BODY COMPOSITION AND HIP FLEXIBILITY OF SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMERS

Public interest in synchronized swimming has increased as a result of the 1984 Summer Olympics, however, there has been very little research completed to date on this sport. The information presented in this paper is the result of the first year of a five year longitudinal study to determine body composition and hip flexibility characteristics of intermediate and elite synchronized swimmers

Technology-Enhanced Practice for Patients with Chronic Cardiac Disease: Home Implementation and Evaluation

Objective: This 3-year field experiment engaged 60 nurses and 282 patients in the design and evaluation of an innovative home-care nursing model, referred to as technology-enhanced practice (TEP). Methods: Nurses using TEP augmented the usual care with a web-based resource (HeartCareII) that provided patients with self-management information, self-monitoring tools, and messaging services. Results: Patients exposed to TEP demonstrated better quality of life and self-management of chronic heart disease during the first 4 weeks, and were no more likely than patients in usual care to make unplanned visits to a clinician or hospital. Both groups demonstrated the same long-term symptom management and achievements in health status. Conclusion: This project provides new evidence that the purposeful creation of patient-tailored web resources within a hospital portal is possible; that nurses have difficulty with modifying their practice routines, even with a highly-tailored web resource; and that the benefits of this intervention are more discernable in the early postdischarge stages of care

Oral ezatiostat HCl (Telintra®, TLK199) and Idiopathic Chronic Neutropenia (ICN): a case report of complete response of a patient with G-CSF resistant ICN following treatment with ezatiostat, a glutathione S-transferase P1-1 (GSTP1-1) inhibitor

Idiopathic chronic neutropenia (ICN) describes a heterogeneous group of hematologic diseases characterized by low circulating neutrophil levels often associated with recurrent fevers, chronic mucosal inflammation, and severe systemic infections. The severity and risk of complications, including serious infections, are inversely proportional to the absolute neutrophil count (ANC), with the greatest problems occurring in patients with an ANC of less than 0.5 × 109/L. This case report describes a 64-year-old female with longstanding rheumatoid arthritis who subsequently developed ICN with frequent episodes of sepsis requiring hospitalization and prolonged courses of antibiotics over a 4-year period. She was treated with granulocyte colony stimulating factors (G-CSF) but had a delayed, highly variable, and volatile response. She was enrolled in a clinical trial evaluating the oral investigational agent ezatiostat. Ezatiostat, a glutathione S-transferase P1-1 inhibitor, activates Jun kinase, promoting the growth and maturation of hematopoietic progenitor stem cells. She responded by the end of the first month of treatment with stabilization of her ANC (despite tapering and then stopping G-CSF), clearing of fever, and healing of areas of infection. This ANC response to ezatiostat treatment has now been sustained for over 8 months and continues. These results suggest potential roles for ezatiostat in the treatment of patients with ICN who are not responsive to G-CSF, as an oral therapy alternative, or as an adjunct to G-CSF, and further studies are warranted

Hydrogenation of CO on a silica surface: an embedded cluster approach

The sequential addition of H atoms to CO adsorbed on a siliceous edingtonite surface is studied with an embedded cluster approach, using density functional theory for the quantum mechanical (QM) cluster and a molecular force field for the molecular mechanical (MM) cluster. With this setup, calculated QM/MM adsorption energies are in agreement with previous calculations employing periodic boundary conditions. The catalytic effect of the siliceous edingtonite (100) surface on CO hydrogenation is assessed because of its relevance to astrochemistry. While adsorption of CO on a silanol group on the hydroxylated surface did not reduce the activation energy for the reaction with a H atom, a negatively charged defect on the surface is found to reduce the gas phase barriers for the hydrogenation of both CO and H2C = O. The embedded cluster approach is shown to be a useful and flexible tool for studying reactions on (semi-)ionic surfaces and specific defects thereon. The methodology presented here could easily be applied to study reactions on silica surfaces that are of relevance to other scientific areas, such as biotoxicity of silica dust and geochemistry

Association of Picky Eating and Food Neophobia with Weight: A Systematic Review

Background: Picky eating and food neophobia are common during childhood. Childhood eating behaviors are often predictive of adult eating behaviors

Unique ability of activated CD4⁺ T cells but not rested effectors to migrate to non-lymphoid sites in the absence of inflammation

Recent studies suggest that effector T cells generated by immune responses migrate to multiple non-lymphoid sites, even those without apparent expression of antigen or inflammation. To investigate the ability of distinct CD4+ T lymphocyte subsets to enter and persist in non-lymphoid, non-inflamed compartments, we examined the migration and persistence of naive, effector and rested effector CD4+ T cells generated in vitro following transfer to nonimmunized adoptive hosts. Th1 and Th2 effectors migrated to both lymphoid and non-lymphoid organs (peritoneum, fat pads and lung). In contrast, rested effectors and naive cells migrated only to lymphoid areas. Adhesion molecule expression, but not chemokine receptor expression, correlated with the ability to enter non-lymphoid sites. Donor cells persisted longer in lymphoid than in non-lymphoid sites. When hosts with naive and memory donor cells were challenged with antigen, effectors developed in situ, which also migrated to non-lymphoid sites. Memory cells showed an accelerated shift to non-lymphoid migration, in keeping with memory effector formation. These results suggest that only recently activated effector T cells can disperse to non-lymphoid sites in the absence of antigen and inflammation and as effectors return to rest, they lose this ability. These data also argue that memory cells in lymphoid sites are longer lived and not in equilibrium with those in non-lymphoid sites

Development and initial validation of the Seated Posture Scale

—Literature shows that some health outcomes (e.g., eating, breathing, and speaking) are directly related to posture. Evidence of outcomes mediated by wheelchair seated posture is limited to interface pressure, physical function, and wheelchair skills and safety. This study’s purpose was to develop and validate a rapid, low-burden, paper-pencil assessment of wheelchair seated posture for research use and to test feasibility of its use with a sample of older adults. We used a prospective design and a convenience sample of older adults who were receiving rehabilitation services in a community living center. Forty-nine older wheelchair users participated. Main measures were the Seated Posture Scale (SPS), Modified Ashworth Scale, Barthel Index, Visual Descriptor Scale, scale-content validity index (S-CVI), Cronbach alpha, and test-retest reliability. Rating by six experts yielded the overall content validity score (S-CVI) of 0.744. Total SPS score correlated positively with physical function (Barthel Index, r = 0.46, p \u3c 0.001) and negatively with muscle tone (Modified Ashworth Scale, r = –0.44, p = 0.001), supporting SPS construct validity. Internal consistency was 0.66 (Cronbach alpha). Test-retest reliability yielded Pearson product-moment correlations of 0.89 to 0.99. We conclude that the SPS has sufficient preliminary validity and reliability to support its use as an evaluation of wheelchair seated posture in outcomes research

Addressing Childhood Obesity

The overweight and obesity epidemic among children and adolescents in the United States continues to worsen, with notable racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities. Risk factors for pediatric obesity include genetics; environmental and neighborhood factors; increased intake of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), fast-food, and processed snacks; decreased physical activity; shorter sleep duration; and increased personal, prenatal, or family stress. Pediatricians can help prevent obesity by measuring body mass index at least yearly and providing age- and development-appropriate anticipatory guidance to families. Public policies and environmental interventions aim to make it easier for children to make healthy nutrition and physical activity choices. Interventions focused on family habits and parenting strategies have also been successful at preventing or treating childhood obesity

C2D Spitzer-IRS spectra of disks around T Tauri stars V. Spectral decomposition

(Abridged) Dust particles evolve in size and lattice structure in protoplanetary disks, due to coagulation, fragmentation and crystallization, and are radially and vertically mixed in disks. This paper aims at determining the mineralogical composition and size distribution of the dust grains in disks around 58 T Tauri stars observed with Spitzer/IRS. We present a spectral decomposition model that reproduces the IRS spectra over the full spectral range. The model assumes two dust populations: a warm component responsible for the 10\mu m emission arising from the disk inner regions and a colder component responsible for the 20-30\mu m emission, arising from more distant regions. We show evidence for a significant size distribution flattening compared to the typical MRN distribution, providing an explanation for the usual boxy 10\mu m feature profile generally observed. We reexamine the crystallinity paradox, observationally identified by Olofsson et al. (2009), and we find a simultaneous enrichment of the crystallinity in both the warm and cold regions, while grain sizes in both components are uncorrelated. Our modeling results do not show evidence for any correlations between the crystallinity and either the star spectral type, or the X-ray luminosity (for a subset of the sample). The size distribution flattening may suggests that grain coagulation is a slightly more effective process than fragmentation in disk atmospheres, and that this imbalance may last over most of the T Tauri phase. This result may also point toward small grain depletion via strong stellar winds or radiation pressure in the upper layers of disk. The non negligible cold crystallinity fractions suggests efficient radial mixing processes in order to distribute crystalline grains at large distances from the central object, along with possible nebular shocks in outer regions of disks that can thermally anneal amorphous grains

Community Engagement in Academic Health Centers: A Model for Capturing and Advancing Our Successes

Academic health centers (AHCs) are under increased pressure to demonstrate the effectiveness of their community-engaged activities, but there are no common metrics for evaluating community engagement in AHCs. Eight AHCs piloted the Institutional Community Engagement Self-Assessment (ICESA), a two-phase project to assess community-engagement efforts. The first phase uses a framework developed by the University of Rochester Medical Center, which utilizes structure, process, and outcome criteria to map CE activities. The second phase uses the Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) Self-Assessment to identify institutional resources for community engagement, and potential gaps, to inform community engagement goal-setting. The authors conducted a structured, directed content analysis to determine the effectiveness of using the two-phase process at the participating AHCs. The findings suggest that the ICESA project assisted AHCs in three key areas, and may provide a strategy for assessing community engagement in AHCs