INTERVIEW: KEITH MITCHELL Mitchell, Keith
Studia Universitatis Babeș-Bolyai. Philologia,
09/2022, Letnik:
67, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Q: Literary history, be it national, local, or regional, is perhaps the most conservative form of literary study, with many claiming that the method is outmoded. What can literary histories do to ...overcome both the risk of obsolescence and their inherent conservatism?A: One of the primary advances that literary history as an ideal and a practice can do is to become far more diverse than perhaps what it currently is. What I mean by this is that at the national, local, and regional level, literary history needs to be more inclusive in highlighting underrepresented writers and intellectuals. If we’re looking at periodization, within the field that I teach—American literature—I always include many diverse, underrepresented voices. I do so not only because of the importance of representation. I do so to emphasize that these underrepresented voices are always in dialogue with those writers who comprise the American literary canon.
High-temperature metal-organic magnets Gilroy, Joe B; Mitchell, Keith A. R; Jain, Rajsapan ...
Nature,
01/2007, Letnik:
445, Številka:
7125
Journal Article
Recenzirano
For over two decades there have been intense efforts aimed at the development of alternatives to conventional magnets, particularly materials comprised in part or wholly of molecular components. Such ...alternatives offer the prospect of realizing magnets fabricated through controlled, low-temperature, solution-based chemistry, as opposed to high-temperature metallurgical routes, and also the possibility of tuning magnetic properties through synthesis. However, examples of magnetically ordered molecular materials at or near room temperature are extremely rare, and the properties of these materials are often capricious and difficult to reproduce. Here we present a versatile solution-based route to a new class of metal-organic materials exhibiting magnetic order well above room temperature. Reactions of the metal (M) precursor complex bis(1,5-cyclooctadiene)nickel with three different organics A-TCNE (tetracyanoethylene), TCNQ (7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane) or DDQ (2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone)-proceed via electron transfer from nickel to A and lead to materials containing Ni(II) ions and reduced forms of A in a 2:1 Ni:A ratio-that is, opposite to that of conventional (low Curie temperature) MA2-type magnets. These materials also contain oxygen-based species within their architectures. Magnetic characterization of the three compounds reveals spontaneous field-dependent magnetization and hysteresis at room temperature, with ordering temperatures well above ambient. The unusual stoichiometry and striking magnetic properties highlight these three compounds as members of a class of stable magnets that are at the interface between conventional inorganic magnets and genuine molecule-based magnets.
The Neuroscience Monoclonal Antibody Sequencing Initiative (NeuroMabSeq) is a concerted effort to determine and make publicly available hybridoma-derived sequences of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) ...valuable to neuroscience research. Over 30 years of research and development efforts including those at the UC Davis/NIH NeuroMab Facility have resulted in the generation of a large collection of mouse mAbs validated for neuroscience research. To enhance dissemination and increase the utility of this valuable resource, we applied a high-throughput DNA sequencing approach to determine immunoglobulin heavy and light chain variable domain sequences from source hybridoma cells. The resultant set of sequences was made publicly available as a searchable DNA sequence database (neuromabseq.ucdavis.edu) for sharing, analysis and use in downstream applications. We enhanced the utility, transparency, and reproducibility of the existing mAb collection by using these sequences to develop recombinant mAbs. This enabled their subsequent engineering into alternate forms with distinct utility, including alternate modes of detection in multiplexed labeling, and as miniaturized single chain variable fragments or scFvs. The NeuroMabSeq website and database and the corresponding recombinant antibody collection together serve as a public DNA sequence repository of mouse mAb heavy and light chain variable domain sequences and as an open resource for enhancing dissemination and utility of this valuable collection of validated mAbs.
Historian Daniel S. Luck has noted in Selma to Saigon that “the civil rights movement and the debates over the Vietnam War were at the center of the turbulence of the 1960s” (1). While true, one also ...recognizes that the afterlives of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War are momentous historical events with which America continues to contend. Several African American writers of the post-civil rights/post-Vietnam era, including Percival Everett, have written works of fiction that continue to grapple with the afterlives of these cataclysmic historical events. Set in the American West, Everett’s 1985 novel Walk Me to the Distance finds its protagonist, David Larsen, a returning Vietnam veteran, at loose ends. David winds up stranded in a small, remote town, Slut's Hole, Wyoming, where he eventually decides to stay. His decision to settle in the West is as much influenced by his romanticization of life on the American Frontier as it is with his disgust for a rapidly changing country where he feels he no longer belongs. In this essay, I argue that Walk Me to the Distance is not only an astute meditation on Frontier Mythology and Frontier justice associated with the early settlement of the American West but also that the novel reveals that these foundational myths and ideas continue to be paradigmatic features of American culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
We examined the concerns that nurses perceive patients to have, whether these are congruent with patients' concerns and whether they vary according to cancer site. We also examined Distress ...Thermometer scores according to cancer site.
A cross-sectional survey design: (i) secondary analysis of an existing Holistic Needs Assessment (HNA) and Distress Thermometer (DT) dataset was used, (ii) a survey of specialist nurse teams to identify their perceptions of patient concerns. Data collected between January 2015 and June 2016 from the HNA database from one NHS Trust in England (n = 1233 patients). Specialist nurse teams for breast, colorectal, gynaecology, skin and urology cancers identified the concerns that they perceived their patients would report.
The HNA showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.86). Across the five cancer sites, nurses identified between 3 and 6 of the top ten concerns (TTC) expressed by patients, with wide variation across cancer sites. Nine of the TTC were significantly associated (p < 0.05) with a specific cancer site. The breast and gynaecological cancer groups both recorded significantly higher median Distress Thermometer scores than the urology, skin and colorectal cancer groups (Kruskall-Wallis χ2 (4, n = 1228) 186.695, p=<.01).
One of the aims of the eHNA is to enable service delivery appropriate to patient needs. Our findings suggest that this will only be achieved if eHNA is examined, and services developed, by individual cancer site. The misconception of patient needs by specialist nurses underscores the importance of review of information provided by patients during consultations.
•Nurses identified between 3 and 6 of the top ten concerns expressed by patients, with wide variation across sites.•The three top concerns were common across all five cancer sites.•The breast and gynaecological cancer groups both recorded significantly higher median Distress Thermometer scores.
Developing new software tools for analysis of large-scale biological data is a key component of advancing modern biomedical research. Scientific reproduction of published findings requires running ...computational tools on data generated by such studies, yet little attention is presently allocated to the installability and archival stability of computational software tools. Scientific journals require data and code sharing, but none currently require authors to guarantee the continuing functionality of newly published tools. We have estimated the archival stability of computational biology software tools by performing an empirical analysis of the internet presence for 36,702 omics software resources published from 2005 to 2017. We found that almost 28% of all resources are currently not accessible through uniform resource locators (URLs) published in the paper they first appeared in. Among the 98 software tools selected for our installability test, 51% were deemed "easy to install," and 28% of the tools failed to be installed at all because of problems in the implementation. Moreover, for papers introducing new software, we found that the number of citations significantly increased when authors provided an easy installation process. We propose for incorporation into journal policy several practical solutions for increasing the widespread installability and archival stability of published bioinformatics software.
Recent advancements in next-generation sequencing have rapidly improved our ability to study genomic material at an unprecedented scale. Despite substantial improvements in sequencing technologies, ...errors present in the data still risk confounding downstream analysis and limiting the applicability of sequencing technologies in clinical tools. Computational error correction promises to eliminate sequencing errors, but the relative accuracy of error correction algorithms remains unknown.
In this paper, we evaluate the ability of error correction algorithms to fix errors across different types of datasets that contain various levels of heterogeneity. We highlight the advantages and limitations of computational error correction techniques across different domains of biology, including immunogenomics and virology. To demonstrate the efficacy of our technique, we apply the UMI-based high-fidelity sequencing protocol to eliminate sequencing errors from both simulated data and the raw reads. We then perform a realistic evaluation of error-correction methods.
In terms of accuracy, we find that method performance varies substantially across different types of datasets with no single method performing best on all types of examined data. Finally, we also identify the techniques that offer a good balance between precision and sensitivity.
Improvements in high-throughput sequencing makes targeted amplicon analysis an ideal method for the study of human and environmental microbiomes by undergraduates. Multiple bioinformatics programs ...are available to process and interpret raw microbial diversity datasets, and the choice of programs to use in curricula is largely determined by student learning goals. Many of the most commonly used microbiome bioinformatics platforms offer end-to-end data processing and data analysis using a command line interface (CLI), but the downside for novice microbiome researchers is the steep learning curve often required. Alternatively, some sequencing providers include processing of raw data and taxonomy assignments as part of their pipelines. This, when coupled with available web-based or graphical user interface (GUI) analysis and visualization tools, eliminates the need for students or instructors to have extensive CLI experience. However, lack of universal data formats can make integration of these tools challenging. For example, tools for upstream and downstream analyses frequently use multiple different data formats which then require writing custom scripts or hours of manual work to make the files compatible. Here, we describe a microbial ecology bioinformatics curriculum that focuses on data analysis, visualization, and statistical reasoning by taking advantage of existing web-based and GUI tools. We created the Program for Unifying Microbiome Analysis Applications (PUMAA), which solves the problem of inconsistent files by formatting the output files from several raw data processing programs to seamlessly transition to a suite of GUI programs for analysis and visualization of microbiome taxonomic and inferred functional profiles. Additionally, we created a series of tutorials to accompany each of the microbiome analysis curricular modules. From pre- and post-course surveys, students in this curriculum self-reported conceptual and confidence gains in bioinformatics and data analysis skills. Students also demonstrated gains in biologically relevant statistical reasoning based on rubric-guided evaluations of open-ended survey questions and the Statistical Reasoning in Biology Concept Inventory. The PUMAA program and associated analysis tutorials enable students and researchers with no computational experience to effectively analyze real microbiome datasets to investigate real-world research questions.
Introduction
Chronic pain is a growing problem across the world, and in the midst of an opioid epidemic, it is imperative that alternative treatment measures are identified to help alleviate the pain ...experienced by these patients. Chronic pain greatly affects ones quality of life and many patients do not experience adequate relief with conventional treatment measures. The purpose of this retrospective analysis is to assess the efficacy of peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) therapy in adult patients suffering from chronic pain refractory to conventional treatment measures who underwent therapy on various anatomical locations.
Methods
This retrospective analysis consisted of data collected from electronic health records for
n
= 89 patients who underwent PNS therapy. Data collected relates to patient age, sex, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), diagnosis, targeted nerves, follow-up encounters, pain scores from before and after PNS therapy, and duration of improvement. Statistical analysis used SPSS software, version 26 (IBM), using a paired
t
test to assess significance between pre and post PNS therapy pain scores.
P
values were significant if found to be ≤ 0.05. Further analysis assessed the correlation between age and BMI with visual analog scale (VAS) pain improvement and subjective percentage pain relief.
Results
The mean pre-operative (pre-op) pain score before PNS therapy was 6.36 (standard deviation (SD) = 2.18, SEM = 0.23) and the mean post-operative (post-op) pain score after PNS therapy was 4.19 (SD = 2.70, SEM = 0.29). The mean patient-reported percent improvement in pain following PNS therapy was 49.04% (SD = 34.79). The improvement in pain scores between pre-op and post-op was statistically significant (M = 2.17, SD = 2.82, SEM = 0.30,
t
(88) = 7.26,
p
< .001), 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.57, 2.76. The mean duration of improvement for patients was 123 days after therapy initiation (min = 6, max = 683, SD = 126).
Conclusions
This study demonstrated the potential role for PNS therapy in improving patient-reported pain levels for various neuropathies, targeting various nerves. With PNS therapy’s use as a chronic pain treatment and available research being limited, further study needs to be done on the efficacy of PNS therapy for pain management and complications associated with PNS device placements at various locations.
Intercostal neuralgia is pain associated with the intercostal nerves along the rib, chest, and upper abdominal wall. Intercostal neuralgia has various etiologies, and current conventional treatment ...options include intercostal nerve blocks, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, topical medications, opioids, tricyclic antidepressants, and anticonvulsants. For a subset of patients, these conventional treatment options provide little relief. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is an emerging procedure for the treatment of chronic pain and neuralgias. Cooled RFA (CRFA) is a specific type of RFA that has been trialed as a treatment for intercostal neuralgia in patients refractory to conventional treatment modalities. This case series assesses the efficacy of CRFA for the treatment of intercostal neuralgia in 6 patients.
Three female and 3 male patients underwent CRFA of the intercostal nerves to treat intercostal neuralgia. The patients had an average age of 50.7 years and demonstrated an average pain reduction of 81.3%.
This case series suggests that CRFA may be an effective treatment option for patients with intercostal neuralgia that is not responsive to conservative treatment options. To determine the duration of pain improvement, large research studies need to be conducted.
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