Search

We present results from testing a multi-modal sensor system (consisting of a camera, LiDAR, and positioning system) for real-time object detection and geolocation. The system’s eventual purpose is to assess damage and detect foreign objects on a disrupted airfield surface to reestablish a minimum airfield operating surface. It uses an AI to detect objects and generate bounding boxes or segmentation masks in data acquired with a high-resolution area scan camera. It locates the detections in the local, sensor-centric coordinate system in real time using returns from a low-cost commercial LiDAR system. This is accomplished via an intrinsic camera calibration together with a 3D extrinsic calibration of the camera- LiDAR pair. A coordinate transform service uses data from a navigation system (comprising an inertial measurement unit and global positioning system) to transform local coordinates of the detections obtained with the AI and calibrated sensor pair into earth-centered coordinates. The entire sensor system is mounted on a pan-tilt unit to achieve 360-degree perception. All data acquisition and computation are performed on a low SWAP-C system-on-module that includes an integrated GPU. Computer vision code runs real-time on the GPU and has been accelerated using CUDA. We have chosen Robot Operating System (ROS1 at present but porting to ROS2 in the near term) as the control framework for the system. All computer vision, motion, and transform services are configured as ROS nodes.

Resistance to androgen receptor (AR) targeting therapeutics in prostate cancer (PC) is a significant clinical problem. Mechanisms by which this is accomplished include AR amplification and expression of AR splice variants, demonstrating that AR remains a key therapeutic target in advanced disease. For the first time we show that IKBKE drives AR signalling in advanced PC. Significant inhibition of AR regulated gene expression was observed upon siRNA-mediated IKBKE depletion or pharmacological inhibition due to inhibited AR gene expression in multiple cell line models including a LNCaP derivative cell line resistant to the anti-androgen, enzalutamide (LNCaP-EnzR). Phenotypically, this resulted in significant inhibition of proliferation, migration and colony forming ability suggesting that targeting IKBKE could circumvent resistance to AR targeting therapies. Indeed, pharmacological inhibition in the CWR22Rv1 xenograft mouse model reduced tumour size and enhanced survival. Critically, this was validated in patient-derived explants where enzymatic inactivation of IKBKE reduced cell proliferation and AR expression. Mechanistically, we provide evidence that IKBKE regulates AR levels via Hippo pathway inhibition to reduce c-MYC levels at cis-regulatory elements within the AR gene. Thus, IKBKE is a therapeutic target in advanced PC suggesting repurposing of clinically tested IKBKE inhibitors could be beneficial to castrate resistant PC patients.

Our aim was to explain how female clerical workers manage work-related distress, using a feminist grounded theory method. Thirty-seven interviews were conducted with 24 female clerical workers. They engage in the process of gauging visibility to manage a recognition-vulnerability paradox. To gauge visibility, they take the lay of the land by attending to threats, resources, and supports within withering or flourishing work conditions. When distressing events occur, they select tactics of taking it in, taking it on, or letting it go, which are influenced by the quality of their work conditions. Their efforts to manage distress affect their workplace visibility, potentially enhancing their recognition or exacerbating their vulnerability. Gauging visibility can either diminish or enhance employees' health and well-being. Our findings emphasize social processes and structural conditions, shift attention to organization-wide efforts to alter workplace conditions, and suggest initiatives that enhance employees' opportunities for recognition, safety, and collective actions.

Purpose To compare rim area rates in patients with and without the visual field (VF) progression endpoint in the Canadian Glaucoma Study and determine whether intraocular pressure (IOP) reduction following the endpoint altered rim area rate. Design Prospective multicenter cohort study. Methods setting: University hospitals. patient population: Two hundred and six patients with open-angle glaucoma were examined at 4-month intervals with standard automated perimetry and confocal scanning laser tomography. intervention: After the endpoint, IOP was reduced by ≥20%. outcome measures: Univariate analysis for change in rim area rate and multivariable analysis to adjust for independent covariates (eg, age, sex, and IOP). Results Patients with an endpoint (n = 59) had a worse rim area rate prior to the endpoint compared to those without (n = 147; median [interquartile range]: −14 [−32, 11] × 10 −3 mm 2 /y and −5 [−14, 5] × 10 −3 mm 2 /y, respectively, P = .02). In univariate analysis, there was no difference in rim area rate before and after the endpoint (median difference [95% CI], 8 (−10, 24) × 10 −3 mm 2 /y), but the muItivariate analysis showed that IOP reduction >2 mm Hg after the endpoint was strongly linked to a reduction in rim area rate decline (8 × 10 −3 mm 2 /y for each additional 1 mm Hg reduction). Conclusions Patients with a VF endpoint had a median rim area rate that was nearly 3 times worse than those without an endpoint. Lower mean follow-up IOP was independently associated with a slower decline in rim area.

This study used discourse analysis to explore the way in which employees understand work stress. Twenty-two female clerical workers in a Canadian city participated in focus group meetings where they talked about and made sense of their experiences of work stress. The women's accounts were analysed using discourse analysis methods (i.e. an examination of how talk is constructed). The findings revealed that talking about being stressed provides a socially acceptable way of expressing discomfort and regaining a sense of importance that is lost through feeling under-valued and under-appreciated in the organization. In contrast, admitting to being unable to cope with stress was considered to be ‘abnormal’. The stress discourse fosters a sense of helplessness and ambiguity by not acknowledging external influences on clerical workers’ experiences, such as their place within the power structure of the organization, and by limiting their sense of agency and control over problems experienced at work. The i...

Multidisciplinary research teams that include faculty, students, and volunteers can be challenging and enriching for all participants. Although such teams are becoming commonplace, minimal guidance is available about strategies to enhance team effectiveness. In this article, the authors highlight strategies to guide qualitative teamwork through coordination of team members and tasks based on mutual adjustment. Using a grounded theory exemplar, they focus on issues of (a) building the team, (b) developing reflexivity and theoretical sensitivity, (c) tackling analytic and methodological procedures, and (d) developing dissemination guidelines. Sharing information, articulating project goals and elements, acknowledging variation in individual goals, and engaging in reciprocity and respectful collaboration are key elements of mutual adjustment. The authors summarize conclusions about the costs and benefits of the process.

Many current measures of eating disorder (ED) symptoms have 1 or more serious limitations, such as inconsistent factor structures or poor discriminant validity. The goal of this study was to overcome these limitations through the development of a comprehensive multidimensional measure of eating pathology. An initial pool of 160 items was developed to assess 20 dimensions of eating pathology. The initial item pool was administered to a student sample (N = 433) and community sample (N = 407) to determine the preliminary structure of the measure using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The revised measure was administered to independent samples of patients recruited from specialty ED treatment centers (N = 158), outpatient psychiatric clinics (N = 303), and students (N = 227). Analyses revealed an 8-factor structure characterized by Body Dissatisfaction, Binge Eating, Cognitive Restraint, Excessive Exercise, Restricting, Purging, Muscle Building, and Negative Attitudes Toward Obesity. Scale scores showed excellent convergent and discriminant validity; other analyses demonstrated that the majority of scales were invariant across sex and weight categories. Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory scale scores had excellent internal consistency (median coefficient alphas ranged from .84-.89) and reliability over a 2- to 4-week period (mean retest r = .73). The current study represents one of the most comprehensive scale development projects ever conducted in the field of EDs and will enhance future basic and treatment research focused on EDs.

Caribbean elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, has been decimated in recent years, resulting in the listing of this species as threatened under the United States Endangered Species Act. A major contributing factor in the decline of this iconic species is white pox disease. In 2002, we identified the faecal enterobacterium, Serratia marcescens, as an etiological agent for white pox. During outbreaks in 2003 a unique strain of S. marcescens was identified in both human sewage and white pox lesions. This strain (PDR60) was also identified from corallivorious snails (Coralliophila abbreviata), reef water, and two non-acroporid coral species, Siderastrea siderea and Solenastrea bournoni. Identification of PDR60 in sewage, diseased Acropora palmata and other reef invertebrates within a discrete time frame suggests a causal link between white pox and sewage contamination on reefs and supports the conclusion that humans are a likely source of this disease.

Organochlorines (OC) are a common class of pesticides known as endocrine disruptors in humans. OC pesticides are known to modify the effects of estrogen and testosterone and may act as agonists or antagonists or have mixed effects in the microenvironment of tissues. The pathway to pesticide (xenobiotic) elimination from the body is a multi-step process resulting in excretion of contaminants through the urine or bile. The first step involves oxidation which is primarily carried out by the Phase I enzyme family, cytochrome P450 (CYP), and is typically an activating reaction creating a more polar byproduct. The second step involves conjugation with an endogenous ligand through a Phase II enzyme family, glutathione-S-transferase (GST), and is typically a detoxifying reaction. The goals of this study have been to determine the association between exposure to OC pesticides and risk of a hormone-dependent cancer (breast or prostate) in the Hispanic population of the intensely agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. Our case-control study involves the use of DNA samples consented from 42 Hispanic female participants and 180 Hispanic male participants and assesses single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in select xenobiotic-metabolizing genes utilizing three different molecular strategies. For female samples, we found no association between the GSTM1 null polymorphism and breast cancer risk in this sample (O.R. = 0.99, 95% CI=0.28, 3.51), but did find a doubling in breast cancer risk among those women who carried the null polymorphism for GSTT1 (O.R. = 2.21, 95% CI=0.39, 12.63). In females, two CYP1B1 polymorphisms (codon 119 Ala/Ser and codon 432 Val/Leu) were also genotyped. While no association in breast cancer risk for codon 119 (O.R. = 0.77, 95% CI=0.14, 3.70) was found, we did find elevated risk of breast cancer (O.R. 2.33, 95% CI= 0.64, 8.54) at codon 432 (Val>Leu) suggesting that women carrying the Val CYP1B1 allele had higher risk than those women with the Leu/Leu genotype. Due to the small sample population, Odds Ratios are deemed statistically unstable and thus one must be prudent in drawing firm conclusions. Analyses of male samples are ongoing. This study indicates that it is feasible to identify, trace, consent and recruit female and male Hispanic participants in the San Joaquin Valley of California who have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer or prostate cancer for future interventional studies. Citation Format: Yesenia Ibarra, Malika Sahni, Kathryn Patterson, Jessica Borba, Jason A. Bush, Paul K. Mills. Polymorphism analyses in specific xenobiotic-metabolizing genes of Hispanic farmworkers from the San Joaquin Valley with hormone-dependent cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B20. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-B20

There is considerable evidence linking cumulative and sustained exposure to estrogens as a key promoter of breast tumor proliferation. Chemicals with estrogenic activity can bind to the estrogen receptor (ER) to affect downstream signaling of estrogen-responsive genes. Organochlorines are a class of chemical pesticides that can act as xenoestrogens to disrupt normal endocrine function. Mitochondria play a significant role in maintenance of energy regulation and cellular detoxification and mitochondrial DNA is sensitive to levels of estrogen. Some members of the Estrogen Related Receptor (ERR) family are known to interact with hypoxia inducible factors to modulate mitochondrial response through the mTOR pathway which is pivotal to cell homeostasis and cellular detoxification. This study investigates the link between two organochlorine pesticides, Methoxychlor and Toxaphene, and the cellular effects by examining the hypothesis that exposure induces differential molecular pathways. Two breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 (ER+) and MDA-MB-231 (ER-), and a normal breast epithelial cell line MCF-10A are used as a model to evaluate the response to Methoxychlor and Toxaphene treatment. Cytotoxicity studies established different sensitivities of the two breast cancer cell lines to pesticides. MCF-7 was more sensitive to both pesticides, which supports the premise that organochlorines may be acting as endocrine disruptors. Furthermore, pesticide-resistant clones of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 were established and compared to their sensitive counterparts. RNA was collected from cells treated in a hypoxic environment, cells treated with a high dose pesticide, and cells that had a co-treatment of hypoxia and pesticide for evaluation of ERR, hypoxic factor expression, and markers of mTOR pathway. Flow cytometry, RT-PCR and immunoblotting demonstrated that treatment affected mitosis and mitochondrial function and we found that ERR and hypoxic factor expression changed in a similar manner suggesting a common mechanism by pesticide treatment or hypoxic conditions. These results provide a basis for understanding specific pesticide-induced molecular mechanisms and their possible relationship to ER+ and ER- mammary epithelial biology. Citation Format: Kathryn Patterson, Julie Hale, Jason Bush. Evaluation of pesticide involvement in breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1698. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-1698

In the wild-type phage lambda, binding of CI to O(R)2 helps polymerase bound to P(RM) transition from a closed to open complex. Activators on other promoters increase the polymerase-DNA binding energy, or affect both the binding energy and the closed-open transition probability. Using a validated mathematical model, we show that these two modes of upregulation have very different effects on the promoter function. We predict that if CI(2) bound to O(R)2 produced equal increase in RNAP-DNA binding constant (compared to wild-type increase in the closed-open transition probability), the lysogen would be significantly less stable.