Current analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is hindered by sub-optimal sensitivity and specificity of devices or assays as well as lack of capability of characterization of CTCs with clinical ...biomarkers. Here, we validate a novel technology to enrich and characterize CTCs from blood samples of patients with metastatic breast, prostate and colorectal cancers using a microfluidic chip which is processed by using an automated staining and scanning system from sample preparation to image processing. The Celsee system allowed for the detection of CTCs with apparent high sensitivity and specificity (94% sensitivity and 100% specificity). Moreover, the system facilitated rapid capture of CTCs from blood samples and also allowed for downstream characterization of the captured cells by immunohistochemistry, DNA and mRNA fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH). In a subset of patients with prostate cancer we compared the technology with a FDA-approved CTC device, CellSearch and found a higher degree of sensitivity with the Celsee instrument. In conclusion, the integrated Celsee system represents a promising CTC technology for enumeration and molecular characterization.
We investigated how varying seat tube angle (STA) and hand position affect muscle kinematics and activation patterns during cycling in order to better understand how triathlon-specific bike ...geometries might mitigate the biomechanical challenges associated with the bike-to-run transition. Whole body motion and lower extremity muscle activities were recorded from 14 triathletes during a series of cycling and treadmill running trials. A total of nine cycling trials were conducted in three hand positions (aero, drops, hoods) and at three STAs (73°, 76°, 79°). Participants also ran on a treadmill at 80, 90, and 100% of their 10-km triathlon race pace. Compared with cycling, running necessitated significantly longer peak musculotendon lengths from the uniarticular hip flexors, knee extensors, ankle plantar flexors and the biarticular hamstrings, rectus femoris, and gastrocnemius muscles. Running also involved significantly longer periods of active muscle lengthening from the quadriceps and ankle plantar flexors. During cycling, increasing the STA alone had no affect on muscle kinematics but did induce significantly greater rectus femoris activity during the upstroke of the crank cycle. Increasing hip extension by varying the hand position induced an increase in hamstring muscle activity, and moved the operating lengths of the uniarticular hip flexor and extensor muscles slightly closer to those seen during running. These combined changes in muscle kinematics and coordination could potentially contribute to the improved running performances that have been previously observed immediately after cycling on a triathlon-specific bicycle.
This phenomenological investigation explored the lived wellness experiences and perceptions of wellness promotion of doctoral level counseling trainees enrolled in CACREP-accredited programs. ...Participants included a national heterogeneous sample of 12 doctoral level counselor trainees currently enrolled in CACREP-accredited counseling programs. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted to provide a textural-structural description of doctoral students' lived wellness experiences and perceptions of wellness promotion while enrolled in a CACREP-accredited counseling program. Three structural codes including components of wellness, program culture, and recommendations were identified along with 13 textural codes throughout participant interviews. The findings of this study provide insight into wellness and wellness promotion within counselor education programs.
A provision was also written into the contract to allow workers to be paid for a full day's work in the event that management allow them to leave work early on eight specified holidays including ...Cinco de Mayo and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Although this is a supplementary benefit in addition to the nine paid holidays recognized in the contract, there is no guarantee that management will honor them. The union was able to maintain the $100 work boot stipend that management had tried to take from the employees and strengthened contract language regarding workers' rights to honor any and all picket lines. In a step toward more effective industrial organizing, the union obtained a contract expiration date aligned with expiration of the Ecology Center contract in December 2007. The Ecology Center is a curbside recycling collection company located in the same industrial yard as Community Conservation Centers; its workers have been represented by the IWW since 1988.
Management revealed yet again its disrespect for culturally relevant holidays. The IWW demanded recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Cinco de Mayo as paid holidays. In the past "Buy Back" ...workers have taken direct action to gain acknowledgement of MLK Day and Cinco de Mayo. During a heated moment in the bargaining session August 27, a red-faced Jeff Belchamber tried to strip workers of Malcolm X Day, Cesar Chavez Day, and Indigenous People's Day. "All the brown holidays," as Fellow Worker Harjit Gill noted. The struggle for full respect and acknowledgement of culturally significant holidays continues. In the end, workers decided to compromise on the holiday demands in exchange for gains in wages and health benefits. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Cinco de Mayo were not won in full, but will be recognized as holidays for which employees will be paid a full day's work if the company allows the crew to leave work early. In the new contract there will be eight such holidays recognized in this manner in addition to six recognized paid holidays and three floating holidays.
Giant kelp and bull kelp forests are increasingly at risk from marine heatwave events, herbivore outbreaks, and the loss or alterations in the behavior of key herbivore predators. The dynamic ...floating canopy of these kelps is well-suited to study via satellite imagery, which provides high temporal and spatial resolution data of floating kelp canopy across the western United States and Mexico. However, the size and complexity of the satellite image dataset has made ecological analysis difficult for scientists and managers. To increase accessibility of this rich dataset, we created Kelpwatch, a web-based visualization and analysis tool. This tool allows researchers and managers to quantify kelp forest change in response to disturbances, assess historical trends, and allow for effective and actionable kelp forest management. Here, we demonstrate how Kelpwatch can be used to analyze long-term trends in kelp canopy across regions, quantify spatial variability in the response to and recovery from the 2014 to 2016 marine heatwave events, and provide a local analysis of kelp canopy status around the Monterey Peninsula, California. We found that 18.6% of regional sites displayed a significant trend in kelp canopy area over the past 38 years and that there was a latitudinal response to heatwave events for each kelp species. The recovery from heatwave events was more variable across space, with some local areas like Bahía Tortugas in Baja California Sur showing high recovery while kelp canopies around the Monterey Peninsula continued a slow decline and patchy recovery compared to the rest of the Central California region. Kelpwatch provides near real time spatial data and analysis support and makes complex earth observation data actionable for scientists and managers, which can help identify areas for research, monitoring, and management efforts.
The climate and environmental significance of the Deccan Traps large igneous province of west-central India has been the subject of debate in paleontological communities. Nearly one million years of ...semi-continuous Deccan eruptive activity spanned the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, which is renowned for the extinction of most dinosaur groups. Whereas the Chicxulub impactor is acknowledged as the principal cause of these extinctions, the Deccan Traps eruptions are believed to have contributed to extinction patterns and/or enhanced ecological pressures on biota during this interval of geologic time. We present the first coupled records of biogenic carbonate clumped isotope paleothermometry and mercury concentrations as measured from a broad geographic distribution of marine mollusk fossils. These fossils preserve evidence of simultaneous increases in coastal marine temperatures and mercury concentrations at a global scale, which appear attributable to volcanic CO
and mercury emissions. These early findings warrant further investigation with additional records of combined Late Cretaceous temperatures and mercury concentrations of biogenic carbonate.
Background
Urethral sphincter mechanism incompetence (USMI) is a common problem in female dogs, but some dogs fail to achieve continence with standard treatment. Urethral submucosal injection of ...autologous skeletal muscle progenitor cells (skMPCs) previously has been shown to restore urethral function in a canine model of USMI.
Hypothesis/Objective
To determine if urethral submucosal injection of skMPC alters continence in dogs with USMI that had previously failed standard medical management. We hypothesized that the injections would lead to improved continence.
Animals
Fifteen client‐owned dogs with USMI that had failed standard medical management.
Methods
Dogs were prospectively enrolled into a single‐armed clinical trial. Once enrolled, a triceps muscle of each dog was biopsied; the tissue specimens were digested, cultured, and expanded to 100 million cells before injection into the urethral submucosa using a surgical approach. Continence was assessed at baseline and 3, 6, 12, and 24 months post‐injection using continence scores and urethral pressure profilometry.
Results
Median continence scores increased significantly from baseline at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. Increases were seen in 14 of 15 dogs with 7, 6 or 1 dog achieving scores of 5, 4 or 3, respectively. Additional medication was required to achieve continence in all but 2 dogs.
Conclusions and Clinical Importance
Urethral submucosal injection of skMPC can be used adjunctively to improve continence in dogs with difficult to manage USMI. The procedure is labor intensive but well tolerated; most dogs will require continued medication to remain continent.
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