Inside the Black Box of Text-Message College Advising

Making college access and success more equitable at a national scale requires alternatives to intensive in-person modes of pre-college advising. Text-message advising campaigns are a promising intervention model for delivering college application and financial aid assistance affordably to large populations of college-intending, low-income students. College outcome results from a recent series of very large text-message programs have been disappointing however. Going inside the black box of text-message advising to understand why and how students engage in text-messaging programs can help explain program effects and inform the design of future virtual-advising programs. This study uses text mining techniques to investigate the content of 342,000 student text messages from a national text-message advising program. In the program under study, over 30,000 college-intending students from 745 high schools received two-way college advising for 15 months via text messaging with professional advisors. Data mining of the student text messages indicated that students needed substantial individualized assistance and that they used texting primarily for navigating discrete tasks related to testing, applications, and financial aid. In addition to providing substantive findings about college access advising, the study method illustrates how big data tools can extract meaning from large bodies of unstructured text like those generated by the growing number of text-message educational interventions

Differential requirement for NMDAR activity in SAP97 -mediated regulation of the number and strength of glutamatergic AMPAR-containing synapses

PSD-95-like, disc-large (DLG) family membrane-associated guanylate kinase proteins (PSD/DLG-MAGUKs) are essential for regulating synaptic AMPA receptor (AMPAR) function and activity-dependent trafficking of AMPARs. Using a molecular replacement strategy to replace endogenous PSD-95 with SAP97β, we show that the prototypic β-isoform of the PSD-MAGUKs, SAP97β, has distinct NMDA receptor (NMDAR)-dependent roles in regulating basic properties of AMPAR-containing synapses. SAP97β enhances the number of AMPAR-containing synapses in an NMDAR-dependent manner, whereas its effect on the size of unitary synaptic response is not fully dependent on NMDAR activity. These effects contrast with those of PSD-95α, which increases both the number of AMPAR-containing synapses and the size of unitary synaptic responses, with or without NMDAR activity. Our results suggest that SAP97β regulates synaptic AMPAR content by increasing surface expression of GluA1-containing AMPARs, whereas PSD-95α enhances synaptic AMPAR content presumably by increasing the synaptic scaffold capacity for synaptic AMPARs. Our approach delineates discrete effects of different PSD-MAGUKs on principal properties of glutamatergic synaptic transmission. Our results suggest that the molecular diversity of PSD-MAGUKs can provide rich molecular substrates for differential regulation of glutamatergic synapses in the brain.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant MH080310)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Transformative Research Award R01 GM104948-02

Crew Endurance Training Program for the US Navy

Prepared for: Naval Advanced Medical Development Program; Naval Medical Research Center; 503 Robert Grant Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910The Crew Endurance Training program was designed to provide fleet-wide support to the US Navy on the successful implementation of circadian-based watchbills, and guidance on sleep management and crew endurance best practices. The first phase of the study included the evaluation of existing educational programs and the analysis of training needs. Combining information from studies conducted by the Naval Postgraduate School Crew Endurance team on USN ships, the expertise of the Sleep Matters Initiative (SMI), and feedback from active-duty service members (ADSMs), we developed the first version of training materials in 2019. The second phase of the project included the delivery of the training program, its assessment, and the analysis and refinement of the training. This iterative procedure was repeated throughout the second phase of the project. The training was provided to more than 1,160 ADSMs, both USN Sailors and Marines. Overall, the responses from all audiences were positive with a high level of satisfaction with the training provided in terms of understanding the importance of sleep, sleep hygiene practices, the effect of sleep on operational performance and endurance, how best to implement circadian-based watchbills, and with the instructors, course content, and training duration. In general, trainees asked for more in-depth information, but operational commitments limited the time available to answer all questions. Also, we updated the Crew Endurance website to support sharing of lessons learned and best practices for the individual and the command. The website includes references, tools, and training materials for use by the warfighter and shipboard leaders, as well as templates for shipboard watchbills and instructions to support circadian-based watchbills. Based on the findings from this study and the expressed need for training on crew endurance and guidance regarding the efficient application of circadian-based watchbills, we recommend the continuation of the Crew Endurance Training project.Naval Advanced Medical Development Program; Naval Medical Research CenterNaval Advanced Medical Development ProgramApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Revisiting N\'eel 60 years on: the magnetic anisotropy of L10\mathrm{L}1_0 FeNi (tetrataenite)

The magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy of atomically ordered $\mathrm{L}1_0$ FeNi (the meteoritic mineral tetrataenite) is studied within a first-principles electronic structure framework. Two compositions are examined: equiatomic Fe$_{0.5}$Ni$_{0.5}$ and an Fe-rich composition, Fe$_{0.56}$Ni$_{0.44}$. It is confirmed that, for the single crystals modelled in this work, the leading-order anisotropy coefficient $K_1$ dominates the higher-order coefficients $K_2$ and $K_3$. To enable comparison with experiment, the effects of both imperfect atomic long-range order and finite temperature are included. While our computational results initially appear to undershoot the measured experimental values for this system, careful scrutiny of the original analysis due to N\'{e}el et al. [J. Appl. Phys. 35, 873 (1964)] suggests that our computed value of $K_1$ is, in fact, consistent with experimental values, and that the noted discrepancy has its origins in the nanoscale polycrystalline, multivariant nature of experimental samples, that yields much larger values of $K_2$ and $K_3$ than expected a priori. These results provide fresh insight into the existing discrepancies in the literature regarding the value of tetrataenite's uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy in both natural and synthetic samples.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 2 table

Improving Medication Safety in an Independent Community Pharmacy

Medication errors are often times thought of as a patient receiving a medication that belongs to another patient, but many to do not understand the other areas that are constituted as “medication errors” are much broader. These errors include, but are not limited to, patient receiving the incorrect medication, improper dosing (too large or too small), wrong drug dispensed, incorrect methods of administration, mislabeling, and etc. Medication errors are such an important issue in the United State because it is the most medicated society in history

Iron supplementation and altitude: Decision making using a regression tree

[No abstract available

Study protocol:the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of a brief behavioural intervention to promote regular self-weighing to prevent weight regain after weight loss: randomised controlled trial (The LIMIT Study)

BACKGROUND: Although obesity causes many adverse health consequences, modest weight loss reduces the incidence. There are effective interventions that help people to lose weight but weight regain is common and long term maintenance remains a critical challenge. As a high proportion of the population of most high and middle income countries are overweight, there are many people who would benefit from weight loss and its maintenance. Therefore, we need to find effective low cost scalable interventions to help people achieve this. One such intervention that has shown promise is regular self-weighing, to check progress against a target, however there is no trial that has tested this using a randomised controlled design (RCT). The aim of this RCT is to evaluate the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of a brief behavioural intervention delivered by non-specialist staff to promote regular self-weighing to prevent weight regain after intentional weight loss. METHODS: A randomised trial of 560 adults who have lost ≥5 % of their initial body weight through a 12 week weight loss programme. The comparator group receive a weight maintenance leaflet, a diagram representing healthy diet composition, and a list of websites for weight control. The intervention group receive the same plus minimally trained telephonists will ask participants to set a weight target and encourage them to weigh themselves daily, and provide support materials such as a weight record card. The primary outcome is the difference between groups in weight change from baseline to 12 months. DISCUSSION: If effective, this study will provide public health agencies with a simple, low cost maintenance intervention that could be implemented immediately. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN52341938 Date Registered: 31/03/201

A Synaptic Strategy for Consolidation of Convergent Visuotopic Maps

The mechanisms by which experience guides refinement of converging afferent pathways are poorly understood. We describe a vision-driven refinement of corticocollicular inputs that determines the consolidation of retinal and visual cortical (VC) synapses on individual neurons in the superficial superior colliculus (sSC). Highly refined corticocollicular terminals form 1–2 days after eye-opening (EO), accompanied by VC-dependent filopodia sprouting on proximal dendrites, and PSD-95 and VC-dependent quadrupling of functional synapses. Delayed EO eliminates synapses, corticocollicular terminals, and spines on VC-recipient dendrites. Awake recordings after EO show that VC and retina cooperate to activate sSC neurons, and VC light responses precede sSC responses within intervals promoting potentiation. Eyelid closure is associated with more protracted cortical visual responses, causing the majority of VC spikes to follow those of the colliculus. These data implicate spike-timing plasticity as a mechanism for cortical input survival, and support a cooperative strategy for retinal and cortical coinnervation of the sSC.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant EY006039