Casework with patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Sustainability Improvements to Embry-Riddles Shuttle Services

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) is an aviation focused school that has an undergraduate population of 7,177 students as of Fall 2022. ERAU’s shuttle service is an essential resource for students to commute to and from school. Although a widely used resource, the current routes offered are limited to nearby student apartment complexes and operate only during weekdays. The current fleet of shuttle buses only contains five vans and transports students from the university to neighboring complexes such as Eagle Landing, Chanute, OnShore, Bellamy, and the Micaplex. Sustainability at ERAU is important to achieve development that meets the needs of the present student population without compromising the ability of prospective students, while preserving the current state of the university. The first step involves understanding the current situation of the shuttle system to plan where improvements can be made. This analysis will be conducted by gathering shuttle operation data that includes route maps, operation hours, vehicle cost, and student use. The second step will be to define the long-term and short-term goals of the proposed sustainability plan with periods specified to track the plan’s efficiency. The short-term goals will be to increase student use by 15% within 2-3 years by increasing the shuttle system capacity, expanding the days and times the shuttle operates, and diversifying the route the shuttle system provides. The long-term goal is to transfer into electrically powered vans such as the Ford E-Transit van within ten years. The third step will be developing and implementing the sustainability plan. This plan will follow the three ‘Overlapping Circles\u27 sustainability model. A stakeholder analysis will be implemented to understand how to communicate our plan across diverse stakeholders with the financial and social perspective\u27s ability to bring it to life. An office of sustainability will be established to accurately assess the progress and promote the implemented sustainability plan via posters and included in the prospective student tour guide speeches. This will be conducted on a two-stage surveying process. First, surveys will focus on the current users of the shuttle system. The second round of surveys will focus on gathering data from students that own a car and do not use the shuttle system to help the office of sustainability to make appropriate changes that will attract them to use it. Embry-Riddle should be focused on innovation and inclusion for all their students by giving them the ability of choosing a sustainable transportation system

The mouse genetics toolkit: revealing function and mechanism

Large-scale projects are providing rapid global access to a wealth of mouse genetic resources to help discover disease genes and to manipulate their function

‘What have you HEARD about the HERD?’ Does education about local influenza vaccination coverage and herd immunity affect willingness to vaccinate?

Education about herd immunity and local vaccination coverage could be a useful tool in increasing vaccination rates and benefiting communities. After the intervention, a higher proportion of participants reported that they had plans to get vaccinated and were concerned about getting influenza after learning about herd immunity and the vaccination coverage in their county. Initially, those who were least informed about herd immunity were significantly less likely than those with some knowledge of herd immunity to plan to get vaccinated, but their willingness to vaccinate significantly increased after receiving education about local vaccination coverage and the benefits of herd immunity, closing the gap between the two groups and increasing the proportion planning to be vaccinated.Background: Vaccination protects individuals directly and communities indirectly by reducing transmission. We aimed to determine whether information about herd immunity and local vaccination coverage could change an individual’s vaccination plans and concern about influenza. Methods:We surveyed Minnesota residents 18 years during the 2016 Minnesota State Fair. Participants were asked to identify the definition of herd immunity, to report their history of and plans to receive influenza vaccine, to report their concern about influenza, and to estimate the reported influenza vaccination coverage in their county. After providing educational information about herd immunity and local vaccination rates, we reassessed vaccination plans and concerns. We used logistic regression to estimate predicted percentages for those willing to be vaccinated, for concern about influenza, and for changes in these outcomes after the intervention. We then compared those individuals with and without prior knowledge of herd immunity, accounting for other characteristics. Results:Among 554 participants, the median age was 57 years; most were female (65.9%), white (91.0%),and non-Hispanic/Latino (93.9%). Overall, 37.2% of participants did not know about herd immunity and75.6% thought that the influenza vaccination coverage in their county was higher than it was reported.Those not knowledgeable about herd immunity were significantly less likely than those knowledgeable about the concept to report plans to be vaccinated at baseline (67.8% versus 78.9%; p = 0.004). After learn-ing about herd immunity and influenza vaccination coverage, the proportion of those not knowledgeable about herd immunity who were willing to be vaccinated increased significantly by 7.3 percentage points(p = 0.001). Educating participants eliminated the significant difference in the proportion planning to be vaccinated between these two groups (80.1% of those knowledgeable and 75.1% of those who were not initially knowledgeable became willing; p = 0.148). Conclusions:Education about herd immunity and local vaccination coverage could be a useful tool for increasing willingness to vaccinate, generating benefits both to individuals and communities.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.05.03

SNPServer: a real-time SNP discovery tool

SNPServer is a real-time flexible tool for the discovery of SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) within DNA sequence data. The program uses BLAST, to identify related sequences, and CAP3, to cluster and align these sequences. The alignments are parsed to the SNP discovery software autoSNP, a program that detects SNPs and insertion/deletion polymorphisms (indels). Alternatively, lists of related sequences or pre-assembled sequences may be entered for SNP discovery. SNPServer and autoSNP use redundancy to differentiate between candidate SNPs and sequence errors. For each candidate SNP, two measures of confidence are calculated, the redundancy of the polymorphism at a SNP locus and the co-segregation of the candidate SNP with other SNPs in the alignment. SNPServer is available at

Modeling Partial Monosomy for Human Chromosome 21q11.2-q21.1 Reveals Haploinsufficient Genes Influencing Behavior and Fat Deposition

Haploinsufficiency of part of human chromosome 21 results in a rare condition known as Monosomy 21. This disease displays a variety of clinical phenotypes, including intellectual disability, craniofacial dysmorphology, skeletal and cardiac abnormalities, and respiratory complications. To search for dosage-sensitive genes involved in this disorder, we used chromosome engineering to generate a mouse model carrying a deletion of the Lipi–Usp25 interval, syntenic with 21q11.2-q21.1 in humans. Haploinsufficiency for the 6 genes in this interval resulted in no gross morphological defects and behavioral analysis performed using an open field test, a test of anxiety, and tests for social interaction were normal in monosomic mice. Monosomic mice did, however, display impaired memory retention compared to control animals. Moreover, when fed a high-fat diet (HFD) monosomic mice exhibited a significant increase in fat mass/fat percentage estimate compared with controls, severe fatty changes in their livers, and thickened subcutaneous fat. Thus, genes within the Lipi–Usp25 interval may participate in memory retention and in the regulation of fat deposition

Within-Person Associations Among Self-Perceptions of Memory, Depressive Symptoms, and Activity Participation in Older Adults

Background and Objectives Self-perceptions of memory problems may impact older adults’ mood as well as their activity participation, thereby negatively affecting health and well-being. We examined within-person associations among self-reported memory, depressive symptoms, as well as physical, social, and cognitive activity participation in older adults without cognitive impairment. Research Design and Methods Samples were drawn from the Einstein Aging Study (EAS), National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), Rush Memory and Aging Project (MAP), and Minority Aging Research Study (MARS), with over 8,000 participants (65+ years) included across data sets. In a series of coordinated analyses, multilevel structural equation modeling was used to examine within-person relationships over periods of up to 20 years. Results Across EAS, NHATS, and MAP/MARS samples, we found that older adults’ self-perceptions of memory did not directly covary with activity participation over time. However, we did find an indirect association in NHATS such that within-person changes in depressive symptoms were associated with changes in self-reported memory, and these contributed to lower physical as well as social activity participation. Discussion and Implications Older adults’ activity participation is important for health, but maximizing engagement requires understanding potentially impeding factors. We found some evidence that as self-perceptions of memory change over time, associated depressive symptoms may contribute to lower activity participation. Inconsistent findings across data sets, however, suggest future research is needed to understand individual characteristics that may influence these relationships

A consensus statement on when to start clean intermittent self‐catheterization: An untapped resource?

Background Clean intermittent self-catheterisation (CISC or ISC) is used by patients/carers to empty the bladder if needed. Sometimes the urethral lumen leading out of the bladder is blocked; sometimes, the bladder (detrusor) muscle itself or the autonomic motor nerves innervating the bladder are damaged, resulting in a failure of the detrusor muscle to work, leading to a failure of the bladder being able to empty adequately. Prior consensus as to the indications and timing of CISC has yet to be provided. This article aims to provide a multidisciplinary consensus view on this subject. Conclusion It is evident that every patient needs to be considered individually, bearing in mind the symptoms and investigations to be considered. We emphasise the importance of considering the term Bladder Voiding Efficiency (BVE). One group of patients who might find CISC helpful are those with a neurological disorder; these include spinal injury patients, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, and a condition called cauda equina. Sometimes bladder problems are treated with anticholinergics, and others may be treated with Botox. These may cause the bladder not to empty at all, which is good for leaks but needs self-catheterisation to empty the bladder. In the past, hospitals used a permanent catheter called an ‘indwelling’ or a ‘suprapubic’ catheter. These can have side effects, including infections, stones, and pain. For CISC, disposable catheters are the best option for patients as they come in different sizes and styles to provide individualised care. In conclusion, we would like hospitals to consider each patient separately and not use a general ‘one-size-fits-all’ bladder function for these patients

Rb regulates fate choice and lineage commitment in vivo

February 1, 2011Mutation of the retinoblastoma gene (RB1) tumour suppressor occurs in one-third of all human tumours and is particularly associated with retinoblastoma and osteosarcoma[superscript 1]. Numerous functions have been ascribed to the product of the human RB1 gene, the retinoblastoma protein (pRb). The best known is pRb’s ability to promote cell-cycle exit through inhibition of the E2F transcription factors and the transcriptional repression of genes encoding cell-cycle regulators[superscript 1]. In addition, pRb has been shown in vitro to regulate several transcription factors that are master differentiation inducers[superscript 2]. Depending on the differentiation factor and cellular context, pRb can either suppress or promote their transcriptional activity. For example, pRb binds to Runx2 and potentiates its ability to promote osteogenic differentiation in vitro[superscript 3]. In contrast, pRb acts with E2F to suppress peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ subunit (PPAR-γ), the master activator of adipogenesis[superscript 4, 5]. Because osteoblasts and adipocytes can both arise from mesenchymal stem cells, these observations suggest that pRb might play a role in the choice between these two fates. However, so far, there is no evidence for this in vivo. Here we use mouse models to address this hypothesis in mesenchymal tissue development and tumorigenesis. Our data show that Rb status plays a key role in establishing fate choice between bone and brown adipose tissue in vivo.National Cancer Institute (U.S.) (Grant)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant