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Objective: Our pilot study tests whether university counseling centers (UCC) can apply the concept of cluster analysis, and geospatial analysis to identify clusters of "hot spots". Participants: Study participants were university students who received services from a large mid-western UCC between August 2015 and July 2016. The study was approved by the University's Institutional Review Board (IRB). Data collected include demographics, address, educational level and declared major. Methods: Data analysis, conducted using SYSTAT 13.1, IBM SPSS Statistics, ArcGIS Desktop and 10.2, ArcOnline, Microsoft excel to clean and analyze demographic data. Analysis included optimized cluster analysis with a p-value < 0.05 as statistically significant. Results: 927 participants, average age was 21.6. We identified "hotspots" using cluster analysis based on age, address, and country of origin. Conclusions: Our study shows that UCCs can apply cluster analysis, and geospatial analysis to identify clusters of "hot spots" to target risk populations.

This report evaluates the use of active, open-ended research problems taken from the instructor's laboratory and assigned as mid-semester projects in Transport Phenomena. Projects are structured in a POGIL [process oriented guided inquiry learning] format and designed to engage students by providing them the opportunity to impact real research problems in their department. The impact of these assignments on student comprehension and engagement is evaluated by comparing exam performance of students with and without POGIL projects and through student surveys.

Let Qd ${Q}_{d}$ be the hypercube of dimension d $d$ and let H $H$ and K $K$ be subsets of the vertex set V(Qd) $V({Q}_{d})$, called configurations in Qd ${Q}_{d}$. We say that K $K$ is an exact copy of H $H$ if there is an automorphism of Qd ${Q}_{d}$ which sends H $H$ onto K $K$. Let n≥d $n\ge d$ be an integer, let H $H$ be a configuration in Qd ${Q}_{d}$ and let S $S$ be a configuration in Qn ${Q}_{n}$. We let λ(H,d,n) $\lambda (H,d,n)$ be the maximum, over all configurations S $S$ in Qn ${Q}_{n}$, of the fraction of sub‐d $d$‐cubes R $R$ of Qn ${Q}_{n}$ in which S∩R $S\cap R$ is an exact copy of H $H$, and we define the d $d$‐cube density λ(H,d) $\lambda (H,d)$ of H $H$ to be the limit as n $n$ goes to infinity of λ(H,d,n) $\lambda (H,d,n)$. We determine λ(H,d) $\lambda (H,d)$ for several configurations in Q3 ${Q}_{3}$ and Q4 ${Q}_{4}$ as well as for an infinite family of configurations. There are strong connections with the inducibility of graphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Treating pulmonary exacerbations in the hospital may be better than at home. • We looked for characteristics related to where people received treatment. • People with Medicaid and received treatment for shorter times were more likely to receive care in the hospital. • Practical, not clinical, factors play a large role in where treatment occurs. Previous studies indicate that hospital rather than home treatment of pulmonary exacerbations (PEx) in people with cystic fibrosis (CF) can improve outcomes. We evaluated characteristics of adult participants from the Standardized Treatment of Pulmonary Exacerbations (STOP2) trial with two separate comparisons: (1) those who were treated initially in hospital (N = 768) to those treated initially at home (N = 214) and (2) those treated only in hospital (N = 328) to those who were treated only at home or both at home and in hospital (N = 654). Participants who had Medicaid insurance, were treated for shorter duration, and traveled longer to reach treatment centers were more likely to have been treated initially in the hospital. Having Medicaid insurance, being treated for a shorter duration, and being male were associated with being treated only in the hospital. This analysis suggests decisions about the location of treatment are based on pragmatic factors rather than on clinical characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The North American Skull Base Society (NASBS) annual conference brings together skull base researchers from surgical and nonsurgical fields. Our objective was to quantify the contributions of the authors by gender, who presented their work at NASBS and were subsequently published in the Journal of Neurological Surgery Part B: Skull Base. Methods Oral and poster abstracts presented at the NASBS annual meeting from January 1, 2011 to December 31, 2020 were extracted from the Journal of Neurological Surgery Part B: Skull Base. The genderize.io Web application programming interface was utilized to determine authorship gender. A minority of first and last authors had departmental affiliations listed; a subgroup analysis was performed of these authors. Results Female gender was assigned to 498 (17.8%) of the 2,798 first authors and 269 (9.7%) of the 2,762 last authors. Female authorship has consistently increased over the last decade. Representation was higher in otolaryngology (23.3% of first authors, 12.1% of last authors; p = 0.018) than neurosurgery (13.5% of first authors, 4.3% of last authors; p = 0.004). Female researchers were not less likely than their male counterparts to receive prestigious oral presentations. Of the 52 total countries represented, 20 (38.5%) had at least one female first author. Representation varied dramatically between countries. Conclusion The NASBS' efforts have undoubtedly contributed to these impressive strides toward gender parity. More work is needed to ensure that the best and the brightest, regardless of background, continue to contribute to skull base surgery research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The North American Skull Base Society (NASBS) multidisciplinary annual conference hosts skull base researchers from across the globe. We hypothesized that the work presented at the NASBS annual conference would reveal diverse authorship teams in terms of specialty and geography. Methods In this retrospective review, abstracts presented at the NASBS annual meeting and subsequently published in the Journal of Neurological Surgery Part B: Skull Base between 01/01/2011 and 12/31/2020 were collected. Variables extracted included year, type of presentation, and author names and affiliations. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS V23.0 with p -values less than 0.05 considered significant. Geographic heat maps were created to assess author distribution, and a network analysis was performed to display authorship collaboration between geographic regions. Results Of 3,312 published abstracts, 731 (22.1%) had an author with an affiliation outside of the United States. Fifty-seven distinct countries were represented. Three-hundred twenty-four abstracts (9.8%) had authorship teams representing at least 2 different countries. The top five US states by abstract representation were Pennsylvania, California, New York, Ohio, and Minnesota. A majority of authors reported neurosurgery affiliations (56.7% first authors, 53.2% last authors), closely followed by otolaryngology (39.1% first authors, 41.5% last authors). No solo authors and very few (3.3%) of the first authors reported a departmental affiliation outside of otolaryngology or neurosurgery. Conclusions Authors from many countries disseminate their work through poster and oral presentations at the NASBS annual meeting. Ten percent of abstracts were the product of international collaboration. Most authors were affiliated with a neurosurgery or otolaryngology department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discovery of new strains of bacteria that inhibit pathogen growth can facilitate improvements in biocontrol and probiotic strategies. Traditional, plate-based co-culture approaches that probe microbial interactions can impede this discovery as these methods are inherently low-throughput, labor-intensive, and qualitative. We report a second-generation, photo-addressable microwell device, developed to iteratively screen interactions between candidate biocontrol agents existing in bacterial strain libraries and pathogens under increasing pathogen pressure. Microwells (0.6 pl volume) provide unique co-culture sites between library strains and pathogens at controlled cellular ratios. During sequential screening iterations, library strains are challenged against increasing numbers of pathogens to quantitatively identify microwells containing strains inhibiting the highest numbers of pathogens. Ring-patterned 365 nm light is then used to ablate a photodegradable hydrogel membrane and sequentially release inhibitory strains from the device for recovery. Pathogen inhibition with each recovered strain is validated, followed by whole genome sequencing. To demonstrate the rapid nature of this approach, the device was used to screen a 293-membered biovar 1 agrobacterial strain library for strains inhibitory to the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens sp. 15955. One iterative screen revealed nine new inhibitory strains. For comparison, plate-based methods did not uncover any inhibitory strains from the library (n = 30 plates). The novel pathogen-challenge screening mode developed here enables rapid selection and recovery of strains that effectively suppress pathogen growth from bacterial strain libraries, expanding this microwell technology platform toward rapid, cost-effective, and scalable screening for probiotics, biocontrol agents, and inhibitory molecules that can protect against known or emerging pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though it is well documented that antidepressants are associated with an increased risk of falls in older adults at the drug class level, the comparative risk between individual antidepressants for fall injury in older adults with depression is unknown. Currently, clinicians are making decisions at the drug class level without consideration of the potential that there could be safer choices within classes. We compared the risk of fall injury among initiators of bupropion, duloxetine, fluoxetine, paroxetine, and venlafaxine to those of (es)citalopram and, separately, sertraline. We performed a retrospective cohort study using the MarketScan® Medicare Supplemental claims from 2007 to 2019. Individuals had incident depression (washout in previous continually enrolled year) with a first antidepressant claim up to three months after depression diagnosis. Individuals were followed for the first three months of antidepressant use until the first occurrence of fall injury, change/discontinuation of antidepressant, discontinued insurance coverage, or end of study. Propensity score inverse probability of treatment-weighted Cox proportional hazards models estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals for each antidepressant comparison and fall injury. We identified 114,505 individuals (mean age 76.6 years, 68% female, 97% without prior fall). A higher risk of fall injury was associated with initiating bupropion (HR 1.20 to 1.61), duloxetine (HR 1.27 to 1.36), paroxetine (HR 1.14 to 1.22), and venlafaxine (HR 1.22 to 1.34) when compared to (es)citalopram or sertraline. New use of duloxetine, bupropion, paroxetine, and venlafaxine was associated with a higher risk of fall injury compared to (es)citalopram and sertraline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluates whether organizations that offer Medicare Part D plans (referred to as Part D sponsors) overpay pharmacies for generic drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]