The La Silla - QUEST Kuiper Belt Survey

We describe the instrumentation and detection software and characterize the detection efficiency of an automated, all-sky, southern-hemisphere search for Kuiper Belt objects brighter than R mag 21.4. The search relies on Yale University's 160-Megapixel QUEST camera, previously used for successful surveys at Palomar that detected most of the distant dwarf planets, and now installed on the ESO 1.0-m Schmidt telescope at La Silla, Chile. Extensive upgrades were made to the telescope control system to support automation, and significant improvements were made to the camera. To date, 63 new KBOs have been discovered, including a new member of the Haumea collision family (2009 YE7) and a new distant object with inclination exceeding 70 deg (2010 WG9). In a survey covering ~7500 deg2, we have thus far detected 77 KBOs and Centaurs, more than any other full-hemisphere search to date. Using a pattern of dithered pointings, we demonstrate a search efficiency exceeding 80%. We are currently on track to complete the southern-sky survey and detect any bright KBOs that have eluded detection from the north.Comment: 20 pages, 2 tables, 7 figure

Treatment of Vaso-Occlusive Pain Related to Sickle Cell Disease in Pediatric Patients: A Systematic Review

Sickle cell disease is a rare inherited disorder that affects the shape of red blood cells. Symptoms generally begin by three years of age. Complications of sickle cell disease include vaso-occlusive crises, acute chest syndrome, infections, pulmonary hypertension, priapism, stroke, as well as problems with various organ systems. Vaso-occlusive crises are the most common reason for hospitalization in patients with sickle cell disease. A vaso-occlusive crisis is an episode of pain, described as sharp, intense, and throbbing, most commonly occurring in the lower back, leg, hip, abdomen, or chest. It typically begins at night and lasts 3-14 days. No cure for sickle cell disease is widely available; treatment is symptomatic and supportive. No medications have FDA approval for the treatment of vaso-occlusive crises in pediatric patients and no evidence- based guidelines exist to aid in treatment decisions. Trials in pediatric patients are limited because of ethical concerns and pain management is difficult to study due to its subjective nature. This project is a literature review that aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy data of selected trials, focusing on reduction in pain scores in the treatment of pediatric patients with vaso-occlusive crises. Extensive literature searches for clinical trials were performed using four data bases: Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Controlled Clinical Trials Register, and Clinicaltrials.gov. Trials were included if they enrolled children 18 years old or younger; were randomized, controlled trials; and received a JADAD score of at least 3. Six trials met inclusion criteria for this study. Interventions included in this study were intranasal fentanyl, inhaled nitric oxide, intravenous magnesium sulfate, intravenous ketorolac, and L-arginine. Two studies showed statistical significance in difference in pain scores. A significant difference in pain score at 20 minutes was seen with intranasal fentanyl. Pain scores at discharge were significantly different from placebo with L-arginine. No studies had serious adverse effects. More trials are needed with a larger sample size to detect smaller differences in endpoints

The use of a battery of tracking tests in the quantitative evaluation of neurological function

A tracking test battery has been applied in a drug trail designed to compare the efficacy of L-DOPA and amantadine to that of L-DOPA and placebo in the treatment of 28 patients with Parkinson's disease. The drug trial provided an ideal opportunity for objectively evaluating the usefulness of tracking tests in assessing changes in neurologic function. Evaluating changes in patient performance resulting from disease progression and controlled clinical trials is of great importance in establishing effective treatment programs

On cerebrospinal fluid immunoglobulin-G (IgG) quotients in multiple sclerosis and other diseases : A review and a new formula to estimate the amount of IgG synthesized per day by the central nervous system

This review of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) changes in multiple sclerosis has brought together relevant recent advances in CSF physiology and some aspects of the pathology of MS as they relate to the CSF IgG quotients.A defense of the hypothesis that an elevated CSF IgG value in MS is the result of a basic mechanism of the CNS which does not operate normally, i.e., that IgG diffuses through the ECS of the CNS into the CSF from sites of synthesis of IgG in the CNS, but it is contained inside the blood-CNS-CSF barrier which is only accasionally slightly abnormal is presented. It is proposed that this basic mechanism underlies the elevated CSF IgG quotients (IgG/total protein and IgG/albumin); other diseases which induce the CNS to become an immunological organ, i.e., to produce IgG, are clinically infrequent and are easily differentiated on clinical grounds from MS; thus the elevated CSF IgG quotient found in over two-thirds of the cases of MS becomes of value in supporting the diagnosis of MS.Finally, a formula is presented which estimates the amount of IgG, expressed in mg, which is synthesized per day by the MS CNS. The average amount synthesized per day by a MS patient is 16 mg with a range of 0-100 mg.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32790/1/0000163.pd

Cerebral dehydration action of glycerol; I. Historical aspects with emphasis on the toxicity and intravenous administration

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/117051/1/cpt1972132159.pd

Deserving daughters, martyred mothers: reproductive politics, pronatalism, and care work in the creation of gendered state subjects in Kazakhstan

This dissertation examines the role of women in post-Soviet Kazakhstan as both productive members of society and the loci of national anxieties that have created fault lines in public opinion, government policy, and international development programs. It explores how Kazakh cultural concepts of ideal womanhood are used to identify categories of women eligible for state support or who become targets of community intervention. These include survivors of domestic violence, unwed young mothers, and “at risk” girls who may strive to fulfill or deviate from the expected Kazakh norms deemed appropriate for their specific life stage. These contested expectations are embodied in national legislation, international human rights programs, and Kazakh civil society. They are implemented by social service officials who provide the aid and who perceive the women involved in them as objects of their reform projects. Ethnographic fieldwork that provided the bulk of the research data was conducted between March 2018 and August 2019 in urban Almaty and provincial cities in southern and eastern Kazakhstan in domestic violence shelters, homes for unwed mothers, and girls’ empowerment programs. This included extended periods of participant observation supplemented by open-ended interviews with activists, crisis shelter directors and employees, and other stakeholders to generate multi-cited case studies. Because media played a significant role, the research incorporated an analysis of relevant Kazakhstani films and plays that highlight the challenges of negotiating ideals of womanhood and motherhood, propriety and martyrdom, which are also central themes animating my text. The research concludes that women in these programs respond to directives from international human rights organizations, national legislation, and changing social mores by deploying and reinterpreting Kazakh life stage ideals of womanhood. In so doing, they illustrate how women’s work and reproductive choices intersect with the goals of a national state, a changing Kazakh society, and the global discourse on women’s rights. As a contribution to the larger discourse on identity and citizenship in post-Soviet states, gender, Islam, and contemporary Kazakhstan, this study illustrates how “women’s issues” remain an unusually sensitive barometer of social values where the implicit becomes the explicit.2024-03-04T00:00:00