Exercise-based interventions have established benefits for the treatment of depression and other psychological outcomes; however, limited data exist evaluating psychological, social, and functional ...outcomes for exercise outdoors.
The current study sought to expand knowledge about the breadth of effects following outdoor exercise interventions by using data from a randomized control trial comparing Surf and Hike Therapy among 96 U.S. active duty service members with major depressive disorder (MDD). Assessments examining psychological symptoms and functioning were completed before and after the 6-week programs, and 3 months following program completion. Participants also completed assessments before and after each exercise session. Multilevel modeling was used to determine whether psychological and functional outcomes (anxiety, positive and negative affect, resilience, pain, and physical and social functioning) improved for service members receiving Surf or Hike Therapy, and whether improvements differed by intervention.
Study findings showed improved anxiety (
< 0.001), negative affect (
< 0.001), psychological resilience (
= 0.013), and social functioning (
< 0.001) following program participation, with no differences by intervention. Positive affect, pain, and physical functioning did not significantly improve after the program. Within sessions, positive affect (
< 0.001) and pain (
= 0.036) changed, and to a greater extent for those in the Surf Therapy condition.
Study results suggest that both Surf Therapy and Hike Therapy can improve psychological symptoms and social functioning impairments that commonly co-occur among service members with MDD, but Surf Therapy may provide enhanced immediate effects on positive affect and pain.
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03302611.
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) herald tremendous promise for the production of clinically useful cell types for the treatment of injury and disease. Numerous reports demonstrate their ...differentiation into definitive endoderm (DE) cells, the germ layer from which pancreatic β cells and hepatocytes arise, solely from exposure to a high dose of recombinant Activin/Nodal. We show that combining a second related ligand, BMP4, in combination with Activin A yields 15%–20% more DE as compared with Activin A alone. The addition of recombinant BMP4 accelerates the downregulation of pluripotency genes, particularly SOX2, and results in upregulation of endogenous BMP2 and BMP4, which in turn leads to elevated levels of phospho‐SMAD1/5/8. Combined Activin A and BMP4 treatment also leads to an increase in the expression of DE genes CXCR4, SOX17, and FOXA2 when compared with Activin A addition alone. Comparative microarray studies between DE cells harvested on day 3 of differentiation further reveal a novel set of genes upregulated in response to initial BMP4 exposure. Several of these, including APLNR, LRIG3, MCC, LEPREL1, ROR2, and LZTS1, are expressed in the mouse primitive streak, the site of DE formation. Thus, this synergism between Activin A and BMP4 during the in vitro differentiation of hESC into DE suggests a complex interplay between BMP and Activin/Nodal signaling during the in vivo allocation and expansion of the endoderm lineage. STEM CELLS 2012; 30:631–642
Robust Quantization for Polycube Maps Protais, F.; Reberol, M.; Ray, N. ...
Computer Aided Design/Computer-aided design,
September 2022, 2022-09-00, 20220901, 2022-09-01, Letnik:
150, Številka:
103321
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
An important part of recent advances in hexahedral meshing focuses on the deformation of a domain into a polycube; the polycube deformed by the inverse map fills the domain with a hexahedral mesh. ...These methods are appreciated because they generate highly regular meshes. In this paper we address a robustness issue that systematically occurs when a coarse mesh is desired: algorithms produce deformations that are not one-to-one, leading to collapse of large portions of the model when trying to apply the (undefined) inverse map. The origin of the problem is that the deformation requires to perform a mixed integer optimization, where the difficulty to enforce the integer constraints is directly tied to the expected coarseness. Our solution is to introduce sanity constraints preventing the loss of bijectivity due to the integer constraints.
Display omitted
•Provides a new approach to robustly extract hexahedral meshes from Polycube-maps.•A valid block structure can be simply and efficiently deduced from a Polycube-map.•As coarse-as-possible block structure can be extracted, guaranteeing no loss of geometric features.
The transcriptional network acting downstream of LIF, WNT and MAPK-ERK to stabilize mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in their naive state has been extensively characterized. However, the upstream ...factors regulating these three signaling pathways remain largely uncharted. PR-domain-containing proteins (PRDMs) are zinc-finger sequence-specific chromatin factors that have essential roles in embryonic development and cell fate decisions. Here we characterize the transcriptional regulator PRDM15, which acts independently of PRDM14 to regulate the naive state of mouse ESCs. Mechanistically, PRDM15 modulates WNT and MAPK-ERK signaling by directly promoting the expression of Rspo1 (R-spondin1) and Spry1 (Sprouty1). Consistent with these findings, CRISPR-Cas9-mediated disruption of PRDM15-binding sites in the Rspo1 and Spry1 promoters recapitulates PRDM15 depletion, both in terms of local chromatin organization and the transcriptional modulation of these genes. Collectively, our findings uncover an essential role for PRDM15 as a chromatin factor that modulates the transcription of upstream regulators of WNT and MAPK-ERK signaling to safeguard naive pluripotency.
Telemedicine delivered from primary care practices became widely available for children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Focusing on children with a usual source of care, we aimed to examine factors ...associated with use of primary care telemedicine.
In February 2022, we surveyed parents of children aged ≤17 years on the AmeriSpeak panel, a probability-based panel of representative US households, about their children's telemedicine use. We first compared sociodemographic factors among respondents who did and did not report a usual source of care for their children. Among those reporting a usual source of care, we used Rao-Scott F tests to examine factors associated with parent-reported use versus nonuse of primary care telemedicine for their children.
Of 1206 respondents, 1054 reported a usual source of care for their children. Of these respondents, 301 of 1054 (weighted percentage 28%) reported primary care telemedicine visits for their children. Factors associated with primary care telemedicine use versus nonuse included having a child with a chronic medical condition (87/301, weighted percentage 27% vs 113/753, 15%, respectively; P=.002), metropolitan residence (262/301, weighted percentage 88% vs 598/753, 78%, respectively; P=.004), greater internet connectivity concerns (60/301, weighted percentage 24% vs 116/753, 16%, respectively; P=.05), and greater health literacy (285/301, weighted percentage 96% vs 693/753, 91%, respectively; P=.005).
In a national sample of respondents with a usual source of care for their children, approximately one-quarter reported use of primary care telemedicine for their children as of 2022. Equitable access to primary care telemedicine may be enhanced by promoting access to primary care, sustaining payment for primary care telemedicine, addressing barriers in nonmetropolitan practices, and designing for lower health-literacy populations.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Telemedicine is the use of telecommunication technology to remotely provide healthcare services. Evaluation of telemedicine use often relies on administrative data, but the validity of identifying ...telemedicine encounters in administrative data is not known. The objective of this study was to assess the accuracy of billing codes for identifying telemedicine use.
In this retrospective study of encounters within a large integrated health system from January 2016 to December 2017, we examined the accuracy of billing codes for identifying live-interactive and store-and-forward telemedicine encounters compared to manual chart review. To further examine external validity, we applied these codes and assessed patient and visit characteristics for identified live-interactive telemedicine encounters and store-and-forward telemedicine encounters in a second data set.
In manual review of 390 encounters, 75 encounters were live-interactive telemedicine and 158 were store-and-forward telemedicine. In weighted analysis, the presence of the GT modifier in the absence of the GQ modifier or CPT code 99444 yielded 100% sensitivity and 99.99% specificity for identification of live-interactive telemedicine encounters. The presence of either the GQ modifier or the CPT code 99444 had 100% sensitivity and 100% specificity for identification of store-and-forward telemedicine encounters. Applying these algorithms to a second data set (n = 5,917,555) identified telemedicine encounters with expected patient and visit characteristics.
These findings provide support for use of CPT codes to perform telemedicine research in administrative data, aiding ongoing work to understand the role of non-face-to-face care in optimizing health care delivery.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
CEKLJ, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Osteosarcomas are copy number alteration (CNA)-rich malignant bone tumors. Using microarrays, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and quantitative PCR, we characterize a focal region of chr3q13.31 ...(osteo3q13.31) harboring CNAs in 80% of osteosarcomas. As such, osteo3q13.31 is the most altered region in osteosarcoma and contests the view that CNAs in osteosarcoma are nonrecurrent. Most (67%) osteo3q13.31 CNAs are deletions, with 75% of these monoallelic and frequently accompanied by loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in flanking DNA. Notably, these CNAs often involve the noncoding RNAs LOC285194 and BC040587 and, in some cases, a tumor suppressor gene that encodes the limbic system-associated membrane protein (LSAMP). Ubiquitous changes occur in these genes in osteosarcoma, usually involving loss of expression. Underscoring their functional significance, expression of these genes is correlated with the presence of osteo3q13.31 CNAs. Focal osteo3q13.31 CNAs and LOH are also common in cell lines from other cancers, identifying osteo3q13.31 as a generalized candidate region for tumor suppressor genes. Osteo3q13.31 genes may function as a unit, given significant correlation in their expression despite the great genetic distances between them. In support of this notion, depleting either LSAMP or LOC285194 promoted proliferation of normal osteoblasts by regulation of apoptotic and cell-cycle transcripts and also VEGF receptor 1. Moreover, genetic deletions of LOC285194 or BC040587 were also associated with poor survival of osteosarcoma patients. Our findings identify osteo3q13.31 as a novel region of cooperatively acting tumor suppressor genes.
Background and purpose: The purpose of this research was to understand the experiences of pre-service teachers in a service-learning program. The research questions that guided this research were: ...(1) How does an after-school service-learning program that utilizes pre-service teachers develop students' pedagogy? (2) What are the experiences of pre-service teachers teaching in low SES schools through a service-learning approach?
Methods: During the 2016-2017 school year, nine pre-service physical education students took part in a service-learning program. The REACH program was a free after-school physical education and literacy program for 5th and 6th grade students at a low SES school. This program consisted of two-hour sessions, twice per week, for 30-weeks starting in the Fall and ending in the Spring. Data consisted of interviews, pre-service teachers' journals, researcher journals, and researcher field notes. In total, 500 pages of data were analyzed using the constant comparative technique. Two researchers independently coded these data and a peer reviewer then separately reviewed the data and findings.
Results: Three themes emerged from the data analysis. Theme 1 - Developing pedagogies in real-world settings. Theme 2 - Connecting with students and learning how to manage behavior. Theme 3 - Teaching in a low SES school: A wake-up call.
Conclusions and implications: Pre-service teachers in this study were able to practice their pedagogy in a real-world environment and gain valuable experience in developing classroom and behavior management skills. The REACH program provides a model for a service-learning approach where pre-service students can practice and refine their teaching skills through extended involvement in an after-school program that served students in a low SES community.
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