Plasma membrane and cytoplasmic compartmentalization: A dynamic structural framework required for pollen tube tip growth.

Rapid, unidirectional pollen tube tip growth is essential for fertilization and widely employed as a model of polar cell expansion, a process crucial for plant morphogenesis. Different proteins and lipids with key functions in the control of polar cell expansion are associated with distinct domains of the plasma membrane (PM) at the pollen tube tip. These domains need to be dynamically maintained during tip growth, which depends on massive secretory and endocytic membrane trafficking.

The Impact of Brief Interventions With Condom Demonstrations on Youth: A Systematic Review.

Purpose: This review examined whether there is evidence that brief interventions with condom demonstration lessons have impacts on behavioral and nonbehavioral outcomes for youth and young adults.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review using a prespecified search strategy and processes consistent with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We identified a pool of 11 eligible studies that tested the effectiveness of a single-session intervention that was no longer than 60 minutes and included a condom demonstration.

How pollen tubes fight for food: the impact of sucrose carriers and invertases of on pollen development and pollen tube growth.

Pollen tubes of higher plants grow very rapidly until they reach the ovules to fertilize the female gametes. This growth process is energy demanding, however, the nutrition strategies of pollen are largely unexplored. Here, we studied the function of sucrose transporters and invertases during pollen germination and pollen tube growth.

Functional-State Dependence of Picosecond Protein Dynamics.

We examine temperature-dependent picosecond dynamics of two benchmarking proteins lysozyme and cytochrome using temperature-dependent terahertz permittivity measurements. We find that a double Arrhenius temperature dependence with activation energies ∼ 0.1 kJ/mol and ∼ 10 kJ/mol fits the folded and ligand-free state response.

Teen Pregnancy Prevention Evaluation Technical Assistance: A Case Study.

Purpose: This case study discusses Mathematica's experience providing large-scale evaluation technical assistance (ETA) to 65 grantees across two cohorts of Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program grants. The grantees were required to conduct rigorous evaluations with specific evaluation benchmarks. This case study provides an overview of the TPP grant program, the evaluation requirements, the ETA provider, and other key stakeholders and the ETA provided to the grantees.

Sustaining Programs: Lessons Learned from Former Federal Grantees.

Introduction: A common concern of federal funders and grant recipients is how to sustain program activities once their federal funding period ends. Federal funding can be intended to develop or seed a program but not necessarily to continue its activities indefinitely. Understanding the importance of programmatic sustainability, the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) conducted research in 2015 on the elements that contribute to sustainability.

A Systematic Review of Programs to Promote Aspects of Teen Parents' Self-sufficiency: Supporting Educational Outcomes and Healthy Birth Spacing.

Introduction: Expectant and parenting teens experience many challenges to achieving self-sufficiency and promoting their children's healthy development. Teen parents need support to help them address these challenges, and many different types of programs aim to support them. In this systematic review, we examine the research about programs that aim to support aspects of teen parents' self-sufficiency by promoting their educational outcomes and healthy birth spacing.

Regional ventilation during phonation in professional male and female singers.

The respiratory system is a central part of voice production, but details in breath control during phonation are not yet fully understood. This study therefore aims to investigate regional ventilation of the lungs during phonation. It was analyzed in 11 professional singers using electrical impedance tomography during breathing and phonation with maximum phonation time.

Terahertz near-field spectroscopy of filled subwavelength sized apertures in thin metal films.

We have measured terahertz near-field spectra of cesium iodide crystals as small as ~10 μm in diameter, which were deposited on single, sub-wavelength-sized apertures created in thin gold films on a substrate. The advantage of using small apertures for terahertz microspectroscopy is that only terahertz light that has interacted with the cesium iodide is observed. We find that around the transverse optical phonon frequency of cesium iodide, the amplitude transmission is as much influenced by the refractive index as by the absorption.

Evidence of protein collective motions on the picosecond timescale.

We investigate the presence of structural collective motions on a picosecond timescale for the heme protein, cytochrome c, as a function of oxidation and hydration, using terahertz (THz) time domain spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations. The THz response dramatically increases with oxidation, with the largest increase for lowest hydrations, and highest frequencies. For both oxidation states the THz response rapidly increases with hydration saturating above ∼25% (g H(2)O/g protein).

[Anaesthesia for children with epidermolysis bullosa].

Epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a heterogeneous group of inherited rare diseases, which are characterized by trauma-induced blister formation of the skin and mucosa. The underlying cause is a functional deficiency of structural proteins of the epidermis or the dermis. Depending on the level of the blister formation, EB is divided into EB simplex (intra-epidermal), junctional EB (within the lamina lucida), dystrophic EB (below the lamina lucida) and Kindler syndrome (variable level of split formation).

Influence of the dielectric substrate on the terahertz electric near-field of a hole in a metal.

We have studied theoretically and experimentally the influence of a dielectric substrate on the frequency-dependent terahertz electric near-field of a small hole in a metal layer. We find that the near-field transmission spectrum and the two-dimensional field distribution of an empty hole in a thin metal layer on a substrate are almost identical to that of a hole which is also filled with the same dielectric material as the substrate. For thicker metal layers, however, the near-field spectra of filled and unfilled holes become very different.

Terahertz near-field vectorial imaging of subwavelength apertures and aperture arrays.

We present measurements of the complete terahertz (THz) electric near-field distribution, E(x), E(y) and E(z), in both the time- and frequency-domains, for subwavelength apertures and subsections of subwavelength aperture arrays. Measuring the individual components of the THz near-field with subwavelength spatial resolution, as they emerge from these structures, illustrates how the field interacts with the apertures. We observe the small but measurable y- and z-components of the electric field for both single apertures and arrays.

Protein dynamical transition does not require protein structure.

Terahertz time domain spectroscopy shows that the protein dynamical transition, the rapid increase in protein dynamics occurring at approximately 200 K, needs neither tertiary nor secondary structure. Further, short chain alanine studies find a dynamical transition down to penta-alanine, with no transition observed for di-alanine or tri-alanine. These results reveal the temperature dependence arises strictly from the side-chain interaction with the solvent.

Family Economic Well-Being Following the 1996 Welfare Reform: Trend Data from Five Non-Experimental Panel Studies.

This analysis summarizes trends in family economic well-being from five non-experimental, longitudinal welfare-to-work studies launched following the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). The studies include a sizable group of parents and other caregivers who received TANF at the point of sample selection or shortly thereafter, and share a wide range of similar measures of economic well-being. This analysis provides descriptive information on how these families are faring over time.

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of adding a cognitive behavioral treatment to the rehabilitation of chronic low back pain.

Objective: To investigate return to work and cost-effectiveness of the addition of cognitive-behavioral treatment to standard therapy compared to standard 3-week inpatient rehabilitation for patients with chronic low back pain.

Methods: A prospective economic evaluation alongside a randomized controlled trial was performed. Outcomes included days off work due to spinal complaints, health-related quality of life, and direct and indirect disease-related costs.

[Decisions in case of "problematic" cost-effectiveness ratios based on the example of a clinical trial in rehabilitation care].

Purpose: Economic assessment of an additional psychological intervention in the rehabilitation of patients with chronic low-back pain and evaluation of results by decision makers.

Methods: Piggy-back cost-utility analysis of a randomised clinical trial, including a bootstrap analysis. Costs were measured by using the cost accounting systems of the rehabilitation clinics and by surveying patients.

The mental health of married, cohabiting, and non-coresident parents with infants.

Objectives: We compared recent parents (married, cohabiting, not cohabiting but romantically involved, and not romantically involved) to examine the association between mental health problems and relationship status.

Methods: We analyzed data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study that followed a cohort of approximately 4900 births in large US cities. Our study included a large oversample of nonmarital births (n=3700) and interviews with both mothers and fathers.

Leg ulcer in a patient associated with hydroxyurea therapy.

Hydroxyurea is a hydroxylated derivate of urea commonly used in the treatment of various hematologic disorders. Cutaneous side-effects such as alopecia, diffuse hyperpigmentation, scaling, poikiloderma, atrophy of the skin and subcutaneous tissues or nail changes can develop after long-term treatment with hydroxyurea. Painful leg ulcers in association with hydroxyurea have only rarely been reported.

Hydration dependence of conformational dielectric relaxation of lysozyme.

Dielectric response of hen egg white lysozyme is measured in the far infrared (5-65 cm-1, 0.15-1.95 THz, 0.