Cardiac Depression Scale: Mokken scaling in heart failure patients

Background: There is a high prevalence of depression in patients with heart failure (HF) that is associated with worsening prognosis. The value of using a reliable and valid instrument to measure depression in this population is therefore essential. We validated the Cardiac Depression Scale (CDS) in heart failure patients using a model of ordinal unidimensional measurement known as Mokken scaling. Findings: We administered in face-to-face interviews the CDS to 603 patients with HF. Data were analysed using Mokken scale analysis. Items of the CDS formed a statistically significant unidimensional Mokken scale of low strength (H<0.40) and high reliability (Rho>0.8). Conclusions: The CDS has a hierarchy of items which can be interpreted in terms of the increasingly serious effects of depression occurring as a result of HF. Identifying an appropriate instrument to measure depression in patients with HF allows for early identification and better medical management. Keywords: Cardiac Depression Scale, Heart failure, Depression, Mokken scalin

The Restorative Path to School District Transformation

The Director of Culture & Services and the Director of Safety & Security for a Colorado School district with 27,000 students will share tools, techniques, and experiences, which have cultivated restorative practices (RP) in their district. The presenters will discuss the effectiveness of proactive techniques, provide successful alternatives to traditional punishment, conduct a simulated restorative expulsion hearing, and highlight the district’s partnership with teen court

Parallel Deterministic and Stochastic Global Minimization of Functions with Very Many Minima

The optimization of three problems with high dimensionality and many local minima are investigated under five different optimization algorithms: DIRECT, simulated annealing, Spall’s SPSA algorithm, the KNITRO package, and QNSTOP, a new algorithm developed at Indiana University

A Case Report of Candida albicans Costochondritis after a Complicated Esophagectomy

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.We present an unusual case of Candida albicans costochondritis after a complicated Ivor Lewis esophagectomy. This case exhibits that pain, erythema, and swelling over the costal cartilages should alert the possibility of infective costochondritis, especially in a postoperative patient. If a fungal agent is identified, aggressive surgical debridement and early commencement of antifungal therapy are likely determinants for a satisfactory outcome

Protein Fingerprinting: A Domain-Free Approach to Protein Analysis

An alternative method for analyzing proteins is proposed. Currently, protein search engines available on the internet utilize domains (predefined sequences of amino acids) to align proteins. The method presented converts a protein sequence with the use of 1200 numeric codes that represent a unique three—amino-acid protein sequence. Each numeric code starts with one of three specific amino acids, followed by any two additional amino acids. With the use of the FPC (FingerPrinted Contig) program, the total protein database (including “redundant” records) from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has been processed and placed into “bins/contigs” based on associations of these triplet codes. When analyzed with FPC, proteins are “contigged” together based on the number of shared fragments, regardless of order. These associations were supported by additional analysis with the standard BLASTP utility from NCBI. Within the created contig sets, there are numerous examples of proteins (allotypes and orthotypes) that have evolved into different, seemingly unrelated proteins. The power of this domain-free technique has yet to be explored; however, the ability to bin proteins together with no a priori knowledge of domains may prove a powerful tool in the characterization of the hundreds of thousands of available, yet undescribed expressed protein and open reading frame sequences

The Chinese version of the cardiac depression scale: Mokken scaling

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Myocardial infarction is a major cause of death and morbidity in many countries, including China. The aim of this study was to analyse a Mandarin Chinese translation of the Cardiac Depression Scale for a hierarchy of items according to the criteria of Mokken scaling.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Data from 438 Chinese participants who completed the Chinese translation of the Cardiac Depression Scale were analysed using the Mokken scaling procedure and the 'R' statistical programme using the diagnostics available in these programmes. Correlations between Mandarin Chinese items and Chinese translations of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory were also analysed. Fifteen items from the Mandarin Chinese Cardiac Depression Scale were retained in a weak but reliable Mokken scale; invariant item ordering was evident but of low accuracy and the Mokken scaled items of the Chinese Cardiac Depression Scale correlated with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Items from the Mandarin Chinese Cardiac Depression Scale form a Mokken scale and this offers further insight into how the items of the Cardiac Depression Scale relate to the measurement of depression in people with a myocardial infarction.</p

Kidney growth following preterm birth: evaluation with renal parenchyma ultrasonography

Background: Preterm birth impairs nephrogenesis, leading to a reduced nephron endowment which is inextricably linked to hypertension and chronic kidney disease in adults. The aim of this study was to compare nephron endowment between preterm infants to that of intrauterine fetuses at the same gestational age (GA) using a novel indirect ultrasound measurement of the renal parenchymal thickness. We hypothesized that extrauterine and intrauterine renal parenchymal thickness would differ based on altered renal growth environments. Methods: In this observational study, appropriately grown preterm infants (birth weight of between the 5th and 95th percentile) born <32 weeks, admitted to the neonatal department were eligible to participate. Renal parenchymal thickness of the infants was measured at 32- and 37-weeks postmenstrual age (PMA). These measurements were compared to the intrauterine renal parenchymal thickness of appropriately grown fetuses (control). Results: At 32-weeks PMA, the preterm infants had a significantly thinner renal parenchyma compared to fetuses at 32-weeks GA suggesting they had less nephrons, however by 37-weeks there was no significant difference in renal parenchymal thickness. Conclusions: We propose that the differences in the extrauterine growth of the renal parenchyma in preterm infants may be due to a reduced number of nephrons and compensatory hyperfiltration. Impact: This article provides insight into the effects of prematurity on nephrogenesis by comparing extrauterine renal parenchymal growth of born preterm infants to the ideal intrauterine fetal growth. Renal parenchyma thickness measurement using ultrasonography is a novel non-invasive measurement of renal development for the determination of nephron endowment. Differences in the renal parenchymal thickness of the preterm infants may be due to a deficit in nephron number and compensatory hyperfiltration

Spitzer IRAC observations of newly-discovered planetary nebulae from the Macquarie-AAO-Strasbourg H-alpha Planetary Nebula Project

We compare H-alpha, radio continuum, and Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) images of 58 planetary nebulae (PNe) recently discovered by the Macquarie-AAO-Strasbo- urg H-alpha PN Project (MASH) of the SuperCOSMOS H-alpha Survey. Using InfraRed Array Camera (IRAC) data we define the IR colors of PNe and demonstrate good isolation between these colors and those of many other types of astronomical object. The only substantive contamination of PNe in the color-color plane we illustrate is due to YSOs. However, this ambiguity is readily resolved by the unique optical characteristics of PNe and their environs. We also examine the relationships between optical and MIR morphologies from 3.6 to 8.0um and explore the ratio of mid-infrared (MIR) to radio nebular fluxes, which is a valuable discriminant between thermal and nonthermal emission. MASH emphasizes late evolutionary stages of PNe compared with previous catalogs, enabling study of the changes in MIR and radio flux that attend the aging process. Spatially integrated MIR energy distributions were constructed for all MASH PNe observed by the GLIMPSE Legacy Project, using the H-alpha morphologies to establish the dimensions for the calculations of the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), IRAC, and radio continuum (from the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope and the Very Large Array) flux densities. The ratio of IRAC 8.0-um to MSX 8.3-um flux densities provides a measure of the absolute diffuse calibration of IRAC at 8.0 um. We independently confirm the aperture correction factor to be applied to IRAC at 8.0um to align it with the diffuse calibration of MSX. The result agrees with the recommendations of the Spitzer Science Center and with results from a parallel study of HII regions. These PNe probe the diffuse calibration of IRAC on a spatial scale of 9-77 arcsec.Comment: 48 pages, LaTeX (aastex), incl. 18 PostScript (eps) figures and 3 tables. Accepted by Astrophysical Journa

Effect of TiO2 Photoanode Porosity on Dye Diffusion Kinetics and Performance of Standard Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Low-cost water-based P25-TiO2 pastes were formulated and used to produce porous TiO2 films in application to the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells. The structural properties of the films were characterized using a variety of techniques such as stylus profilometry, FEG-SEM imaging, BET surface area, and BJH pore size analyses. These were compared to films produced from a commercial paste, DSL 18 NR-AO (Dyesol). The major difference was in the fraction of macroporosity: 23% of the total pore volume for films produced with the commercial material and 67–73% for the P25-TiO2 films owing to the vast difference in dispersion and size distribution of the particles in the two types of pastes. The macroporosity was found to have a dramatic effect on the dye diffusion kinetics measured using in situ UV-Vis reflectance spectroscopy. The sensitization of P25-based films was much faster for heavily macroporous P25-TiO2 films (>90% saturation at 15–35 mins) than for their commercial analogue (>90% saturation at 110 mins). DSC devices built with optimized P25-TiO2 photoanodes showed better performance at short dye immersion time (30 mins and 1 hr) due to faster percolation of the dye molecules through the film