Biologics May Prevent Cardiovascular Events in Rheumatoid Arthritis by Inhibiting Coronary Plaque Formation and Stabilizing High-Risk Lesions.

ObjectiveTo evaluate whether biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) decrease cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and whether biologic DMARDs might have a beneficial effect on coronary plaque formation or progression.MethodsIn this single-center observational cohort study, 150 patients underwent computed tomographic angiography for evaluation of coronary atherosclerosis (total, noncalcified, mixed/calcified, and low-attenuation plaque); 101 had repeat assessments within a mean ± SD of 6.9 ± 0.3 years to evaluate plaque progression. All CVD events were prospectively recorded, including cardiac death, myocardial infarction, unstable angina, revascularization, stroke, claudication, and hospitalization for heart failure. The Framingham-D'Agostino score was used to assess cardiovascular risk. The segment stenosis score was used to measure plaque burden. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated.ResultsAfter adjustment for the segment stenosis score, the Framingham-D'Agostino score, and time-varying Disease Activity Score in 28 joints using the C-reactive protein level using marginal structural models, current biologic DMARD use was associated with lower long-term CVD risk (OR 0.15 [95% CI 0.04-0.60]). Noncalcified and low-attenuation plaque presence moderated the effect of biologic DMARDs on CVD risk; specifically, biologic DMARD use was associated with lower CVD risk in patients with noncalcified or low-attenuation plaque at baseline (OR 0.21 [95% CI 0.04-0.99] and OR 0.08 [95% CI 0.01-0.70], respectively), but not in those without noncalcified or low-attenuation plaque. Per-segment plaque progression analyses showed that biologic DMARD exposure was associated with transition of noncalcified to mixed/calcified plaque (OR 4.00 [95% CI 1.05-15.32]). Biologic DMARD exposure predicted a lower likelihood of new plaque forming in segments without plaque among patients without mixed/calcified plaque in other coronary segments (OR 0.40 [95% CI 0.17-0.93]), but not among those with calcification. Biologic DMARD treatment also predicted low-attenuation plaque loss (P = 0.042).ConclusionOur findings indicate that in RA, biologic DMARD use is associated with reduced CVD risk, protective calcification of noncalcified lesions, and lower likelihood of new plaque formation in patients with early atherosclerosis

Microbial Challenges to Extending Usage of Rio Grande River Water

Despite its critical role in agriculture and potable water supply for the region, few studies have evaluated the microbial quality of the Rio Grande River, especially for the parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia. Cryptosporidium and Giardia cause diarrheal illness and have been responsible for numerous waterborne and foodborne disease outbreaks. Cryptosporidiosis, the disease caused by Cryptosporidium, may be fatal in people with weakened immune systems and there is currently no effective treatment for the disease. During the irrigation season, water is released from upstream reservoirs and the river water is used by El Paso as a potable supply. During the non-irrigation season (October through February), river flows are comprised of agricultural return flows and wastewater treatment plant effluents. Due to recent drought conditions in the region, winter return flows in the El Paso area are largely wastewater effluents. Our monitoring results revealed that winter return flows contain 5 and 100 times higher average levels of Cryptosporidium and Giardia, respectively, than irrigation season river water. Recently, research has been proposed to evaluate the use of winter return flows for potable supply and irrigation. Conventional filtration and disinfection followed by nanofiltration or reverse osmosis have been proposed for treatment of the water to remove total dissolved solids and microorganisms. Besides Cryptosporidium and Giardia, viruses may also be present in wastewater effluents. Therefore, in addition to chemical quality issues, these microbial water quality challenges must be overcome before this underutilized water resource can be put to beneficial use

The Role of Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor (MIF) in Apoptotic Extracellular Vesicle Mediated Signaling in Breast Cancer

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp21/1208/thumbnail.jp

What’s Your CQ? A Framework to Assess and Develop Individual Student Cultural Intelligence

This article’s goal is to provide suggestions for teaching students about culture and cultural intelligence. This article pursues this goal by first exploring and defining culture and presenting the nuances and challenges of teaching students about culture in an environment supportive of multiple cultures (e.g., national, regional, local, corporate, etc.). Finally, the article concludes with a discussion of a cultural intelligence development process consisting of a cultural intelligence pre assessment and feedback, cultural intelligence transformation activities, and a cultural intelligence post assessment and feedback

Displacement sensing using bi-modal resonance in over-coupled inductors

This paper presents the theory and key experimental findings for an investigation into the generation of bimodal resonance (frequency splitting) phenomena in mutually over-coupled inductive sensors, and its exploitation to evaluate relative separation and angular displacement between coils. This innovative measurement technique explores the bimodal resonant phenomena observed between two coil designs - solenoid and planar coil geometries. The proposed sensors are evaluated against first-order analytical functions and finite element models, before experimentally validating the predicted phenomenon for the different sensor configurations. The simulated and experimental results show excellent agreement and first-order best-fit functions are employed to predict displacement variables experimentally. Co-planar separation and angular displacement are shown to be experimentally predictable to within $\pm1mm$ and $\pm1^o$ using this approach. This study validates the first-order physics-based models employed, and demonstrates the first proof-of-principle for using resonant phenomena in inductive array sensors for evaluating relative displacement between array elements

Displacement sensing using bi-modal resonance in over-coupled inductors

This paper presents the theory and key experimental findings for an investigation into the generation of bimodal resonance (frequency splitting) phenomena in mutually over-coupled inductive sensors, and its exploitation to evaluate relative separation and angular displacement between coils. This innovative measurement technique explores the bimodal resonant phenomena observed between two coil designs - solenoid and planar coil geometries. The proposed sensors are evaluated against first-order analytical functions and finite element models, before experimentally validating the predicted phenomenon for the different sensor configurations. The simulated and experimental results show excellent agreement and first-order best-fit functions are employed to predict displacement variables experimentally. Co-planar separation and angular displacement are shown to be experimentally predictable to within $\pm1mm$ and $\pm1^o$ using this approach. This study validates the first-order physics-based models employed, and demonstrates the first proof-of-principle for using resonant phenomena in inductive array sensors for evaluating relative displacement between array elements

Attentional bias towards threat in sexually victimized Hispanic women: A dot probe study

Objective: The current study examined attention bias toward threat in Hispanic college women exposed to lifetime sexual victimization in childhood, adulthood, and both childhood and adulthood. Response latencies and attention bias scores were compared between victimized and non-victimized individuals. Design: Participants were 20 women exposed to adulthood sexual victimization (AS group), 15 exposed to childhood sexual victimization (CS group), 8 exposed to both childhood and adulthood sexual assault (revictimization: RV group), and 20 not endorsing sexual victimization (NS group). They were asked to complete the dot-probe task. Results: The CS group and RV group were combined to create the CS-RV group. Among the AS and CS-RV groups, response latencies were faster when attention was engaged to threat than when attention was engaged to non-threat. The NS group did not demonstrate such differences. When response latencies were compared among the three groups, the CS-RV group had slower response latencies than the NS group. The CS-RV and AS groups revealed similarly significantly elevated bias scores towards threat words than the NS group. Conclusion: Hispanic college women exposed to lifetime sexual victimization display elevated levels of attention bias compared to non-victimized women. Further, the current findings align with an integrative cognitive model for explaining maladaptive informational processing in trauma victims

Attitude Control System for a Balloon Based Telescope

The Balloon Experimental Twin Telescope for Infrared Interferometry (BETTII) is an 8-meter interferometer which operates on a high-altitude balloon. BETTII had its first successful engineering flight in June 2017. In this paper we discuss the design of the control system for BETTII, which includes the coarse pointing loop and the estimator controls algorithm (Extended Kalman Filter) implemented in FPGA. We will also discuss the different system modes that we defined in the controls system loop, which are used in different phases of the flight and are activated in order to acquire a target star in the science detector. The pointing loop uses different sensors and actuators in each phase to keep pointing at the desired target. The main sensors aregyroscopes, star cameras, and auxiliary sensors such as high-altitude GPS and magnetometers. The azimuth control is achieved with Compensated Controlled Moment Gyros (CCMG) and a Momentum Dump motor. For the elevation control, high-precision motors are used, which change the elevation of the siderostat mirrors. The combination of these instruments keep the baseline oriented within few arcseconds from the target star.In this paper, we will also present the software architecture relevant to the control system. This includes the description of the two flight computers present on the payload and the different control loops that are executed on them. Similarly, we will explain the importance of synchronization between all the sensors and actuators, which have to be referenced to a single master clock in order to obtain science data