Engaging rural Australian communities in National Science Week helps increase visibility for women researchers

During a week-long celebration of science, run under the federally-supported National Science Week umbrella, the Catch a Rising Star: women in Queensland research (CaRS) program flew scientists who identify as women to regional and remote communities in the Australian State of Queensland. The aim of the project was twofold: first, to bring science to remote and regional communities in a large, economically diverse state; and second, to determine whether media and public engagement provide career advancement opportunities for women scientists. This paper focuses on the latter goal. The data show: 1) a substantial majority (> 80%) of researchers thought the training and experience provided by the program would help develop her career as a research scientist in the future; 2) the majority (65%) thought the program would help relate her research to end users, industry partners, or stakeholders in the future; and, 3) analytics can help create a compelling narrative around engagement metrics and help to quantify influence. During the weeklong project, scientists reached 600,000 impressions on one social media platform (Twitter) using a program hashtag. The breadth and depth of the project outcomes indicate funding bodies and employers could use similar data as an informative source of metrics to support hiring and promotion decisions. Although this project focused on researchers who identify as women, the lessons learned are applicable to researchers representing a diverse range of backgrounds. Future surveys will help determine whether the CaRS program provided long-term career advantages to participating scientists and communities

A Model Analysis of Arterial Oxygen Desaturation during Apnea in Preterm Infants

Rapid arterial O2 desaturation during apnea in the preterm infant has obvious clinical implications but to date no adequate explanation for why it exists. Understanding the factors influencing the rate of arterial O2 desaturation during apnea () is complicated by the non-linear O2 dissociation curve, falling pulmonary O2 uptake, and by the fact that O2 desaturation is biphasic, exhibiting a rapid phase (stage 1) followed by a slower phase when severe desaturation develops (stage 2). Using a mathematical model incorporating pulmonary uptake dynamics, we found that elevated metabolic O2 consumption accelerates throughout the entire desaturation process. By contrast, the remaining factors have a restricted temporal influence: low pre-apneic alveolar causes an early onset of desaturation, but thereafter has little impact; reduced lung volume, hemoglobin content or cardiac output, accelerates during stage 1, and finally, total blood O2 capacity (blood volume and hemoglobin content) alone determines during stage 2. Preterm infants with elevated metabolic rate, respiratory depression, low lung volume, impaired cardiac reserve, anemia, or hypovolemia, are at risk for rapid and profound apneic hypoxemia. Our insights provide a basic physiological framework that may guide clinical interpretation and design of interventions for preventing sudden apneic hypoxemia

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Baltimore’s can-do approach to food justice

Cities all over the country are addressing the lack of access to fresh and healthy food on the part of their residents, but few are in as much of a bind as Baltimore. Like Detroit, and other cities known for their class and race disparity, Baltimore has been losing population and gaining vacant land at a fast pace in recent decades. The result is vast swaths of neighborhoods located far from grocery stores. Baltimore gave itself a D on its own 2010 Health Disparities Report Card, which found that 43 percent of the residents in the city's predominantly black neighborhoods

Sedentary time and postmenopausal breast cancer incidence

PurposeThe objective of this study was to evaluate the prospective association between sedentary time and postmenopausal breast cancer incidence, and whether associations differ by race/ethnicity, physical activity levels, and body measurements.MethodsThe Women's Health Initiative Observational Study is a prospective cohort among women ages 50-79 years at baseline (1994-1998) (analytic cohort = 70,233). Baseline questionnaire data were used to estimate time spent sitting and total sedentary time. Associations between time spent sitting and invasive breast cancer incidence overall (n = 4,115 cases through September 2015), and by hormone receptor subtypes, were investigated using Cox proportional hazards regression. Analyses were replicated stratified by race/ethnicity, body measurements, and physical activity.ResultsAmong women in this study, 34.5% reported ≤ 5 h/day sitting, 40.9% reported 6-9 h/day and 24.7% reported ≥ 10 h/day. Time spent sitting (≥ 10 vs. ≤5 h/day adjusted HR = 1.00, 95% CI 0.92-1.09) was not associated with breast cancer incidence, regardless of hormone receptor subtype. Associations did not differ by race/ethnicity, physical activity, or body measurements.ConclusionsResults from this study do not support an association between sedentary time and breast cancer incidence