As coastal communities around the globe contend with the impacts of climate change including coastal hazards such as sea level rise and more frequent coastal storms, educating stakeholders and the ...general public has become essential in order to adapt to and mitigate these risks. Communicating SLR and other coastal risks is not a simple task. First, SLR is a phenomenon that is abstract as it is physically distant from many people; second, the rise of the sea is a slow and temporally distant process which makes this issue psychologically distant from our everyday life. Virtual reality (VR) simulations may offer a way to overcome some of these challenges, enabling users to learn key principles related to climate change and coastal risks in an immersive, interactive, and safe learning environment. This article first presents the literature on environmental issues communication and engagement; second, it introduces VR technology evolution and expands the discussion on VR application for environmental literacy. We then provide an account of how three coastal communities have used VR experiences developed by multidisciplinary teams—including residents—to support communication and community outreach focused on SLR and discuss their implications.
Los Angeles (LA) County's coastal areas are highly valued for their natural benefits and their economic contributions to the region. While LA County already has a high level of exposure to flooding ...(e.g. people, ports, and harbors), climate change and sea level rise will increase flood risk; anticipating this risk requires adaptation planning to mitigate social, economic, and physical damage. This study provides an overview of the potential effects of sea level rise on coastal LA County and describes adaptation pathways and estimates associated costs in order to cope with sea level rise. An adaptation pathway in this study is defined as the collection of measures (e.g., beach nourishment, dune restoration, flood‐proofing buildings, and levees) required to lower flood risk. The aim of using different adaptation pathways is to enable a transition from one methodology to another over time. These pathways address uncertainty in future projections, allowing for flexibility among policies and potentially spreading the costs over time. Maintaining beaches, dunes, and their natural dynamics is the foundation of each of the three adaptation pathways, which address the importance of beaches for recreation, environmental value, and flood protection. In some scenarios, owing to high projections of sea level rise, additional technical engineering options such as levees and sluices may be needed to reduce flood risk. The research suggests three adaptation pathways, anticipating a +1 ft (0.3 m) to +7 ft (+2 m) sea level rise by year 2100. Total adaptation costs vary between $4.3 and $6.4 bn, depending on measures included in the adaptation pathway.
Most high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) patients develop resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy and recur, but 15% remain disease free over a decade. To discover drivers of long-term ...survival, we quantitatively analyzed the proteomes of platinum-resistant and -sensitive HGSOC patients from minute amounts of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumors. This revealed cancer/testis antigen 45 (CT45) as an independent prognostic factor associated with a doubling of disease-free survival in advanced-stage HGSOC. Phospho- and interaction proteomics tied CT45 to DNA damage pathways through direct interaction with the PP4 phosphatase complex. In vitro, CT45 regulated PP4 activity, and its high expression led to increased DNA damage and platinum sensitivity. CT45-derived HLA class I peptides, identified by immunopeptidomics, activate patient-derived cytotoxic T cells and promote tumor cell killing. This study highlights the power of clinical cancer proteomics to identify targets for chemo- and immunotherapy and illuminate their biological roles.
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•Clinical proteomics workflow for the analysis of archived tumor samples•Cancer/testis antigen 45 enhances chemosensitivity in metastatic ovarian cancer•CT45 is a novel protein phosphatase 4 regulator linked to DNA damage signaling•CT45 derived peptides bind HLA-I receptors and activate cytotoxic T cells
Integrative proteomic analysis in clinical tumor samples identifies a platinum sensitivity regulator and immunotherapy target for ovarian cancer and illustrates the clinical potential of cancer proteomics.
•C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice with chronic pain show mechanical hypersensitivity.•CFA-treated C57BL/6J show a decrease in distance traveled but not DBA/2J mice.•Paclitaxel-treated female C57BL/6J mice ...show a reduction of wheel running activity.•CCI gradually decreases the distance traveled in C57BL/6J mice.•This study helps better understand genetic differences underlying pain perception.
Patients with chronic pain report decreased general activity and emotional distress. Therefore, the development of various animal models that encompass different aspects of pain are crucial for the discovery of genetic differences and the assessment of novel analgesics to improve quality of life. C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice received unilateral intraplantar injections of 100 % CFA, paclitaxel, or CCI surgery to compare their distance traveled in a voluntary wheel running assay, paw edema diameter, and mechanical sensitivity. Mechanical withdrawal thresholds were lower in both strains of mice that received CFA when compared to their vehicle. However, a decrease in distance traveled was observed in CFA-treated C57BL/6J but not DBA/2J mice. In a separate group, chemotherapy agent paclitaxel 8 mg/kg, i.p. was administered to both strains of mice to induce CIPN which was confirmed by lower mechanical thresholds in paclitaxel-treated mice compared to vehicle-treated mice. Only female C57BL/6J mice showed attenuation of distance traveled following treatment, whereas male C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice did not. Lastly, C57BL/6J mice underwent chronic constriction injury (CCI) or sham surgery to observe the impact of another chronic neuropathic pain model in wheel running assay. CCI mice showed a gradual decrease in mechanical withdrawal threshold and a decrease in distance traveled compared to sham 5 days following the procedure. Comparing these chronic inflammatory and neuropathic pain models in different mouse strains may help us better understand genetic differences underlying pain perception and its impact on reflexive and nonreflexive outcome measures.
•Observational analysis of real-world treatment patterns and overall survival.•Median overall survival was 8.3–12.7 months.•There is a continued unmet treatment need in this population.
Metastatic ...urothelial carcinoma (mUC) treated with chemotherapy is associated with poor survival; however, as the field of immuno-oncology continues to evolve, new immunotherapies have recently become available. The current study aimed to assess real-world characteristics, treatment patterns, and overall survival (OS) of patients with mUC treated in the United States (US).
We conducted a retrospective, observational analysis of patients with mUC from the Flatiron Health longitudinal database from 2011 to 2017. Treatment patterns of patients who started systemic first-line therapy (1 L cohort) or second-line therapy following platinum-based first-line therapy (2 L cohort) were described using medication order and administration data. Kaplan-Meier analyses were used to assess OS from the start of first- and second-line therapy in the 1 L and 2 L cohorts, respectively.
A total of 1811 patients qualified for the 1 L cohort (median age range, 72 32–84 years); 476 met the criteria for the 2 L cohort (median age range, 71 40–84 years). The most common first- and second-line therapies were carboplatin + gemcitabine (n = 562 34.6%) and atezolizumab (n = 90 13.1%), respectively, in the 1 L cohort. Median OS was 12.7 months (95% confidence interval CI 11.8, 13.4) in the 1 L cohort and 8.3 months (95% CI 7.2, 8.9) in the 2 L cohort.
Consistent with clinical trial results, survival was poor in this real-world study in patients with mUC, indicating a continued unmet need. As immunotherapy becomes more commonplace in the treatment of mUC, future studies are needed to understand its real-world impact on survival.
The Holocene, starting approximately 11.7 cal ka, is characterized by distinct periods of warming and cooling. Despite these known climate events, few temperature proxy data exist in the northwestern ...Atlantic Ocean. One potential record of past water temperatures is preserved in the marine fossil record. Shell growth of ocean quahogs (Arctica islandica), a long-lived bivalve, can provide records of past environmental conditions. Arctica islandica habitat includes the Mid-Atlantic Bight (MAB), an area rapidly warming as a consequence of climate change. The Cold Pool, a bottom-trapped water mass on the outer continental shelf within the MAB, rarely rises above 15°C. Ocean quahogs inhabiting the MAB are confined to the Cold Pool as a consequence of an upper thermal limit for the species of ~15–16°C. Recently, dead A. islandica shells were discovered outside of the species’ present-day range, suggesting that the Cold Pool once extended further inshore than now observed. Shells collected off the Delmarva Peninsula were radiocarbon-dated to identify the timing of habitation and biogeographic range shifts. Dead shell ages range from 4400 to 60 cal BP, including ages representing four major Holocene cold events. Nearly absent from this record are shells from the intermittent warm periods. Radiocarbon ages indicate that ocean quahogs, contemporaneous with the present MAB populations, were living inshore of their present-day distribution during the past 200 years. This overlap suggests the initiation of a recent biogeographic range shift that occurred as a result of a regression of the Cold Pool following the Little Ice Age.
Systematic Review of Women Veterans' Mental Health Runnals, Jennifer J., PhD; Garovoy, Natara, PhD, MPH; McCutcheon, Susan J., RN, EdD ...
Women's health issues,
09/2014, Letnik:
24, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Abstract Background Given recent, rapid growth in the field of women veterans' mental health, the goal of this review was to update the status of women veterans' mental health research and to ...identify current themes in this literature. The scope of this review included women veterans' unique mental health needs, as well as gender differences in veterans' mental health needs. Methods Database searches were conducted for relevant articles published between January 2008 and July 2011. Searches were supplemented with bibliographic reviews and consultation with subject matter experts. Findings The database search yielded 375 titles; 32 met inclusion/exclusion criteria. The women veterans' mental health literature crosses over several domains, including prevalence, risk factors, health care utilization, treatment preferences, and access barriers. Studies were generally cross-sectional, descriptive, mixed-gender, and examined Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care users from all service eras. Results indicate higher rates of specific disorders (e.g., depression) and comorbidities, with differing risk factors and associated medical and functional impairment for female compared with male veterans. Although satisfaction with VA health care is generally high, unique barriers to care and indices of treatment satisfaction exist for women. Conclusions There is a breadth of descriptive knowledge in many content areas of women veterans' mental health; however, the research base examining interventional and longitudinal designs is less developed. Understudied content areas and targets for future research and development include certain psychiatric disorders (e.g., schizophrenia), the effects of deployment on woman veterans' families, and strategies to address treatment access, attrition, and provision of gender-sensitive care.
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