Development and validity testing of an IPF-specific version of the St George's Respiratory Questionnaire

Rationale The St George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ) is often applied to assess health-related quality of life in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Some SGRQ items will inevitably have weaker measurement properties than others when applied to this population. This study was conducted to develop an IPF-specific version of the SGRQ. Methods Data from a recently completed trial that enrolled subjects with IPF (n=158) who completed the SGRQ and other measures were analysed at baseline and 6 months. There were four phases to the study: (1) removing items with missing responses and using Rasch analysis on retained items to identify fit and refine item response categories; (2) development of a new scoring scheme; (3) testing agreement between original and revised versions and testing construct validity of the revised SGRQ; and (4) rewording to finalise the IPF-specific version (SGRQ-I). Results Items were removed due to missing responses (6 items) and misfit to the Rasch model (10 items); 34 items from the original 50 were retained. For certain items, disordered response thresholds were identified and corrected by collapsing response categories. A scoring algorithm was developed to place SGRQ-I scores on a scale with SGRQ scores. For any given outcome measure (eg, forced vital capacity (% predicted) and lung carbon monoxide transfer factor (% predicted), 6-min walk distance and patient-reported questionnaires), Pearson correlations were similar between pairs that included original SGRQ scores and corresponding pairs that included SGRQ-I scores. Internal reliability (Cronbach α) for each SGRQ-I component was comparable to the original SGRQ (Symptoms 0.62; Activities 0.80; Impacts 0.85). Conclusions The SGRQ-I contains items from the original SGRQ that are the most reliable for measuring health-related quality of life in patients with IPF

Reactive-site mutants of N-TIMP-3 that selectively inhibit ADAMTS-4 and ADAMTS-5: biological and structural implications.

Published versio

Agnès Varda Forever

As part of an assignment from artist Harrell Fletcher for the Portland State University Art and Social Practice MFA Program, Laura Glazer commissioned Jennifer “JJ” Jones to continue her “Agnès Varda Forever” project. The project began in the summer of 2020 after JJ and her son watched a marathon of movies directed by Agnès Varda during the Covid-19 stay-at-home order. As a result, they wanted more people to know about Varda. JJ acted on this desire in October by painting “AGNÈS VARDA FOREVER” in eight-inch high letters on the utility pole at the end of her block. Around that time, Laura drove past this bold message and was delighted by its spirit, not realizing that it was JJ’s neighborhood or her handiwork. She was so excited about the sign and its striking letterforms that she emailed JJ about it later that night. (Laura knew JJ was a fan of Varda’s movies because a few years ago they saw each other at a Hollywood Theatre showing of Varda’s film, Faces Places.) JJ replied to Laura’s email: “One night, when I couldn’t sleep, I went down to the corner of MY STREET and painted that pole!!!!! What is incredible is that YOU saw it! I thought about sending you a picture of it, but then thought that a better thing to do would be to someday go and paint it on something near your apartment, so you could accidentally stumble upon it! This is SO magical, that it worked out this way. My heart and my mind are blown!!!” As part of her class assignment in April 2021, Laura received $100 to commission someone to do anything.1 She offered it to JJ and together they designed a poster with the “AGNÈS VARDA FOREVER” message and removable tabs listing movies directed by Varda and a short description of each movie. JJ bought colored paper to print the poster and perforated the lower portion of the poster, making tab removal easier. Then she cut each tab by hand and anonymously hung over 500 of them on poles in Portland and beyond. JJ’s hope was that people would take a tab from the poster and use it as a reminder to find out more about Varda and then watch the film.https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/agnes_varda/1000/thumbnail.jp

Toward Hybrid Materials: Group Transfer Polymerization of 3-(Trimethoxysilyl)propyl Methacrylate

Front Cover: Group transfer polymerisation (GTP), a living polymerization technique that is easy to scale up, enables the one-pot fabrication of class-II hybrid materials. Specifically a star polymer is synthesized with a 3-(trimethoxy-silyl)propyl methacrylate, alkoxysilane group containing functional monomer. The polymer is then cross-linked to produce an organic-inorganic class-II hybrid material, which can be used in various applications such as thin films and biomaterials. Further details can be found in the article by J. J. Chung, J. R. Jones, and T. K. Georgiou* on page 1806

Plasma Renin Activity in Children with Protein Energy Malnutrition (Kwashiorkor)

Plasma renin activity was measured by bio-assay in 100 children with kwashiorkor and in 20 healthy children, and also by radio-immunoassay in another 26 children with kwashiorkor and in another 20 healthy children. Both methods showed that (compared with healthy children) renin activity was significantly increased in children with kwashiorkor; and also that the activity was significantly higher in the patients who subsequently died in hospital, than in those who survived. Increased renin activity probably contributes to the retention of water characteristic of protein energy malnutrition.S. Afr. Med. J., 48, 499 (1974

Biodiversity assessment across a dynamic riverine system: A comparison of eDNA metabarcoding versus traditional fish surveying methods

While many studies have considered the ability of eDNA to assess animal communities in lacustrine settings, fewer have considered riverine systems, particularly those spanning the environmental gradients present in large river basins. Such dynamic systems are challenging for eDNA biomonitoring due to differing eDNA transport distances in rivers and the effects of river chemistry. To address this challenge, we focused on the Thames River system, UK, which has exceptional historical fish records providing a baseline to test the accuracy of eDNA metabarcoding in recovering fish community structure across both fresh and tidal zones. Two primer sets targeting 12S and CO1 regions were used to capture fish communities across the Thames catchment, from the upper freshwaters to the mid estuary. eDNA was collected at 35 sites, 14 of which were simultaneously paired with traditional fish surveys for direct comparison. We demonstrated that eDNA metabarcoding consistently detected more freshwater species than traditional methods, despite extensive sampling effort using the latter. In contrast, metabarcoding did not perform as well as traditional approaches in estuarine waters, although results included the novel detection of the protected sea lamprey. We further demonstrated that minor variations in the recovery of all approaches would not impact on the assessment of simple ecological models of community structure and, thus, some variability between approaches should not be viewed as a serious hindrance to uptake. Rather, our findings support a growing consensus that eDNA can reliably detect fish communities across dynamic freshwater habitats

High frequency environmental DNA metabarcoding provides rapid and effective monitoring of fish community dynamics

Long-term monitoring is critical to measure the response of biodiversity patterns and processes to human-mediated environmental pressures. This is particularly pertinent in freshwaters, where recent estimates indicated a third of all fish species are threatened with extinction, making ongoing biomonitoring essential for conservation management. High frequency annual monitoring is critical for identifying temporal changes in fish community composition; however, traditional survey methods are typically less practical over such timeframes. While environmental (e)DNA measurement represents a potentially powerful tool for monitoring temporal community dynamics, studies are lacking. To address this deficit, we generated a high frequency time-series dataset of entire fish communities using eDNA metabarcoding, to directly assess the repeatability and sensitivity of this method for detecting annual population trends. We targeted two differing environments (freshwater vs. intertidal) within the Thames catchment, UK, where detailed historical records from traditional monitoring were available for comparison. To test how robust eDNA data is for inferring the known community, we applied a hierarchical, nested design encompassing short and longer-term variation in eDNA data. Our analyses showed that irrespective of environment, eDNA metabarcoding represented known seasonal shifts in fish communities, where increased relative read abundance of eDNA coincided with known migratory and spawning events, including those of the critically endangered native species Anguilla anguilla (European eel). eDNA species detections across a single year included over 75% of species recorded in a ca. 30-year historical dataset, highlighting the power of eDNA for species detection. Our findings provide greater insight into the utility of eDNA metabarcoding for recovering temporal trends in fish communities from dynamic freshwater systems and insight into the potential best sampling strategy for future eDNA surveys

The Kuiper Belt Luminosity Function from m(R)=21 to 26

We have performed an ecliptic imaging survey of the Kuiper belt with our deepest and widest field achieving a limiting flux of m(g') = 26.4, with a sky coverage of 3.0 square-degrees. This is the largest coverage of any other Kuiper belt survey to this depth. We detect 72 objects, two of which have been previously observed. We have improved the Bayesian maximum likelihood fitting technique presented in Gladman et al. (1998) to account for calibration and sky density variations and have used this to determine the luminosity function of the Kuiper belt. Combining our detections with previous surveys, we find the luminosity function is well represented by a single power-law with slope alpha = 0.65 +/- 0.05 and an on ecliptic sky density of 1 object per square-degree brighter than m(R)=23.42 +/- 0.13. Assuming constant albedos, this slope suggests a differential size-distribution slope of 4.25 +/- 0.25, which is steeper than the Dohnanyi slope of 3.5 expected if the belt is in a state of collisional equilibrium. We find no evidence for a roll-over or knee in the luminosity function and reject such models brightward of m(R) ~ 24.6.Comment: 50 Pages, 8 Figure