Demographic differences in access to health/therapeutic services over first year of the pandemic: a SPARK COVID-19 impact survey analysis.

Introduction: This analysis examined changes in services received and service recovery one-year post-pandemic compared to pre-pandemic levels in children with ASD aged between 19 months and 17 years in various subgroups based on factors such as age, income, race/ethnicity, geographic location, and sex. Methods: An online, parent report survey was completed by the parents of children with ASD in the SPARK study cohort (N = 6,393). Descriptive statistics, chi-square analyses, and Spearman correlations were performed to study associations between various factors and service access, pre-pandemic and one-year, post-pandemic. Results: One year after pandemic, the lag in service recovery in children with ASD was greatest for PT/OT services followed by SLT. ABA services only recovered in half of the subgroups. In contrast, SES fully recovered and MH and MED services superseded pre-pandemic levels. Across majority of the timepoints, younger children received more SLT, PT/OT, and ABA services whereas older children received more SES, MH, and MED services. Higher income families accessed more SES, SLT, and ABA whereas lower income families received more MH services. White families received less SLT compared to non-white families. Hispanic families received more SLT services compared to non-Hispanic families. Compared to rural families, urban families received more ABA services at baseline which also recovered one year after the pandemic. Certain counterintuitive findings may be attributed to home/remote schooling leading to reduced access to related services. Conclusions: Future research and policy changes are needed to address the American healthcare vulnerabilities when serving children with ASD by enhancing the diversity of healthcare formats for continued service access during future pandemics and other similar crises.

Development of a selective and differential medium for capsulated Lactococcus garvieae.

A selective and differential medium termed 'LG agar' was developed for the isolation and presumptive identification of Lactococcus garvieae that results in black colonies with red halos. In this study, all 14 strains of L. garvieae and only 9 of the 148 strains representing 38 other species were able to grow on the LG agar. The nine viable strains on LG agar plates (including Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Lactococcus lactis, Vibrio fluvialis, Vibrio furnissii, Vibrio mimicus and Vibrio salmonicida) were further differentiated from L. garvieae by various colours or colony features. Colonies isolated from the mixing culture and the infected giant sea perch using LG agar plates were all positively identified as L. garvieae by conventional tests and 16S rDNA sequencing. Furthermore, LG agar discriminated capsulated strains of L. garvieae, which were believed to be correlated with pathogens of fish and shellfish, from non-capsulated ones by colony appearances. The specificity and differentiating ability of LG agar suggest that this medium displays considerable potential for primary isolation and presumptive identification of L. garvieae from pathological and environmental samples.

Force-induced optical nonlinearity and Kerr-like coefficient in opto-mechanical ring resonators.

This paper demonstrates the optical nonlinearity in opto-mechanical ring resonators that consist of a bus waveguide and two ring resonators, which is induced by the optical gradient force and characterized by the Kerr-like coefficient. Each ring resonator has a free-hanging arc that is perpendicularly deformable by an optical gradient force and subsequently this deformation changes the effective refractive index (ERI) of the ring resonator. The change of the ERI induces optical nonlinearity into the system, which is described by an equivalent Kerr coefficient (Kerr-like coefficient). Based on the experimental results, the Kerr-like coefficient of the ring resonator system falls in the range from 7.64 × 10(-12) to 2.01 × 10(-10) m(2)W(-1), which is at least 6-order higher than the silicon's Kerr coefficient. The dramatically improved optical nonlinearity in the opto-mechanical ring resonators promises potential applications in low power optical signal processing, modulation and bio-sensing.

Transformation optofluidics for large-angle light bending and tuning.

Transformation optics is a new art of light bending by designing materials with spatially variable parameters for developing wave-manipulation devices. Here, we introduce a transformation optofluidic Y-branch splitter with large-angle bending and tuning based on the design of a spatially variable index. Differing from traditional splitters, the optofluidic splitter is achieved in an inhomogeneous medium by coordinate transformation. The designed bidirectional gradient index (GRIN) distribution can be achieved practically by the convection-diffusion process of liquid flowing streams. The transformation optofluidic splitter can achieve a much larger split angle with little bend loss than the traditional ones. In the experiments, a large tunable split angle up to 30° is achieved by tuning the flow rates, allowing optical signals to be freely transferred to different channels. Besides the symmetrical branch splitting, asymmetrical Y-branch splitting with approximately equal power splitting is also demonstrated by changing the composition of the liquids. The optofluidic splitter has high potential applications in biological, chemical and biomedical solution measurement and detection.

A nano-opto-mechanical pressure sensor via ring resonator.

This paper reports a nano-opto-mechanical pressure sensor based on nano-scaled ring resonator. The pressure is measured through the output spectrum shift which is induced via mechanical deformation of the ring resonator. The sensitivity as high as 1.47 pm/kPa has been experimentally achieved which agrees with numerical prediction. Due to the strong variation of sensitivity with different ring radius and thickness of the diaphragm, the pressure sensor can be used to form an array structure to detect the pressure distribution in highly accurate measurement with low-cost advantages. The nano-opto-mechanical pressure sensor has potential applications such as shear stress displacement detection, pressure wave detector and pressure mapping etc.

A selective and differential medium for Vibrio alginolyticus.

In this paper, we present a selective and differential medium, termed Vibrio alginolyticus (VAL) agar, developed for the isolation and identification of V. alginolyticus. The presence of bile salts, high salinity and high incubation temperature allows the selective growth of moderately halophilic Vibrio species. Differentiation of bacteria is achieved by identifying species capable of sucrose fermentation, made visible by the pH indicator bromocresol purple. In this study, all of the 26 strains of V. alginolyticus and only three of the 99 strains representing 30 species (including 19 Vibrio species) other than V. alginolyticus were able to grow in the VAL medium. The remaining three strains could be further differentiated from V. alginolyticus according to colour or the diameter of colonies produced on VAL agar plates. Colonies isolated from shellfish rearing water and infected shrimp through the use of VAL agar plates were all positively identified as V. alginolyticus by conventional tests and 16S rDNA sequencing. The testing of specificity and differentiation capability of VAL shows the potential of the agar as a medium for the primary isolation of V. alginolyticus from pathological and environmental samples.

Depletion of glutathione by buthionine sulfoxine is cytotoxic for human neuroblastoma cell lines via apoptosis.

Buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) selectively inhibits glutathione (GSH) synthesis and has been used to sensitize tumor cells to alkylating agents, but has minimal single-agent cytotoxicity for most cell types. We determined the cytotoxicity of BSO for 18 (12 MYCN amplified; 6 MYCN nonamplified) human neuroblastoma cell lines using DIMSCAN, a digital image microscopy cytotoxicity assay. D-L(R:S) BSO was highly cytotoxic (>3 logs of cell kill) for most neuroblastoma cell lines, with 17/18 cell lines having IC90 values (range 2. 1->1000 microM) below equivalent steady state plasma levels of L(R:S) BSO reported in adult human trials. Cell lines with genomic amplification of MYCN were more sensitive to BSO than MYCN nonamplified cell lines (P = 0.04). D-L(R:S) BSO (500 microM for 72 h) induced apoptosis as detected by DNA laddering, nuclear morphology, and TUNEL staining of DNA fragments using flow cytometry. Maximal cell killing occurred within 48 h and was antagonized byic value in neuroblastoma.

Inhibition of platelet-derived growth factor and epidermal growth factor receptor signaling events after treatment of cells with specific synthetic inhibitors of tyrosine kinase phosphorylation.

The receptor kinase activity associated with the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) receptor plays an important role in ligand-induced signaling events. The effect of specific, synthetic chemical inhibitors of PDGF- and EGF-mediated receptor tyrosine autophosphorylation on receptor signaling were examined in NIH 3T3 cells overexpressing PDGF or EGF receptors. Specific inhibition of ligand-dependent receptor autophosphorylation, PI3K activation, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation, cyclin E-associated kinase activity and cell proliferation was measured after treatment of cells with these inhibitors. A synthetic PDGF receptor kinase inhibitor exhibited specific inhibitory properties when tested for PDGF-induced receptor autophosphorylation, MAPK activity, PI3K activation, entry into S phase and cyclin E-associated kinase activity. A synthetic EGF receptor kinase inhibitor showed selective inhibitor properties when tested for EGF-induced receptor autophosphorylation, MAPK activation, PI3K activation, entry into S phase and cyclin E-associated kinase activity. In both cases, these compounds were found to be effective as inducers of growth arrest and accumulation of cells in the G1 phase of the cell cycle after ligand treatment. However, at high concentrations, the EGF receptor kinase inhibitor was observed to exhibit some nonspecific effects as demonstrated by attenuation of PDGF-induced receptor autophosphorylation and cell cycle progression. This demonstrates that it is critical to use the lowest concentration of such an inhibitor that will alter the response under investigation, to have confidence that the conclusions derived from the use of such inhibitor are valid. We conclude that these experimental parameters signify useful end points to measure the relative selectivity of tyrosine kinase inhibitors that affect receptor-mediated signal transduction.