a total of seven groups and 39 participants. Six different brochures (stage-matched and culturally sensitive) designed to promote CRC screening among African Americans were evaluated. Results: All participants thought that the brochures motivated them to talk with their health care providers about screening. Cost, pain, medical mistrust and fear were identified as major barriers and the brochures were modified to address these concerns. Conclusions: Focus groups methodology with African Americans can be used to inform brochures designed to increase African Americans CRC screening that addresses their major concerns

Comparing Performance of Non-Tree-Based and Tree-Based Association Mapping Methods

A central goal in the biomedical and biological sciences is to link variation in quantitative traits to locations along the genome (single nucleotide polymorphisms). Sequencing technology has rapidly advanced in recent decades, along with the statistical methodology to analyze genetic data. Two classes of association mapping methods exist: those that account for the evolutionary relatedness among individuals, and those that ignore the evolutionary relationships among individuals. While the former methods more fully use implicit information in the data, the latter methods are more flexible in the types of data they can handle. This study presents a comparison of the 2 types of association mapping methods when they are applied to simulated data

The influence of maternal psychosocial characteristics on infant feeding styles

Maternal feeding styles in infancy and early childhood are associated with children’s later risk for overweight and obesity. Maternal psychosocial factors that influence feeding styles during the complementary feeding period, the time during which infants transition from a milk-based diet to one that includes solid foods and other non-milk products, have received less attention. The present study explores how maternal psychosocial factors—specifically self-esteem, parenting self-efficacy, parenting satisfaction, and depression symptoms—influence mothers’ infant feeding styles at nine months of age, a time during which solid foods eating habits are being established. Participants included 160 low-income, African-American mother-infant pairs in central North Carolina who were enrolled in the Infant Care and Risk of Obesity Study. Regression models tested for associations between maternal psychosocial characteristics and pressuring and restrictive feeding styles. Models were first adjusted for maternal age, education, marital status and obesity status. To account for infant characteristics, models were then adjusted for infant weight-for-length, distress to limitations and activity level scores. Maternal self-esteem was negatively associated with pressuring to soothe. Maternal parenting self-efficacy was positively associated with restriction-diet quality. Maternal parenting satisfaction and depression symptoms were not associated with feeding styles in the final models. Focusing on strengthening maternal self-esteem and parenting self-efficacy may help to prevent the development of less desirable infant feeding styles

Attachment and couple sexual functioning

Within the last several years, there has been a surge in the publications that focus on attachment within the couple relationships, including how it pertains to infidelity treatment. Despite the interest in couple relationships and attachment, however, a limited amount of literature focuses on how varying styles of attachment manifest in a couple\u27s level of sexual functioning. This study is a response to the need to explore the literature and related gaps in literature

Brain cell reservoirs of latent virus in presymptomatic HIV-infected individuals

We detected HIV-1 DNA in pure populations of perivascular macrophages, parenchymal microglia, and astrocytes, isolated using laser microdissection from brain tissue of five untreated individuals who died in the presymptomatic stage of infection from non-HIV causes. HIV-1 DNA was detected in the three cell populations, most consistently in perivascular macrophages, without evidence of productive infection. The percentage of PCR reactions detecting HIV-1 DNA in perivascular macrophages correlated inversely with peripheral blood CD4 counts. These findings demonstrate that brain cell reservoirs of latent HIV-1 exist before pathological HIV encephalitis and suggest that perivascular macrophage trafficking of latent virus into the brain increases with immunosuppression

Exploring the impact of an Aboriginal Health Worker on hospitalised Aboriginal experiences: lessons from cardiology.

To enhance Aboriginal inpatient care and improve outpatient cardiac rehabilitation utilisation, a tertiary hospital in Western Australia recruited an Aboriginal Health Worker (AHW). Interviews were undertaken with the cardiology AHW, other hospital staff including another AHW, and recent Aboriginal cardiac patients to assess the impact of this position. The impact of the AHW included facilitating culturally appropriate care, bridging communication divides, reducing discharges against medical advice, providing cultural education, increasing inpatient contact time, improving follow-up practices and enhancing patient referral linkages. Challenges included poor job role definition, clinical restrictions and limitations in AHW training for hospital settings. This study demonstrates that AHWs can have significant impacts on Aboriginal cardiac inpatient experiences and outpatient care. Although this study was undertaken in cardiology, the lessons are transferable across the hospital setting

MicroRNA Expression Patterns in Human Anterior Cingulate and Motor Cortex: A Study of Dementia with Lewy Bodies Cases and Controls

Overview MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Here, we evaluated the expression of miRNAs in anterior cingulate (AC; Brodmann area [BA] 24) and primary motor (MO; BA 4) cortical tissue from aged human brains in the University of Kentucky AD Center autopsy cohort, with a focus on dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Methods RNA was isolated from gray matter of brain samples with pathology-defined DLB, AD, AD+DLB, and low-pathology controls, with n=52 cases initially included (n=23 with DLB), all with low (\u3c4hrs) postmortem intervals. RNA was profiled using Exiqon miRNA microarrays. Quantitative PCR for post-hoc replication was performed on separate cases (n=6 controls) and included RNA isolated from gray matter of MO, AC, primary somatosensory (BA 3), and dorsolateral prefrontal (BA 9) cortical regions. Results The miRNA expression patterns differed substantially according to anatomic location: of the relatively highly-expressed miRNAs, 150/481 (31%) showed expression that was different between AC versus MO (at p\u3c0.05 following correction for multiple comparisons), most (79%) with higher expression in MO. A subset of these results were confirmed in qPCR validation focusing on miR-7, miR-153, miR-133b, miR-137, and miR-34a. No significant variation in miRNA expression was detected in association with either neuropathology or sex after correction for multiple comparisons. Conclusion A subset of miRNAs (some previously associated with α-synucleinopathy and/or directly targeting α-synuclein mRNA) were differentially expressed in AC and MO, which may help explain why these brain regions show differences in vulnerability to Lewy body pathology

A MicroRNA Signature of Response to Erlotinib is Descriptive of TGFβ Behaviour in NSCLC

Our previous work identified a 13-gene miRNA signature predictive of response to the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor, erlotinib, in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer cell lines. Bioinformatic analysis of the signature showed a functional convergence on TGFβ canonical signalling. We hypothesized that TGFβ signalling controls expression of the miRNA genes comprising an erlotinib response signature in NSCLC. Western analysis revealed that TGFβ signalling via Smad2/3/4 occurred differently between erlotinib-resistant A549 and erlotinib- sensitive PC9 cells. We showed that TGFβ induced an interaction between Smad4 and putative Smad Binding Elements in PC9. However, qRT-PCR analysis showed that endogenous miR-140/141/200c expression changes resulted from time in treatments, not the treatments themselves. Moreover, flow cytometry indicated that cells exited the cell cycle in the same manner. Taken together these data indicated that the miRNA comprising the signature are likely regulated by the cell cycle rather than by TGFβ. Importantly, this work revealed that TGFβ did not induce EMT in PC9 cells, but rather TGFβ-inhibition induced an EMT-intermediate. These data also show that growth/proliferation signals by constitutively-activated EGFR may rely on TGFβ and a possible relationship between TGFβ and EGFR signalling may prevent EMT progression in this context rather than promote it