VA’s Work to Ensure Veterans’ Food Security

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is uniquely positioned as the nation’s largest integrated health care system, serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year, to successfully embrace the power of an interdisciplinary team designed to meet the needs of Veterans challenged by food insecurity. In collaboration with the whole of government approach to ending hunger, VA is addressing food and nutrition security. The Food Security Office within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) was established and has representation from nutrition, social work, and nursing focusing on the causes of food insecurity among Veterans. VA’s Food Security Office and the Nutrition and Food Services Office lead efforts aligned with the White House’s strategic initiatives shared at the White House Conference on Hunger, Health and Nutrition. The Food Security Office is built on three pillars: partnerships, data management and research and education

-1 V bias 56 Gbps germanium waveguide p-i-n photodetector with silicon contacts

We demonstrate a silicon-contact-only 56 Gbps germanium waveguide photodetector operating at -1 V. The dark current is below 4 nA and the responsivity is 0.74 A/W at 1550 nm and 0.93 A/W at 1310 nm

VA’s Work to Ensure Veterans’ Food Security

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is uniquely positioned as the nation’s largest integrated health care system, serving 9 million enrolled Veterans each year, to successfully embrace the power of an interdisciplinary team designed to meet the needs of Veterans challenged by food insecurity. In collaboration with the whole of government approach to ending hunger, VA is addressing food and nutrition security. The Food Security Office within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) was established and has representation from nutrition, social work, and nursing focusing on the causes of food insecurity among Veterans. VA’s Food Security Office and the Nutrition and Food Services Office lead efforts aligned with the White House’s strategic initiatives shared at the White House Conference on Hunger, Health and Nutrition. The Food Security Office is built on three pillars: partnerships, data management and research and education

Muse: A Genetic Algorithm for Musical Chord Progression Generation

Foundational to our understanding and enjoyment of music is the intersection of harmony and movement. This intersection manifests as chord progressions which themselves underscore the rhythm and melody of a piece. In musical compositions, these progressions often follow a set of rules and patterns which are themselves frequently broken for the sake of novelty. In this work, we developed a genetic algorithm which learns these rules and patterns (and how to break them) from a dataset of 890 songs from various periods of the Billboard Top 100 rankings. The algorithm learned to generate increasingly valid, yet interesting chord progressions via penalties based on both conditional probabilities extracted from the aforementioned dataset and weights applied to the characteristics from which the penalty is derived. Additionally, the be- ginning and end of a progression may be seeded (either in totality or for a percentage of generated patterns) such that the algorithm will generate a bridging progression to connect the seeded points. To this end, the algorithm proposed chord progressions and supplied vectors of computer- aided algorithmic composition. To demonstrate the validity of the system, we present a subset of generated progressions that both conform to known musical patterns and contain interesting deviations

Exploring Access to Portable Water and Sanitation Practices in a Post-Conflict Environment: The Case of Gulu District, Northern Uganda

Over the course of 30 days of fieldwork in October and November of 2016, data was collected through interviews conducted with local government officials, researchers and academics, and village community members of Gulu District. The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which agencies have improved water and sanitation in the region. The case study of Gulu utilized in-depth interviews with key informants, focus groups, and observations, and sought to determine who the local stakeholders in water and sanitation are, the water sources and sanitation facilities available and their uses, the perception local people have about their access to portable water and sanitation facilities, the effects the post-conflict environment has had on progress, and the gaps in services for availing portable water and sanitation. Care was taken to complete this research in accordance with research ethics expectations. Before beginning the study, the research proposal was approved by the local Research Review Board. Also, approval was sought and granted by the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology. Before conducting any interviews, a letter of introduction was written, as well as consent forms. The letter of introduction was used in cases where a bureaucratic government office was being approach in order to establish legitimacy. Further, consent forms were presented and signed before the start of each interview. In the case where the interviewee did not speak or read English, the consent forms were verbally translated by the translator, and the interviewee would give verbal consent with the translator signing the form as a witness. The study found that while access to portable water sources and sanitation facilities has undeniably improved in the region, there are concerns with the quality of the facilities available and questions about whether or not the efforts made so far and the existing sources and facilities are able to be sustained- partly due to discrepancies in perceptions of who is responsible for operation and maintenance of them. What I feel can be done to address this would be for the local and national stakeholders to come together and spend some time planning an integrated and cohesive approach to align budgets and prioritize educating communities on how to properly manage and operate the facilities that they have been provided with so that they can be utilized in the most efficient and effective way. By spending more time and money on this aspect, they could, in the long term, reduce the amount of time and money spent on resource allocation and repairs, and the communities themselves could be more self-sufficient in terms of taking care of their basic needs

Chromosomal aberrations in transitional cell carcinoma that are predictive of disease outcome are independent of polyploidy

Objective To determine whether aneusomy for chromosomes 7, 9 and 17 (reported to predict recurrence in up to 65% of patients with superficial transitional cell bladder cancer and thus providing the opportunity for early and effective treatment) reflects specific genetic events on these chromosomes or merely wider unspecific genetic damage to the cell, e.g. that increased copy numbers for 7 and 17 reflect tumour polyploidy. Materials and methods The study comprised 25 primary tumours; 6 mu m thick sections from formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tumours were analysed. Chromosome copy numbers were determined by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using pericentromeric probes for chromosomes 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 17. A minimum of 200 nuclei per tumour area were scored by two independent observers. Results Eight of the 25 tumours examined (32%) showed no evidence of chromosomal abnormalities as detected by FISH for any chromosomes analysed. Twelve tumours (48%) showed abnormalities for one or two chromosomes, five tumours (20%) showed abnormalities for multiple chromosomes and one tumour showed abnormalities for all chromosomes analysed, suggestive of polyploidy. Conclusions Chromosomal abnormalities predictive of recurrence occur largely in the absence of other gross chromosomal lesions. In a small proportion of cases other chromosomes are affected, but this is almost always distinct from tumour polyploidy

The role of perineural invasion in predicting survival in patients with primary operable colorectal cancer: a systematic review

Perineural invasion is a clear route for cancer cell spread however, the role of nerves in cancer progression is relatively unknown. Recent work would suggest that nerves can actively infiltrate the tumour microenvironment and stimulate cancer cell growth. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to systematically review the identification and associations of perineural invasion and survival in patients with primary operable colorectal cancer. From initial search results of 912 articles, 38 studies were selected. Using H&E stains; five studies including 1835 patients reported on survival stratified by perineural invasion in colon cancer with weighted average detection rates of 26%; eleven studies including 3837 patients reported on rectal cancer with weighted average detection rates of 25% and; sixteen studies including 9145 patients reported on survival stratified by perineural invasion in colorectal cancer with weighted average detection rates of 17%. Using special techniques (S100), six studies including 1458 patients reported on the identification of perineural invasion in colorectal cancer. In comparison to H&E staining alone, the use of immunohistochemistry with S100 increased the detection of perineural invasion to approximately 70%. However, those studies did not examine the relationship with outcomes, so further research is required to establish the clinical significance of perineural invasion detected by immunohistochemistry. In conclusion, perineural invasion deserves special attention for improved prognostic stratification in patients with colorectal cancer. Further work is required to standardise pathology assessment and reporting of perineural invasion, in particular its definition, use of special stains and routine inclusion in pathology practice. Reliable assessment is required for investigations into mechanisms of perineural invasion, its role tumour spread and prognostic value

What Makes a Good Teacher?

This Article explores Judge Barry Schermer’s approach to teaching, both in the courtroom and in the classroom. Going recounts some of his interactions before Schermer during his practice as well as teaching alongside him at Washington University School of Law. The Author narrows on Schermer’s performance as an animated and committed teacher, as well as his kind and approachable demeanor, as ways of drawing both students and advocates into the intricacies of bankruptcy law