Single high-energy arc proton therapy with Bragg peak boost (SHARP).

Introduction: Because of the co-location of critical organs at risk, base of skull tumours require steep dose gradients to achieve the prescribed dosimetric criteria. When available, proton beam therapy (PBT) is often considered a desirable modality for these cases, but in many instances, compromises in target coverage are still required to achieve critical organ at risk (OAR) tolerance doses. A number of techniques have been proposed to further improve the penumbra of PBT.

Dosimetric comparison of gantry and horizontal fixed-beam proton therapy treatment plans for base of skull chordoma.

Introduction: Australia's first proton beam therapy (PBT) centre will house a fixed-beam room and two gantry rooms. As the only PBT facility in Australia for at least the short term, there is a need to efficiently allocate treatment appointments between the gantry and fixed-beam rooms. This planning study assesses the dosimetric differences between fixed-beam and gantry-based treatment plans for base of skull chordoma, one of the core indications likely to be referred for PBT in Australia.

Direct SARS-CoV-2 infection of the human inner ear may underlie COVID-19-associated audiovestibular dysfunction.

Background: COVID-19 is a pandemic respiratory and vascular disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. There is a growing number of sensory deficits associated with COVID-19 and molecular mechanisms underlying these deficits are incompletely understood.

Methods: We report a series of ten COVID-19 patients with audiovestibular symptoms such as hearing loss, vestibular dysfunction and tinnitus.

Predictors of 30-Day Readmission After Inpatient Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography: A Single-Center Experience.

Introduction: The 30-day hospital readmission rate is a nationally recognized quality measure. Nearly one-fifth of medicare beneficiaries are hospitalized within 30 days of discharge, resulting in a cost of over $26 billion dollars annually. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) remains the endoscopic procedure with the highest risk of morbidity and mortality.

Globular cluster formation and evolution in the context of cosmological galaxy assembly: open questions.

We discuss some of the key open questions regarding the formation and evolution of globular clusters (GCs) during galaxy formation and assembly within a cosmological framework. The current state of the art for both observations and simulations is described, and we briefly mention directions for future research. The oldest GCs have ages greater than or equal to 12.

Mass-Discrepancy Acceleration Relation: A Natural Outcome of Galaxy Formation in Cold Dark Matter Halos.

We analyze the total and baryonic acceleration profiles of a set of well-resolved galaxies identified in the eagle suite of hydrodynamic simulations. Our runs start from the same initial conditions but adopt different prescriptions for unresolved stellar and active galactic nuclei feedback, resulting in diverse populations of galaxies by the present day. Some of them reproduce observed galaxy scaling relations, while others do not.

Stressors among Hispanic adults from immigrant families in the United States: Familismo as a context for ambivalence.

Objectives: Ongoing exposure to social stressors is widely believed to undermine the health of Hispanic immigrant families. The current work aims to explore and interpret expressions of familismo as a framework through which postimmigration experiences are interpreted and potentially given meaning.

Method: Qualitative data were obtained from 16 focus groups in California and Massachusetts (N = 93).

Can evolutionary design of social networks make it easier to be 'green'?

The social Web is swiftly becoming a living laboratory for understanding human cooperation on massive scales. It has changed how we organize, socialize, and tackle problems that benefit from the efforts of a large crowd. A new, applied, behavioral ecology has begun to build on theoretical and empirical studies of cooperation, integrating research in the fields of evolutionary biology, social psychology, social networking, and citizen science.

Correlates of mental health among Latino farmworkers in North Carolina.

Purpose: Latino farmworkers are a vulnerable population who confront multiple threats to their mental health. Informed by the stress-process model of psychiatric disorder, the goal of this paper is to determine primary and context-specific stressors of poor mental health among Latino farmworkers.

Methods: Structured interview data were obtained from farmworkers (N = 69) in 6 counties in eastern and western North Carolina.

Symptoms of heat illness among Latino farm workers in North Carolina.

Background: Symptoms of occupational heat illness provide an early warning that workers are in potentially life-threatening environmental conditions.

Purpose: This analysis was designed to assess the extent to which strategies to reduce the health impact of extreme heat were associated with the prevalence of heat illness among Latino farm workers.

Methods: Between June and September 2009, a total of 300 Latino men and women participated in a cross-sectional survey about farm worker health.

Dose-response relationship between interval training frequency and magnitude of improvement in lactate threshold.

The purpose of this study was to determine if interval training at 110-120% of peak power output one and two days/wk in addition to habitual training would elicit improvements in lactate threshold (LT) in a dose response manner. Twenty physically active individuals completed this study: age--21.1+/-1.

Interventional use of the parent-child interaction assessment-II enactments: modifying an abused mother's attributions to her son.

We describe the assessment and treatment of a mother who was a victim of domestic violence and of her 10-year-old son, both of whom were living in a domestic violence shelter. The Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II Modifying Attributions of Parents intervention (PCIA-II/MAP; Bohr, 2005; Bohr et al., 2008; Bohr & Holigrocki, 2005) is a structured brief treatment using video recordings from a parent's play with his or her child.

Phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C in oat roots: association with the actin cytoskeleton.

Phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) activities are involved in mediating plant cell responses to environmental stimuli. Two variants of PI-PLC have been partially purified from the roots of oat seedlings; one cytosolic and one particulate. Although the cytosolic enzyme was significantly purified, the activity still co-migrated with a number of other proteins on heparin HPLC and also on size-exclusion chromatography.

The association between statin use and age related maculopathy.

Aims: To evaluate the association between age related maculopathy (ARM) and statin use.

Methods: A nested case-control study among patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama, with newly diagnosed ARM (cases) between 1997 to 2001 were selected and age matched to non-ARM controls.

Results: 550 incident cases of ARM were identified and matched to 5500 controls.

Involvement of phosphoinositide turnover in tracheary element differentiation in Zinnia elegans L. cells.

Mesophyll cells of Zinnia elegans L., cultured in the presence of phytohormones, will transdifferentiate and undergo programmed cell death to become tracheary elements, thick-walled cells of the xylem. This system is a model system for study of plant cell development and differentiation.

Seasonal changes in brain GnRH immunoreactivity and song-control nuclei volumes in an opportunistically breeding songbird.

White-winged crossbills (Loxia leucoptera) are opportunistic breeders that can nest at almost any time of year if there is sufficient food. Other cardueline finches that have been shown to breed on a strictly seasonal schedule become absolutely refractory to the stimulatory effects of long-day photoperiod, dramatically down-regulate hypothalamic gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), and reduce the volume of several song-control nuclei in autumn. This study examined whether changes in photoperiod modify the GnRH and song-control systems in white-winged crossbills.

Inositol 1,4,5 trisphosphate is inactivated by a 5-phosphatase in stamen hair cells of Tradescantia.

Inositol 1,4,5 trisphosphate [Ins(1,4,5)P3] is produced from the hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol 4,5 bisphosphate, and as part of a second-messenger signal transduction mechanism, induces release of Ca2+ from internal stores in both plant and animal systems. It is less well established how the active Ins(1,4,5)P3 is inactivated. Studies in animal cells have demonstrated two separate metabolic pathways.

The role of phosphoinositide-derived second messengers in oxytocin-stimulated prostaglandin F2 alpha release from endometrium of pigs.

The mechanism for prostaglandin (PG) F2 alpha release from pig endometrium after oxytocin (OT) treatment is unknown. OT may rapidly stimulate inositol (1,4,5)-trisphosphate (IP3) and diacylglycerol (DAG) formation, consistent with the concept of rapid activation of a second-messenger system. In support of this hypothesis, endometrial IP3 levels were increased (P < 0.

The Sources of Children's Errors during Nonisomorphic Analogical Transfer: Script Theory and Structure Mapping Theory.

Nonisomorphic analogical transfer and procedural change were examined among 96 second and third graders. Hybrid versions of missionaries/cannibals and jealous husbands problems were used to provide three acquisition and two transfer tasks that were combined factorially, yielding six combinations. New constraints were added in transfer that altered the problem space and complicated the task.

The phosphotyrosine phosphatase inhibitor-phenylarsine oxide restores defective phosphoinositide hydrolysis response in anergic C3H-gld/gld lymphocytes.

Mice homozygous for the gld (generalized lymphoproliferative disease) mutation develop both lymphadenopathy and autoimmune disease. CD4-CD8- (double negative, DN) T cells comprise the major population of T cells in mature C3H-gld/gld peripheral lymphoid tissues. These DN T cells are unresponsive to many forms of stimuli and have previously been shown to exhibit abnormally elevated levels of membrane phosphotyrosine phosphatase (PTPase) activity.

Abscisic Acid-Induced Phosphoinositide Turnover in Guard Cell Protoplasts of Vicia faba.

Guard cell protoplasts of Vicia faba treated with 10 [mu]M (+)abscisic acid (ABA) in the light exhibited a 20% decrease in diameter within 1.5 h, from 24.1 to 19.

Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate may mediate closure of K+ channels by light and darkness in Samanea saman motor cells.

Leaflet movements of Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr. depend in part upon circadian-rhythmic, light-regulated K+ fluxes across the plasma membranes of extensor and flexor cells in opposing regions of the leaf-moving organ, the pulvinus.