Exploring the Social Impacts of a Summer Camp for Youth With Tourette Syndrome

Although a wealth of research exists documenting the positive social outcomes promoted by summer camps, research specifically examining youths with Tourette Syndrome (TS) within the camp context is lacking. This study utilized a phenomenological approach to explore the social impacts of a weeklong camp specifically for youths with TS, involving focus groups with 18 campers aged 10–16, interviews with 10 staff members, and participant observations compiled by the researcher. Multiple themes and sub-themes concerning the social impacts of the camp experience were identified, including (a) relatedness (not alone and self-assurance); (b) social development (friendships, optimism, educational experience, and bullying); (c) programmatic outcomes (unique program opportunities and cabin bonding); and (d) various implications for professional practice and future research are discussed

Strong topological transitivity, hypermixing, and their relationships with other dynamical properties

Recently, two stronger versions of dynamical properties have been introduced and investigated: strong topological transitivity, which is a stronger version of the topological transitivity property, and hypermixing, which is a stronger version of the mixing property. We continue the investigation of these notions with two main results. First, we show there are dynamical systems which are strongly topologically transitive but not weakly mixing. We then show that on $\ell^p$ or $c_0$, there is a weighted backward shift which is strongly topologically transitive but not mixing

Checklist of Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) From Managed Emergent Wetlands in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley of Arkansas

Background Here we present the results from a two-year bee survey conducted on 18 managed emergent wetlands in the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley of Arkansas, USA. Sample methods included pan traps, sweep netting and blue-vane traps. We document 83 bee species and morphospecies in 5 families and 31 genera, of which 37 species represent first published state records for Arkansas. The majority of species were opportunistic wetland species; only a small number were wetland-dependent species or species largely restricted to alluvial plains. New information We present new distributional records for bee species not previously recorded in managed emergent wetlands and report specimens of thirty-seven species for which no published Arkansas records exist, expanding the known ranges of Ceratina cockerelli, Diadasia enavata, Lasioglossum creberrimum, Svastracressonii and Dieunomia triangulifera. We also distinguish opportunistic wetland bee species from wetland-dependent and alluvial plain-restricted species

A Comparative Study of the ReCell® Device and Autologous Spit-Thickness Meshed Skin Graft in the Treatment of Acute Burn Injuries.

Early excision and autografting are standard care for deeper burns. However, donor sites are a source of significant morbidity. To address this, the ReCell® Autologous Cell Harvesting Device (ReCell) was designed for use at the point-of-care to prepare a noncultured, autologous skin cell suspension (ASCS) capable of epidermal regeneration using minimal donor skin. A prospective study was conducted to evaluate the clinical performance of ReCell vs meshed split-thickness skin grafts (STSG, Control) for the treatment of deep partial-thickness burns. Effectiveness measures were assessed to 1 year for both ASCS and Control treatment sites and donor sites, including the incidence of healing, scarring, and pain. At 4 weeks, 98% of the ASCS-treated sites were healed compared with 100% of the Controls. Pain and assessments of scarring at the treatment sites were reported to be similar between groups. Significant differences were observed between ReCell and Control donor sites. The mean ReCell donor area was approximately 40 times smaller than that of the Control (P < .0001), and after 1 week, significantly more ReCell donor sites were healed than Controls (P = .04). Over the first 16 weeks, patients reported significantly less pain at the ReCell donor sites compared with Controls (P ≤ .05 at each time point). Long-term patients reported higher satisfaction with ReCell donor site outcomes compared with the Controls. This study provides evidence that the treatment of deep partial-thickness burns with ASCS results in comparable healing, with significantly reduced donor site size and pain and improved appearance relative to STSG

BRCA1-IRIS Overexpression Promotes Formation of Aggressive Breast Cancers

Introduction: Women with HER2 + or triple negative/basal-like (TN/BL) breast cancers succumb to their cancer rapidly due, in part to acquired Herceptin resistance and lack of TN/BL-targeted therapies. BRCA1-IRIS is a recently discovered, 1399 residue, BRCA1 locus alternative product, which while sharing 1365 residues with the full-length product of this tumor suppressor gene, BRCA1/p220, it has oncoprotein-like properties. Here, we examine whether BRCA1-IRIS is a valuable treatment target for HER2 + and/or TN/BL tumors

Association of Central Arterial Stiffness and Pressure Pulsatility with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study-Neurocognitive Study (ARIC-NCS)

The association of central arterial stiffness and pressure pulsatility with mild cognitive impairment and dementia is not well characterized in the population-based setting

Economic development, human development, and the pursuit of happiness, April 1, 2, and 3, 2004

This repository item contains a single issue of the Pardee Conference Series, a publication series that began publishing in 2006 by the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. This was the Center's spring conference, which took place during April 1, 2, and 3, 2004.The conference asks the questions, how can we make sure that the benefits of economic growth flow into health, education, welfare, and other aspects of human development; and what is the relationship between human development and economic development? Speakers and participants discuss the role that culture, legal and political institutions, the UN Developmental Goals, the level of decision-making, and ethics, play in development

Anti-TNF-α antibody allows healing of joint damage in polyarthritic transgenic mice

Anti-tumor-necrosis-factor-α (TNF-α) monoclonal antibody was used to treat Tg197 transgenic mice, which constitutively produce human TNF-α (hTNF-α) and develop a progressive polyarthritic disease. Treatment of both young (7- or 8-week-old) and aged (27- or 28-week-old) mice commenced when at least two limbs showed signs of moderate to severe arthritis. The therapeutic efficacy of anti-TNF-α antibody was assessed using various pathological indicators of disease progression. The clinical severity of arthritis in Tg197 mice was significantly reduced after anti-TNF-α treatment in comparison with saline-treated mice and in comparison with baseline assessments in both young and aged mice. The treatment with anti-TNF-α prevented loss of body weight. Inflammatory pathways as reflected by elevated circulating hTNF-α and local expression of various proinflammatory mediators were all diminished by anti-TNF-α treatment, confirming a critical role of hTNF-α in this model of progressive polyarthritis. More importantly, the amelioration of the disease was associated with reversal of existing structural damage, including synovitis and periosteal bone erosions evident on histology. Repair of cartilage was age dependent: reversal of cartilage degradation after anti-TNF-α treatment was observed in young mice but not in aged mice

Evaluating the harmonisation potential of diverse cohort datasets

Data discovery, the ability to find datasets relevant to an analysis, increases scientific opportunity, improves rigour and accelerates activity. Rapid growth in the depth, breadth, quantity and availability of data provides unprecedented opportunities and challenges for data discovery. A potential tool for increasing the efficiency of data discovery, particularly across multiple datasets is data harmonisation.A set of 124 variables, identified as being of broad interest to neurodegeneration, were harmonised using the C-Surv data model. Harmonisation strategies used were simple calibration, algorithmic transformation and standardisation to the Z-distribution. Widely used data conventions, optimised for inclusiveness rather than aetiological precision, were used as harmonisation rules. The harmonisation scheme was applied to data from four diverse population cohorts.Of the 120 variables that were found in the datasets, correspondence between the harmonised data schema and cohort-specific data models was complete or close for 111 (93%). For the remainder, harmonisation was possible with a marginal a loss of granularity.Although harmonisation is not an exact science, sufficient comparability across datasets was achieved to enable data discovery with relatively little loss of informativeness. This provides a basis for further work extending harmonisation to a larger variable list, applying the harmonisation to further datasets, and incentivising the development of data discovery tools