Age-related reductions in whole brain mass and telencephalon volume in very old white Carneau pigeons (Columba livia).

While studies have identified age-related cognitive impairment in pigeons (Columba livia), no study has detected the brain atrophy which typically accompanies cognitive impairment in older mammals. Instead, Coppola and Bingman (Aging is associated with larger brain mass and volume in homing pigeons (Columba livia), Neurosci. Letters 698 (2019) 39-43) reported increased whole brain mass and telencephalon volume in older, compared to younger, homing pigeons. One reason for this unexpected finding might be that the older pigeons studied were not old enough to display age-related brain atrophy. Therefore, the current study repeated Coppola and Bingman, but with a sample of older white Carneau pigeons that were on average 5.34 years older. Brains from young and old homing pigeons were weighed and orthogonal measurements of the telencephalon, cerebellum, and optic tectum were obtained. Despite having a heavier body mass than younger pigeons, older pigeons had a significant reduction in whole brain mass and telencephalon volume, but not cerebellum or optic tectum volume. This study is therefore the first to find that pigeons experience age-related brain atrophy.

Aggregation of Charge Acceptors on Nanocrystal Surfaces Alters Rates of Photoinduced Electron Transfer.

Semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) interfaced with molecular ligands that function as charge and energy acceptors are an emerging platform for the design of light-harvesting, photon-upconverting, and photocatalytic materials. However, NC systems explored for these applications often feature high concentrations of bound acceptor ligands, which can lead to ligand-ligand interactions that may alter each system's ability to undergo charge and energy transfer. Here, we demonstrate that aggregation of acceptor ligands impacts the rate of photoinduced NC-to-ligand charge transfer between lead(II) sulfide (PbS) NCs and perylenediimide (PDI) electron acceptors. As the concentration of PDI acceptors is increased, we find the average electron transfer rate from PbS to PDI ligands decreases by nearly an order of magnitude. The electron transfer rate slowdown with increasing PDI concentration correlates strongly with the appearance of PDI aggregates in steady-state absorption spectra. Electronic structure calculations and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations suggest PDI aggregation slows the rate of electron transfer by reducing orbital overlap between PbS charge donors and PDI charge acceptors. While we find aggregation slows electron transfer in this system, the computational models we employ predict ligand aggregation could also be used to speed electron transfer by producing delocalized states that exhibit improved NC-molecule electronic coupling and energy alignment with NC conduction band states. Our results demonstrate that ligand aggregation can alter rates of photoinduced electron transfer between NCs and organic acceptor ligands and should be considered when designing hybrid NC:molecule systems for charge separation.

Evaluating the Effect of Dye-Dye Interactions of Xanthene-Based Fluorophores in the Fluorosequencing of Peptides.

A peptide sequencing scheme utilizing fluorescence microscopy and Edman degradation to determine the amino acid position in fluorophore-labeled peptides was recently reported, referred to as fluorosequencing. It was observed that multiple fluorophores covalently linked to a peptide scaffold resulted in a decrease in the anticipated fluorescence output and worsened the single-molecule fluorescence analysis. In this study, we report an improvement in the photophysical properties of fluorophore-labeled peptides by incorporating long and flexible (PEG)10 linkers at the peptide attachment points. Long linkers to the fluorophores were installed using copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition conditions. The photophysical properties of these peptides were analyzed in solution and immobilized on a microscope slide at the single-molecule level under peptide fluorosequencing conditions. Solution-phase fluorescence analysis showed improvements in both quantum yield and fluorescence lifetime with the long linkers. While on the solid support, photometry measurements showed significant increases in fluorescence brightness and 20 to 60% improvements in the ability to determine the amino acid position with fluorosequencing. This spatial distancing strategy demonstrates improvements in the peptide sequencing platform and provides a general approach for improving the photophysical properties in fluorophore-labeled macromolecules.

Evaluation of a method to measure fluorescent cell burden in complex culture systems.

Purpose. This work introduces and evaluates a method for accurate in-vitro measurement of fluorescent cell burden in complex 3D-culture conditions.Methods.The Fluorescent Cell Burden (FCB) method was developed to analyze the burden of 4T1 mCherry-expressing cells grown in an organotypic co-culture model of brain metastasis using 400µm rat brain slices. As a first step, representative simulated image-data accurately reflecting the 4T1 experimental data, but with known ground truth burden, were created. The FCB method was then developed in the CellProfiler software to measure the integrated intensity and area of the colonies in the simulated image data. Parameters in the pipeline were varied to span the experimentally observed range (e.g. of cell colony size) and the result compared with simulation ground truth to evaluate and optimize FCB performance. The optimized CellProfiler pipeline was then applied to the original 4T1 tumor cell images to determine colony growth with time, and re-applied with upper and lower bound parameters to determine uncertainty estimates.Results.The FCB method measured integrated intensity across 10 simulated images with an accuracy of 99.23% ± 0.75%. When colony density was increased by increasing colony number to 450, 600, and 750, the FCB measurement was 98.68%, 100.9%, 97.6% and 113.5% of the true value respectively. For the increasing number of cells plated on the rat brain slices, the integrated intensity increased nearly linearly with cell count except for at high cell counts, where it is hypothesized that shadowing from clumped cells causes a sub-linear relationship.Conclusion. The FCB method accurately measured an integrated fluorescent light intensity to within 5% of ground truth for a wide range of simulated image data spanning the range of observed variability in experimental data. The method is readily customizable to in-vitro studies requiring estimation of fluorescent tumor cell burden.

Using Spectator Ligands to Enhance Nanocrystal-to-Molecule Electron Transfer.

Semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) have emerged as promising photocatalysts. However, NCs are often functionalized with complex ligand shells that contain not only charge acceptors but also other "spectator ligands" that control NC solubility and affinity for target reactants. Here, we show that spectator ligands are not passive observers of photoinduced charge transfer but rather play an active role in this process. We find the rate of electron transfer from quantum-confined PbS NCs to perylenediimide acceptors can be varied by over a factor of 4 simply by coordinating cinnamate ligands with distinct dipole moments to NC surfaces. Theoretical calculations indicate this rate variation stems from both ligand-induced changes in the free energy for charge transfer and electrostatic interactions that alter perylenediimide electron acceptor orientation on NC surfaces. Our work shows NC-to-molecule charge transfer can be fine-tuned through ligand shell design, giving researchers an additional handle for enhancing NC photocatalysis.

Combination of two analytical techniques improves wine classification by Vineyard, Region, and vintage.

Three important wine parameters: vineyard, region, and vintage year, were evaluated using fifteen Vitis vinifera L. 'Pinot noir' wines derived from the same scion clone (Pinot noir 667). These wines were produced from two vintage years (2015 and 2016) and eight different regions along the Pacific Coast of the United States. We successfully improved the classification of the selected Pinot noir wines by combining an untargeted 1D 1H NMR analysis with a targeted peptide based differential sensing array. NMR spectroscopy was used to evaluate the chemical fingerprint of the wines, whereas the peptide-based sensing array is known to mimic the senses of taste, smell, and palate texture by characterizing the phenolic profile. Multivariate and univariate statistical analyses of the combined NMR and differential sensing array dataset classified the genetically identical Pinot noir wines on the basis of distinctive metabolic signatures associated with the region of growth, vineyard, and vintage year.

Mechanistic Analysis of Solid-State Colorimetric Switching: Monoalkoxynaphthalene-Naphthalimide Donor-Acceptor Dyads.

There is growing interest in creating solids that are responsive to various stimuli. Herein we report the first molecular-level mechanistic picture of the thermochromic polymorphic transition in a series of MAN-NI dyad crystals that turn from orange to yellow upon heating with minimal changes to the microscopic morphology following the transition. Detailed structural analyses revealed that the dyads assemble to create an alternating bilayer type structure, with horizontal alternating alkyl and stacked aromatic layers in both the orange and yellow forms. The observed dynamic behavior in the solid state moves as a yellow wavefront through the orange crystal. The overall process is critically dependent on a complex interplay between the layered structure of the starting crystal, the thermodynamics of the two differently colored forms, and similar densities of the two polymorphs. Upon heating, the orange form alkyl chain layers become disordered, allowing for some lateral diffusion of dyads within their own layer. Moving to either adjacent stack in the same layer allows a dyad to exchange a head-to-head stacking geometry (orange) for a head-to-tail stacking geometry (yellow). This transition is unique in that it involves a nucleation and growth mechanism that converts to a faster cooperative wavefront mechanism during the transition. The fastest moving of the wavefronts have an approximately 38° angle with respect to the long axis of the crystal, corresponding to a nonconventional C-H···O hydrogen bond network of dyad molecules in adjacent stacks that enables a transition with cooperative character to proceed within layers of orange crystals. The orange-to-yellow transition is triggered at a temperature that is very close to the temperature at which the orange and yellow forms exchange as the more stable, while being lower than the melting temperature of the original orange, or final yellow, solids.

Translating Research into Agile Development (TRIAD): Development of Electronic Health Record Tools for Primary Care Settings.

OBJECTIVES: This article describes a method for developing electronic health record (EHR) tools for use in primary care settings. METHODS: The "Translating Research into Agile Development" (TRIAD) method relies on the close collaboration of researchers, end users, and development teams. This five-step method for designing a tailored EHR tool includes (1) assessment, observation, and documentation; (2) structured engagement for collaboration and iterative data collection; (3) data distillation; (4) developmental feedback from clinical team members on high-priority EHR needs and input on design prototypes and EHR functionality; and (5) agile scrum sprint cycles for prototype development. RESULTS: The TRIAD method was used to modify an existing EHR for behavioral health clinicians (BHCs) embedded with primary care teams, called the BH e-Suite. The structured engagement processes stimulated discussions on how best to automate BHC screening tools and provide goal tracking functionality over time. Data distillation procedures rendered technical documents, with information on workflow steps, tasks, and associated challenges. In the developmental feedback phase, BHCs gave input on screening assessments, scoring needs, and other functionality to inform prototype feature development. Six 2-week sprint cycles were conducted to address three domains of prototype development: assessment and documentation needs, information retrieval, and monitoring and tracking. The BH e-Suite tool resulted with eight new EHR features to accommodate BHCs' needs. CONCLUSION: The TRIAD method can be used to develop EHR functionality to address the evolving needs of health professionals in primary care and other settings. The BH e-Suite was developed through TRIAD and was found to be acceptable, easy to use, and improved care delivery during pilot testing. The BH e-Suite was later adopted by OCHIN Inc., which provided the tool to its 640 community health centers. This suggests that the TRIAD method is a promising research and development approach.

Pesticide removal through wastewater and advanced treatment: full-scale sampling and bench-scale testing.

Dieldrin and DDx removal through wastewater treatment, ozonation, and microfiltration was assessed for a water reuse project for groundwater replenishment in Monterey, California, USA. Full-scale sampling was conducted at the wastewater treatment plant, and physical wastewater treatment processes, ozonation, and microfiltration were tested at the bench scale. Removals observed through wastewater treatment, ozonation, and microfiltration were 84%, 44% to 63%, and 97% to 98%, respectively, for dieldrin, and 93%, 36% to 48%, and 92% to 94% for DDx. These were sufficient to meet California Ocean Plan water quality objectives after wastewater treatment alone. Levels in the secondary effluent, ahead of ozonation, microfiltration, reverse osmosis and advanced oxidation in the advanced water purification facility, met drinking water standards. Removal of dieldrin and DDx through wastewater treatment occurred by physical treatment processes; removal through the full-scale wastewater treatment plant, which included biological and physical treatment processes, matched removal through the physical bench-scale wastewater treatment processes. Dieldrin and DDx removal correlated with removal of volatile suspended solids, suggesting that volatile suspended solids could be used as an indicator for pesticide removal through wastewater treatment. Dieldrin and DDx concentrations were highest in the solids contact process, where biomass is accumulated for carbon removal.

Health care clinicians' engagement in organizational redesign of care processes: The importance of work and organizational conditions.

The Swedish health care system is reorienting towards horizontal organization for care processes. A main challenge is to engage health care clinicians in the process. The aim of this study was to assess engagement (i.e. attitudes and beliefs, the cognitive state and clinical engagement behaviour) among health care clinicians, and to investigate how engagement was related to work resources and demands during organizational redesign. A cohort study was conducted, using a questionnaire distributed to clinicians at five hospitals working with care process improvement approaches, two of them having implemented Lean production. The results show that kinds of engagement are interlinked and contribute to clinical engagement behaviour in quality of care and patient safety. Increased work resources have importance for engagements in organizational improvements, especially in top-down implementations. An extended work engagement model during organizational improvements in health care was supported. The model contributes to knowledge about how and when clinicians are mobilized to engage in organizational changes.

Primary peritonitis due to group A Streptococcus in a previously healthy pediatric patient.

Primary peritonitis remains a rare disease in otherwise healthy children, with group A Streptococcus (GAS) being a particularly unusual cause. A case involving a 14-year-old girl, who presented with an 'acute abdomen' and was taken to the operating room for urgent laparoscopy, is reported. Abdominal and pelvic structures were only minimally inflamed, as was the appendix. Peritoneal fluid and blood cultures both grew pure cultures of GAS. The patient's course was complicated by streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. She fortunately made a full recovery. The present report highlights the diagnostic and treatment dilemmas associated with GAS primary peritonitis.

La péritonite primaire demeure une maladie rare chez un enfant autrement en santé, et le streptocoque du groupe A (SGA) en est une cause particulièrement inhabituelle. Les auteurs présentent le cas d'une fille de 14 ans qui a consulté en raison d'un « abdomen aigu ¼ et a dû subir une laparoscopie d'urgence en salle d'opération. Les structures abdominale et pelvienne, de même que l'appendice, étaient peu enflammées. Le liquide péritonéal et les prélèvements sanguins ont tous deux permis d'obtenir des cultures pures de SGA. L'évolution de la patiente a été compliquée par un syndrome de choc toxique streptococcique. Heureusement, elle s'est entièrement rétablie. Le présent rapport souligne les dilemmes diagnostiques et thérapeutiques associés à la péritonite primaire à SGA.

Centralised urban stormwater harvesting for potable reuse.

Urban impervious areas provide a guaranteed source of runoff, especially in cities with high rainfall - this represents a source of water with low sensitivity to unfavourable climate change. Whilst the potential to reuse stormwater has long been recognised, its quality has largely limited usage to non-potable applications requiring the use of a third-pipe network, a prohibitively expensive option in established urban areas. Given recent advances in membrane filtration, this study investigates the potential of harvesting and treating stormwater to a potable standard to enable use of the potable distribution network. A case study based on the Throsby Creek catchment in Newcastle explores the issue. The high seasonally uniform rainfall provides insight into the maximum potential of such an option. Multicriterion optimisation was used to identify Pareto optimal solutions for harvesting, storing and treating stormwater. It is shown that harvesting and treating stormwater from a 13 km² catchment can produce yields ranging from 8.5 to 14.2 ML/day at costs ranging from AU$2.60/kL to AU$2.89/kL, which may become viable as the cost of traditional supply continues to grow. However, there are significant social impacts to deal with including alienation of public land for storage and community acceptance of treated stormwater.

The centrosome in neuronal development.

Establishment of polarity is an essential process during proliferation, migration and differentiation in neurons, and the signaling pathways leading to polarization of the cytoskeleton are topics of intense research. One key marker for cell polarity is the centrosome, also known as the microtubule-organizing center. Recent discoveries have shown that the position of the centrosome is precisely regulated during neurogenesis, migration and differentiation, leading to the segregation of cell fate factors, efficient nucleokinesis and directed neurite outgrowth, respectively. Here, we review recent advances in the understanding of this interesting organelle and propose a model whereby centrosome position, determined by extracellular factors, directs multiple aspects of neuronal development.

A human factors engineering paradigm for patient safety: designing to support the performance of the healthcare professional.

The goal of improving patient safety has led to a number of paradigms for directing improvement efforts. The main paradigms to date have focused on reducing injuries, reducing errors, or improving evidence based practice. In this paper a human factors engineering paradigm is proposed that focuses on designing systems to improve the performance of healthcare professionals and to reduce hazards. Both goals are necessary, but neither is sufficient to improve safety. We suggest that the road to patient and employee safety runs through the healthcare professional who delivers care. To that end, several arguments are provided to show that designing healthcare delivery systems to support healthcare professional performance and hazard reduction should yield significant patient safety benefits. The concepts of human performance and hazard reduction are explained.

A clinical evaluation of ophthalmic assessment in children with sensori-neural deafness.

BACKGROUND: Since 1991, children with sensori-neural deafness and their families within Southern Derbyshire have been supported by a multiagency approach to their diagnosis and management. RESULTS: One hundred and twenty-two children were seen at the Child Development Centre for an holistic assessment, and 110 of these children have had an ophthalmic assessment, of whom 48 (43.6%) were found to have ophthalmic abnormalities. These included 43 children (39.1%) with refractive errors, ranging from mild to severe. Of 82 children with uncomplicated deafness, 26 (31.7%) had refractive errors. The prevalence of ophthalmic problems was higher than the prevalence in hearing school children in the literature and in local pre-school children. There were six cases of Usher syndrome. Twenty-one children had more than one eye defect. The findings indicate that deaf and hearing impaired children are two to three times more likely to develop ophthalmic abnormalities than their hearing peers, which makes early detection of paramount importance. An important local outcome has been the establishment of guidelines for ophthalmic assessment to include assessment of vision and screening for Usher syndrome by electro-physiological testing at aged 7 years and above. Screening has been completed to date in 78 children with congenital sensori-neural deafness. CONCLUSIONS: Sensitive and efficient ophthalmic assessment and management are essential for all deaf and hearing impaired children and national guidelines need to be established for both assessment of vision and screening for Usher syndrome, based on further evaluated research.

The use of surgical facemasks during cataract surgery: is it necessary?

AIM: To assess whether facemask utilisation by the surgeon during cataract surgery has any effect on the bacterial load falling onto the operative site. METHOD: Prospective randomised masked study. Consent was obtained from 221 patients. Cases were randomised to wearing a new mask or not wearing any mask throughout the procedure. Blood agar settle plates were placed adjacent to the patient's head in the operative field. Duration of procedure was noted. Plates were incubated and read at 48 hours. Colony forming bacteria were counted and identified. RESULTS: There were significantly fewer organisms cultured when the surgeon used a facemask (p=0.0006). The majority of organisms were Staphylococcus epidermidis, Bacillus spp, and Diphtheroid spp; however Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were cultured on several occasions. There were no cases of infective complication. CONCLUSIONS: The main purpose of an operating mask is to prevent bacteria falling on to the operative site from the surgeon's oropharynx or nasopharynx with the concomitant theoretical risk of infective complication. Operating masks were shown to have a significant effect on the volume of bacterial organisms falling to the operative site; however, whether this is clinically significant is unknown.

Coping, meaning in life, and suicidal manifestations: examining gender differences.

Life meaning and coping strategies were investigated as statistical predictors of suicidal manifestations in a sample of 298 university undergraduates. Participants completed measures of hopelessness, sense of coherence, purpose in life, coping for stressful situations, suicide ideation, prior suicide attempts, and self-reported likelihood of future suicidal behavior. Moderated multiple regression techniques examined the incremental validity of life meaning by coping interactions for predicting each suicide variable separately by gender. The interaction of sense of coherence and emotion-oriented coping made a unique, significant contribution to the statistical prediction of all suicide variables for women. For men, the interaction between sense of coherence and emotion-oriented coping contributed significantly to the statistical prediction of suicide ideation. All interactions remained significant when hopelessness was statistically controlled. The hypothesis that life meaning acts as a buffer between coping style and suicidal manifestations was partially supported. Implications for suicide prevention and intervention are discussed.

Associations between the Holden Psychological Screening Inventory and the Personality Assessment Screener in a nonclinical sample.

Associations between two screening inventories of psychopathology were investigated using a sample of 156 first-year undergraduates. Analyses supported the reliability and validity of all Holden Psychological Screening Inventory scales, but only of some of the Personality Assessment Screener scales. Orthogonal dimensions of Depression, General Distress, and Antisocial Tendencies represented the common latent structure of the two inventories.