Health Risk Behaviors in Insured and Uninsured Community Health Center Patients in the Rural US South

Introduction: The impact of health behaviors on the leading causes of death across the USA has been well demonstrated. However, limited focus has been placed on the leading health risk behaviors of rural Federally-Qualified Health Center (FQHC) patients, a particularly underserved group. The current study was undertaken to examine the most common risk-taking behaviors of rural FQHC patients and to examine if risk-taking behaviors vary between insured and uninsured patients. Methods: A convenience sample of 199 patients was recruited at an FQHC in the rural US South. Participants completed a battery of demographic and health risk behavior assessments. Results: The most common risk behaviors were eating fried foods, not eating five servings of vegetables per day, not eating three servings of fruit per day, drinking caloric beverages, not exercising regularly, not wearing a seatbelt, having sex without a condom and smoking. Uninsured patients were more likely to talk on their cell phones while driving (p Conclusions: Rural FQHC patients demonstrated high levels of behavioral and health risk-taking, including dietary-, exercise- and traffic-related risks, in a context where traditional prevention methods have failed to penetrate. Differences exist between insured and uninsured patients, indicating that the reasons behind behavioral risk-taking may be context-specific and need to be explored further to help identify intervention targets that are culturally and situationally appropriate for diverse rural groups

Association between Depression and Aggression in Rural Women

Rural women represent approximately 20% of women living in the United States, yet research on the specific mental health needs of rural women is limited. Given the well-recognized gender-linked disparity in depression, its correlated symptoms in women still need much investigation. While emerging notions of depression in men embrace potential symptoms related to irritability and aggression, less research has focused on the potential role of aggression in depressed women. This connection may be particularly relevant for rural women who face unique mental health stressors in comparison to their urban counterparts. The purpose of this study was to examine if aggression is linked to depression for rural women in order to identify potential unique symptomatology and presentation for rural women. As part of a larger initiative, a sample of 54 participants was recruited from the patient population at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in rural southeast Georgia to participate in a quantitative survey. The survey assessed demographics, depression, and aggressive behavior. Mean total score of aggression in depressed women was significantly higher than non-depressed women (p \u3c 0.001), and within the entire sample depression scores were significantly related linearly to aggression, explaining 16% of the variance found in depression scores (β = .399, r2 = .159, p = 0.003). This study suggests that aggressive behavior may be linked to depression for rural women, and underscores the need for future research investigating if depression presents differently for rural women

High-throughput discovery of fluoride-ion conductors via a decoupled, dynamic, and iterative (DDI) framework

Fluoride-ion batteries are a promising alternative to lithium-ion batteries with higher theoretical capacities and working voltages, but they have experienced limited success due to the poor ionic conductivities of known electrolytes and electrodes. Here, we report a high-throughput computational screening of 9747 fluoride-containing materials in search of fluoride-ion conductors. Via a combination of empirical, lightweight DFT, and nudged elastic band (NEB) calculations, we identified >10 crystal systems with high fluoride mobility. We applied a search strategy where calculations are performed in any order (decoupled), computational resources are reassigned based on need (dynamic), and predictive models are repeatedly updated (iterative). Unlike hierarchical searches, our decoupled, dynamic, and iterative framework (DDI) began by calculating high-quality barrier heights for fluoride-ion mobility in a large and diverse group of materials. This high-quality dataset provided a benchmark against which a rapid calculation method could be refined. This accurate method was then used to measure the barrier heights for 6797 fluoride-ion pathways. The final dataset has allowed us to discover many fascinating, high-performance conductors and to derive the design rules that govern their performance. These materials will accelerate experimental research into fluoride-ion batteries, while the design rules will provide an improved foundation for understanding ionic conduction

Nesprin-2-dependent ERK1/2 compartmentalisation regulates the DNA damage response in vascular smooth muscle cell ageing

Prelamin A accumulation and persistent DNA damage response (DDR) are hallmarks of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) ageing and dysfunction. Although prelamin A is proposed to interfere with DNA repair, our understanding of the crosstalk between prelamin A and the repair process remains limited. The extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) have emerged as key players in the DDR and are known to enhance ataxia telangiectasia-mutated protein (ATM)activity at DNA lesions, and in this study, we identified a novel relationship between prelamin A accumulation and ERK1/2 nuclear compartmentalisation during VSMC ageing. We show both prelamin A accumulation and increased DNA damage occur concomitantly, before VSMC replicative senescence, and induce the localisation of ERK1/2 to promyelocytic leukaemia protein nuclear bodies (PML NBs) at the sites of DNA damage via nesprin-2 and lamin A interactions. Importantly, VSMCs treated with DNA damaging agents also displayed prelamin A accumulation and ERK compartmentalisation at PML NBs, suggesting that prelamin A and nesprin-2 are novel components of the DDR. In support of this, disruption of ERK compartmentalisation at PML NBs, by either depletion of nesprin-2 or lamins A/C, resulted in the loss of ATM from DNA lesions. However, ATM signalling and DNA repair remained intact after lamins A/C depletion, whereas nesprin-2 disruptionablated downstream Chk2 activation and induced genomic instability. We conclude that lamins A/C and PML act as scaffolds to organise DNA-repair foci and compartmentalise nesprin-2/ERK signalling. However, nesprin-2/ERK signalling fidelity, but not their compartmentalisation at PML NBs, is essential for efficient DDR in VSMCs

Sc2C, a 2D Semiconducting Electride

Electrides are exotic materials that typically have electrons present in well-defined lattice sites rather than within atoms. Although all known electrides have an electropositive metal cation adjacent to the electride site, the effect of cation electronegativity on the properties of electrides is not yet known. Here, we examine trivalent metal carbides with varying degrees of electronegativity and experimentally synthesize Sc2C. Our studies identify the material as a two-dimensional (2D) electride, even though Sc is more electronegative than any metal previously found adjacent to an electride site. Further, by exploring Sc2C and Al2C computationally, we find that higher electronegativity of the cation drives greater hybridization between metal and electride orbitals, which opens a band gap in these materials. Sc2C is the first 2D electride semiconductor, and we propose a design rule that cation electronegativity drives the change in its band structure

Efficient Computation of Dendritic Microstructures using Adaptive Mesh Refinement

We study dendritic microstructure evolution using an adaptive grid, finite element method applied to a phase-field model. The computational complexity of our algorithm, per unit time, scales linearly with system size, rather than the quadratic variation given by standard uniform mesh schemes. Time-dependent calculations in two dimensions are in good agreement with the predictions of solvability theory, and can be extended to three dimensions and small undercoolingsComment: typo in a parameter of Fig. 1; 4 pages, 4 postscript figures, in LateX, (revtex

Measurement of the Induced Proton Polarization P_n in the 12C(e,e'\vec{p}) Reaction

The first measurements of the induced proton polarization, P_n, for the 12C (e,e'\vec{p}) reaction are reported. The experiment was performed at quasifree kinematics for energy and momentum transfer (\omega,q) \approx (294 MeV, 756 MeV/c) and sampled a recoil momentum range of 0-250 MeV/c. The induced polarization arises from final-state interactions and for these kinematics is dominated by the real part of the spin-orbit optical potential. The distorted-wave impulse approximation provides good agreement with data for the 1p_{3/2} shell. The data for the continuum suggest that both the 1s_{1/2} shell and underlying l > 1 configurations contribute.Comment: 5 pages LaTeX, 2 postscript figures, accepted by Physical Reveiw Letter