Community Perceptions of the Environmental Remediation Effort in the Milwaukee River Estuary

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and Milwaukee County Parks Department have been working on an environmental remediation project that seeks to remove chemical contaminants and pollution from the Milwaukee River. The purpose of this research is to discover community member’s perceptions on the quality and safety of the Milwaukee River, and determine whether their perspectives on safe and desirable uses of the river differ from those of the organizations overseeing the Great Lake Legacy Act (GLLA) project. The results from this study show that the communities in the project area believe that the quality of the river has improved but it is still unsafe in some ways. This study shows that understanding the perceptions about quality, safety and uses of the river can improve the relationship between remediation organizations and the affected community.Ope

What happens when we have data?

Background: Treatment recommendations (guidelines) are commonly represented in text form. Based on parameters (questions) recommendations are defined (answers). Objectives: To improve handling, alternative forms of representation are required. Methods: The concept of Dodes (diagnostic nodes) has been developed. Dodes contain answers and questions. Dodes are based on linked nodes and additionally contain descriptive information and recommendations. Dodes are organized hierarchically into Dode trees. Dode categories must be defined to prevent redundancy. Results: A centralized and neutral Dode database can provide standardization, which is a requirement for the comparison of recommendations. Centralized administration of Dode categories can provide information about diagnostic criteria (Dode categories) underutilized in existing recommendations (Dode trees). Conclusions: Representing clinical recommendations in Dode trees improves their manageability, handling and updateability

A framework for the natures of negativity in introductory physics

Mathematical reasoning skills are a desired outcome of many introductory physics courses, particularly calculus-based physics courses. Positive and negative quantities are ubiquitous in physics, and the sign carries important and varied meanings. Novices can struggle to understand the many roles signed numbers play in physics contexts, and recent evidence shows that unresolved struggle can carry over to subsequent physics courses. The mathematics education research literature documents the cognitive challenge of conceptualizing negative numbers as mathematical objects--both for experts, historically, and for novices as they learn. We contribute to the small but growing body of research in physics contexts that examines student reasoning about signed quantities and reasoning about the use and interpretation of signs in mathematical models. In this paper we present a framework for categorizing various meanings and interpretations of the negative sign in physics contexts, inspired by established work in algebra contexts from the mathematics education research community. Such a framework can support innovation that can catalyze deeper mathematical conceptualizations of signed quantities in the introductory courses and beyond

Physics of Martial Arts: Incorporation of Angular Momentum to Model Body Motion and Strikes

We develop a physics-based kinematic model of martial arts movements incorporating rotation and angular momentum, extending prior analyses. Here, our approach is designed for a classroom environment; we begin with a warm-up exercise introducing counter-intuitive aspects of rotational motion before proceeding to a set of model collision problems that are applied to martial arts movements. Finally, we develop a deformable solid-body mechanics model of a martial arts practitioner suitable for an intermediate mechanics course. We provide evidence for our improved model based on calculations from biomechanical data obtained from prior reports as well as time-lapse images of several different kicks. In addition to incorporating angular motion, our model explicitly makes reference to friction between foot and ground as an action-reaction pair, showing that this interaction provides the motive force/torque for nearly all martial arts movements. Moment-of-inertia tensors are developed to describe kicking movements and show that kicks aimed high, towards the head, transfer more momentum to the target than kicks aimed lower, e.g. towards the body

Medical Evaluation of Children with Intellectual Disability: Clinician Compliance with Published Guidelines

Background: Children with intellectual disability (CWID) in the USA are typically referred to child neurologists (CN) and developmental-behavioral pediatricians (DBP) for medical evaluation. Although the American Academy of Neurology/Child Neurology Society (AAN/CNS) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have published evaluation guidelines, experience suggests CN and DBP do not consistently follow them. Our goal was to assess CN’s and DBP’s approach to evaluating CWID and overall compliance with published guidelines. Methods: Questionnaires were mailed to CN and DBP in the U.S. (n=1897). Physicians were asked demographic information and which laboratory tests they would "routinely order" for the hypothetical case of a 3½ year old boy with Full Scale IQ=58 and unremarkable neurological history and exam. Chi-square tests were performed to compare sub-specialists’ ordering practices. Results: 127 CN and 140 DBP responded. 7.1% CN (n=9) and 11.4% DBP (n=16) complied with AAN/CNS and AAP guidelines, respectively. Although routinely indicated, 36.2% CN and 31.4% DBP would not routinely order chromosomal microarray (CMA), and 42.5% CN and 26.4% DBP would not routinely order DNA for Fragile X (χ2=7.67, p=0.006). 7.9% CN and 7.1% DBP would order a karyotype without CMA. Although not indicated, 7.1% CN and 0.7% DBP noted they would routinely order an EEG (χ2=7.50, p=0.006). A brain MRI is only recommended by AAN/CNS guidelines; 49.6% CN and 12.9% DBP reported they would routinely order it (χ2=42.55, p<.0001). Conclusion: Few CN and DBP follow published guidelines for laboratory evaluation of CWID. Relative to DBP, CN more frequently order EEGs and MRIs but less frequently order recommended genetic tests

Methods for the synthesis of polyhydroxylated piperidines by diastereoselective dihydroxylation: Exploitation in the two-directional synthesis of aza-C-linked disaccharide derivatives

Background: Many polyhydroxylated piperidines are inhibitors of the oligosaccharide processing enzymes, glycosidases and glycosyltransferases. Aza-C-linked disaccharide mimetics are compounds in which saturated polyhydroxylated nitrogen and oxygen heterocycles are linked by an all-carbon tether. The saturated oxygen heterocycle has the potential to mimic the departing sugar in a glycosidase-catalysed reaction and aza-C-linked disaccharide mimetics may, therefore, be more potent inhibitors of these enzymes. Results: The scope, limitations and diastereoselectivity of the dihydroxylation of stereoisomeric 2-butyl-1-(toluene-4-sulfonyl)-1,2,3,6-tetrahydro-pyridin-3-ols is discussed. In the absence of a 6- substituent on the piperidine ring, the Upjohn (cat. OsO4, NMO, acetone-water) and Donohoe (OsO4, TMEDA, CH2Cl2) conditions allow complementary diastereoselective functionalisation of the alkene of the (2R*,3R*) diastereoisomer. However, in the presence of a 6-substituent, the reaction is largely controlled by steric effects with both reagents. The most synthetically useful protocols were exploited in the two-directional synthesis of aza-C-linked disaccharide analogues. A two-directional oxidative ring expansion was used to prepare bis-enones such as (2R,6S,2'S)-6- methoxy-2-(6-methoxy-3-oxo-3,6-dihydro-2H-pyran-2-ylmethyl)-1-(toluene-4-sulfonyl)-1,6- dihydro-2H-pyridin-3-one from the corresponding difuran. Selective substitution of its N,O acetal was possible. The stereochemical outcome of a two-directional Luche reduction step was different in the two heterocyclic rings, and depended on the conformation of the ring. Finally, twodirectional diastereoselective dihydroxylation yielded seven different aza-C-linked disaccharide analogues. Conclusion: A two-directional approach may be exploited in the synthesis of aza-C-linked disaccharide mimetics. Unlike previous approaches to similar molecules, neither of the heterocyclic rings is directly derived from a sugar, allowing mimetics with unusual configurations to be prepared. The work demonstrates that highly unsymmetrical molecules may be prepared using a two directional approach. The deprotected compounds may have potential as inhibitors of oligosaccharide-processing enzymes and as tools in chemical genetic investigations

PROsaiq: A Smart Device-Based and EMR-Integrated System for Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement in Routine Cancer Care

The PROsaiq prototype, which is based on the use of smart devices, was developed to show the technical feasibility of a lean, low-cost ePRO system that integrated with the oncology information system MOSAIQ to provide the potential for benefits in routine patient care, and improved data for clinical research. The system was built with Free & Open Source Software and trialled for a limited number of assessments. The report describes the components used, the decisions made and the hurdles met during the project. An on-line demonstration system is available to showcase PROsaiqs functionality

The Informatics of the Planning Target Volume -- why it cannot and should not be changed

The ICRU defined the Planning Target Volume (PTV) as a static and geometrical volume in 1993. Radiation oncologists continue to manually alter PTVs in their daily practice when critical organs at risk (OAR) are too close to high dose PTVs. This practice is examined and shown to be non-standard (defies the ICRU definitions), inaccurate (all DVHs look perfect when the plan is manifestly NOT perfect), and useless for outcomes research (automatically analysed DVHs will find situations where the PTV_unaltered overlaps the OAR_unaltered, but will fail to find situations where an OAR_unaltered would be overlapped by a PTV_unaltered, but is not overlapped by a PTV_altered

Development of a specialist medical vocabulary for radiation oncology

Controlled medical terminologies that have been developed to describe terms utilized in the field of Radiation Oncology, include SNOMED-CT and DICOM-RT. However, a literature review has failed to provide evidence that the coverage and the level of granularity of these nomenclatures have satisfied the needs of radiation oncologists. Indeed most investigations conclude that the coverage is generally unsatisfactory. Fur-thermore, there is no evidence that an objective specification of the specialist medical terms used in Radiation Oncology has been developed. We report the development of a Specialist Medical Vocabu-lary for Radiation Oncology using an objective and systematic method of discovery of data elements published in the Radia-tion Oncology literature. The importance of the data elements to radiation oncologists is judged according to the criterion that a submitted report has been deemed worthy of publica-tion. Within the time period of discovery, 97 articles were retrieved and, during the analysis of 80 articles, 622 individual data elements and 2392 instances of use were found. Infrequent data elements comprised the majority of individual data elements (54%), and frequently used data elements were a minority (27 individual data elements with 10 or more in-stances of use). However these 10 data elements comprised 49.5% of the total data elements found